Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.
Department of Pediatrics, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.
Dev Psychobiol. 2022 Nov;64(7):e22327. doi: 10.1002/dev.22327.
Exposure to early life stress (ELS) is common and has been implicated in the development of psychopathology; importantly, however, many individuals who experience ELS do not develop emotional or behavioral difficulties. Prior research implicates stress exposure, negative caregiving behaviors, and patterns of physiological reactivity in predicting psychological well-being; however, the precise factors that contribute to resilience versus vulnerability to the adverse effects of stress exposures are not well understood. In a longitudinal study of adolescents (N = 120) assessed at three timepoints approximately every 2 years beginning at the ages of 913 years, we examined the roles of autonomic reactivity to social stress (assessed through skin conductance during the Trier Social Stress Task) and negative caregiving behaviors as moderators of the association between exposure to ELS and internalizing and externalizing symptoms. We found that the relation between ELS and externalizing symptoms was moderated by both negative caregiving and autonomic reactivity, such that the relation between ELS and externalizing was positive at low levels of negative caregiving and at high levels of autonomic reactivity; interactions predicting internalizing symptoms were not statistically significant. These findings highlight the importance of considering physiological and environmental variables that might contribute to susceptibility or resilience to symptoms of psychopathology following exposure to ELS.
早期生活压力(ELS)的暴露很常见,并且与精神病理学的发展有关;然而,重要的是,许多经历 ELS 的人并没有出现情绪或行为困难。先前的研究表明,压力暴露、消极的养育行为以及生理反应模式可以预测心理健康;然而,导致对压力暴露的不利影响产生弹性或脆弱性的确切因素尚不清楚。在一项对青少年(N=120)的纵向研究中,在大约 9-13 岁时每隔 2 年进行 3 次评估,我们研究了自主反应性对社会压力(通过在特里尔社会压力任务期间的皮肤电导进行评估)和消极养育行为的作用,作为 ELS 暴露与内化和外化症状之间关联的调节因素。我们发现,ELS 和外化症状之间的关系受到消极养育和自主反应性的双重调节,因此,在消极养育程度较低和自主反应性较高的情况下,ELS 和外化之间的关系呈正相关;预测内化症状的相互作用不具有统计学意义。这些发现强调了考虑生理和环境变量的重要性,这些变量可能会导致在经历 ELS 后出现精神病理学症状的易感性或弹性。