Examining Morning HPA Axis Activity as a Moderator of Hostile, Over-reactive Parenting on Children's Skills for Success in School

Childhood violence exposure and externalizing behaviors: A systematic review of the role of physiological biomarkers

Childhood exposure to violence has been consistently linked to externalizing behaviors like delinquency and aggression. Growing evidence indicates that physiological biomarkers from the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems (PNS and SNS) and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis may moderate or mediate the relation between childhood violence exposure and externalizing behaviors. We conducted a systematic review to synthesize recent findings on physiological biomarkers as mediators and/or moderators of this association across the life course, using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Our search yielded 3878 articles, of which 44 met inclusion criteria (describing a total of 46 independent studies). We found consistent evidence for blunted HPA-axis reactivity as a mediator of the relation between childhood violence exposure and subsequent externalizing behaviors, and for non-reciprocal PNS/SNS activation as moderators exacerbating this relation. However, the results of the majority of included studies that demonstrated significant moderating effects of physiological biomarkers varied by participant sex, type of childhood violence exposure, and type of stimuli used to induce physiological reactivity. The observed mixed findings are consistent with some theories that emphasize that both high and low stress reactivity can be adaptive depending on one's early environment. These findings highlight the need for systematic explorations of heterogeneity, theory-driven research questions, and longitudinal studies that span multiple developmental periods and multiple biological systems. Clinical implications include the need to assess physiological biomarkers in treatment and intervention studies and the potential to target interventions based on both autonomic functioning and environmental contexts.

Influence of family function on social anxiety among Chinese nursing students: The mediating role of alexithymia

AIMS

This study aims to explore the relationship between family function, alexithymia and social anxiety among Chinese nursing students, especially to determine whether alexithymia acts as a mediator between family function and social anxiety among this social group.

DESIGN

A cross-sectional study.

METHODS

From January to March 2021, a cross-sectional study was conducted among 204 Chinese nursing students at a nursing school of a medical university in the Northeastern Region of China. The interaction anxiousness scale, APGAR family function scale and Tronto alexithymia scale were used for measurement of social anxiety, perceived family function and alexithymia respectively. The data were subjected to correlation analysis, multiple linear regression and structural equation modelling (SEM).

RESULTS

Results indicated that social anxiety score was negatively correlated with perceived family function (r = -.232), but positively with alexithymia (r = .307). After controlling for demographic variables, family function and alexithymia could explain 14.5% of the total variance in social anxiety. The SEM results suggested that the effect of family function on social anxiety was partially mediated by alexithymia with a 36.9% mediating effect.

CONCLUSIONS

This study reveals that alexithymia might partially mediate the impact of family function and social anxiety in Chinese nursing students. In this sense, improvement of alexithymia is expected to be an effective strategy to ameliorate the severity social anxiety in Chinese nursing students, especially for those with a dysfunctional family context.

Parenting and Adjustment Problems among Preschoolers during COVID-19

A critical area of developmental science explores factors that confer risk or protection as young children and their families experience stressful circumstances related to sociohistorical events. This study contributes to this important area by assessing relations between family context and child adjustment as children transitioned from preschool to home learning during COVID-19, and whether children higher in stress levels, indexed by morning basal cortisol, were more strongly affected. Parents of 74 children (M _age  = 53.56 months, SD _age = 3.68 months) completed reports spanning the home learning transition; children's pre-COVID-19 transition salivary cortisol levels were assessed. Path analyses were used to test the preregistered study aims. Significant interactions were decomposed using simple slopes and Preacher's Regions of Significance (ROS) method. Across the COVID-19 transition to home-based school, children with higher morning basal cortisol experienced the sharpest increase in anger when exposed to harsh/inconsistent parenting contexts. Importantly, these effects held when controlling for household chaos, socioeconomic resources, and supportive parenting. Parallel models with supportive parenting were also tested and are discussed. This study is one of the first to test and provide support for biological sensitivity to context theory within the context of a natural experiment like COVID-19.

Gene-environment interaction: New insights into perceived parenting and social anxiety among adolescents

Background.

