Stroud Catherine B, Chen Frances R, Doane Leah D, Granger Douglas A
Williams College, Department of Psychology, Williamstown, MA 01267, USA.
Department of Criminology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104, USA.
Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2016 Aug;70:38-46. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2016.04.015. Epub 2016 Apr 27.
Research suggests that environmental stress contributes to health by altering the regulation of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis. Recent evidence indicates that early life stress alters trait indicators of HPA axis activity, but whether recent stress alters such indicators is unknown. Using objective contextual stress interviews with adolescent girls and their mothers, we examined the impact of recent acute and chronic stress occurring during the past year on early adolescent girls' latent trait cortisol (LTC) level. We also examined whether associations between recent stress and LTC level: a) varied according to the interpersonal nature and controllability of the stress; and b) remained after accounting for the effect of early life stress. Adolescents (n=117;M age=12.39years) provided salivary cortisol samples three times a day (waking, 30min post-waking and bedtime) over 3days. Results indicated that greater recent interpersonal acute stress and greater recent independent (i.e., uncontrollable) acute stress were each associated with a higher LTC level, over and above the effect of early adversity. In contrast, greater recent chronic stress was associated with a lower LTC level. Findings were similar in the overall sample and a subsample of participants who strictly adhered to the timed schedule of saliva sample collection. Implications for understanding the impact of recent stress on trait-like individual differences in HPA axis activity are discussed.
研究表明，环境压力通过改变下丘脑 - 垂体 - 肾上腺（HPA）轴的调节来影响健康。最近的证据表明，早期生活压力会改变HPA轴活动的特质指标，但近期压力是否会改变这些指标尚不清楚。通过对青春期女孩及其母亲进行客观的情境压力访谈，我们研究了过去一年中近期急性和慢性压力对青春期早期女孩潜在特质皮质醇（LTC）水平的影响。我们还研究了近期压力与LTC水平之间的关联是否：a）根据压力的人际性质和可控性而有所不同；b）在考虑早期生活压力的影响后是否仍然存在。青少年（n = 117；平均年龄 = 12.39岁）在3天内每天三次（醒来时、醒来后30分钟和就寝时间）提供唾液皮质醇样本。结果表明，除了早期逆境的影响外，近期更大的人际急性压力和近期更大的独立（即不可控）急性压力均与更高的LTC水平相关。相比之下，近期更大的慢性压力与更低的LTC水平相关。在总体样本以及严格遵守唾液样本收集时间安排的参与者子样本中，研究结果相似。本文讨论了这些发现对于理解近期压力对HPA轴活动中特质样个体差异影响的意义。
