Prenatal and childhood stress exposure and the sex specific response to psychosocial stress in adulthood

Major life stress often produces a flat diurnal cortisol slope, an indicator of potential long-term health problems. Exposure to stress early in childhood or the accumulation of stress across the life span may be responsible for this pattern. However, the relative impact of life stress at different life stages on diurnal cortisol is unknown. Using a longitudinal sample of adults followed from birth, we examined three models of the effect of stress exposure on diurnal cortisol: the cumulative model, the biological-embedding model, and the sensitization model. As its name implies, the cumulative model focuses on cumulative life stress. In contrast, the biological-embedding model implicates early childhood stress, and the sensitization model posits that current life stress interacts with early life stress to produce flat diurnal cortisol slopes. Our analyses are consistent with the sensitization model, as they indicate that the combination of high stress exposure early in life and high current stress predict flat diurnal cortisol slopes. These novel findings advance understanding of diurnal cortisol patterns and point to avenues for intervention.

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543. Dysregulated Affective Neural Processing in Schizophrenia Patients and Controls following Psychosocial Stress Exposure

Biological Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/j.biopsych.2017.02.1151 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 81 (10) ◽

pp. S220

Author(s):

Elizabeth Andersen ◽

Alana Campbell ◽

Aysenil Belger

Keyword(s):

Psychosocial Stress ◽

Neural Processing ◽

Stress Exposure

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Effects of acute psychosocial stress exposure on endocrine and affective reactivity in college students differing in the 5-HTTLPR genotype and trait neuroticism

Stress ◽

10.3109/10253890.2010.548886 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 14 (4) ◽

pp. 407-419 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

Ellen Verschoor ◽

C. Rob Markus

Keyword(s):

College Students ◽

Psychosocial Stress ◽

Stress Exposure ◽

Affective Reactivity ◽

Acute Psychosocial Stress

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Epigenetic Vestiges of Early Developmental Adversity: Childhood Stress Exposure and DNA Methylation in Adolescence

Child Development ◽

10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01641.x ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 84 (1) ◽

pp. 58-75 ◽

Cited By ~ 256

Author(s):

Marilyn J. Essex ◽

W. Thomas Boyce ◽

Clyde Hertzman ◽

Lucia L. Lam ◽

Jeffrey M. Armstrong ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Dna Methylation ◽

Stress Exposure ◽

Childhood Stress ◽

Early Developmental

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The Developmental Psychopathology of Stress Exposure in Childhood

The Oxford Handbook of Stress and Mental Health ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190681777.013.12 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 264-286

Author(s):

Jenalee R. Doom ◽

Dante Cicchetti

Keyword(s):

Individual Differences ◽

Developmental Psychopathology ◽

Institutional Care ◽

Risk And Resilience ◽

Stress Exposure ◽

Severe Stress ◽

Childhood Stress ◽

Future Directions ◽

Effective Interventions ◽

And Behavior

This chapter reviews how the field of developmental psychopathology has shaped research on risk and resilience processes in the context of childhood stress. The central tenets of developmental psychopathology, including its transdisciplinary and multilevel nature, equifinality and multifinality, developmental cascades, and the interaction of risk and protective factors across development, guide research aiming to understand individual differences in response to stressors during childhood. Various stressors that children experience, including maltreatment, poverty, institutional care, malnutrition, and environmental exposures, can lead to different effects on biology and behavior depending on the type, timing, chronicity, and severity of the stressor. Genetics, psychobiology, and neurophysiology have been incorporated into this research to enhance our understanding of individual differences in functioning following childhood stress. Future directions include more fully incorporating sex differences into studies of childhood stress and utilizing research in this area to create effective interventions for children experiencing severe stress.

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