Social anxiety symptoms (SAS) are among the most common mental health problems during adolescence, and it has been shown that parenting influences the adolescent’s level of social anxiety. In addition, it is now widely assumed that most mental health problems, including social anxiety, originate from a complex interplay between genes and environment. However, to date, gene–environment (G × E) interactions studies in the field of social anxiety remain limited. In this study, we have examined how 274 genes involved in different neurotransmission pathways interact with five aspects of perceived parenting as environmental exposure (i.e., support, proactive control, psychological control, punitive control, and harsh punitive control) to affect SAS during adolescence.

Methods.

We have applied an analytical technique that allows studying genetic information at the gene level, by aggregating data from multiple single-nucleotide-polymorphisms within the same gene and by taking into account the linkage disequilibrium structure of the gene. All participants were part of the STRATEGIES cohort of 948 Flemish adolescents (mean age = 13.7), a population-based study on the development of problem behaviors in adolescence. Relevant genes were preselected based on prior findings and neurotransmitter-related functional protein networks.

Results.

The results suggest that genes involved in glutamate (SLC1A1), glutathione neurotransmission (GSTZ1), and oxidative stress (CALCRL), in association with harsh punitive parenting, may contribute to social anxiety in adolescence. Isolated polymorphisms in these genes have been related to anxiety and related disorders in earlier work.Conclusions: Taken together, these findings provide new insights into possible biological pathways and environmental risk factors involved in the etiology of social anxiety symptoms’ development.

Conclusions.

Taken together, these findings provide new insights into possible biological pathways and environmental risk factors involved in the etiology of social anxiety symptoms’ development.

Intimate partner violence indirectly dysregulates child diurnal adrenocortical functioning through positive parenting

Data were drawn from an ongoing study of preschoolers (N = 221). Mothers self-reported experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV) and parenting practices, and collected three saliva samples (waking, midday, and bedtime) on themselves and their child on 2 consecutive days. Saliva samples were later assayed for cortisol. Bootstrapped mediation analyses revealed IPV to indirectly impact child diurnal cortisol through positive parenting. Specifically, greater exposure to IPV was associated with reduced positive parenting and subsequently heightened child waking cortisol levels. IPV did not indirectly impact child diurnal cortisol via autonomy supporting parenting or maternal diurnal cortisol. These findings suggest a possible pathway by which mother's experience of IPV indirectly influences child physiological regulation via maternal positive parenting.

The Early Growth and Development Study: A Dual-Family Adoption Study from Birth Through Adolescence

The Early Growth and Development Study (EGDS) is a prospective adoption study of birth parents, adoptive parents and adopted children (n = 561 adoptees). The original sample has been expanded to include siblings of the EGDS adoptees who were reared by the birth mother and assessed beginning at age 7 years (n = 217 biological children), and additional siblings in both the birth and adoptive family homes, recruited when the adoptees were 8-15 years old (n = 823). The overall study aims are to examine how family, peer and contextual processes affect child and adolescent adjustment, and to examine their interplay (mediation, moderation) with genetic influences. Adoptive and birth parents were originally recruited through adoption agencies located throughout the USA following the birth of a child. Assessments are ongoing and occurred in 9 month's intervals until the adoptees turned 3 years of age, and in 1 to 2 year intervals thereafter through age 15. Data collection includes the following primary constructs: child temperament, behavior problems, mental health, peer relations, executive functioning, school performance and health; birth and adoptive parent personality characteristics, mental health, health, context, substance use, parenting and marital relations; and the prenatal environment. Findings highlight the power of the adoption design to detect environmental influences on child development and provide evidence of complex interactions and correlations between genetic, prenatal environmental and postnatal environmental influences on a range of child outcomes. The study sample, procedures and an overview of findings are summarized and ongoing assessment activities are described.

Intimate partner violence indirectly dysregulates child diurnal adrenocortical functioning through positive parenting

Data were drawn from an ongoing study of preschoolers (N = 221). Mothers self-reported experiences of intimate partner violence (IPV) and parenting practices, and collected three saliva samples (waking, midday, and bedtime) on themselves and their child on two consecutive days. Saliva samples were later assayed for cortisol. Bootstrapped mediation analyses revealed IPV to indirectly impact child diurnal cortisol through positive parenting. Specifically, greater exposure to IPV was associated with reduced positive parenting and subsequently heightened child waking cortisol levels. IPV did not indirectly impact child diurnal cortisol via autonomy supporting parenting or maternal diurnal cortisol. These findings suggest a possible pathway by which mother's experience of IPV indirectly influences child physiological regulation via maternal positive parenting.