Longitudinal Associations of Diurnal Cortisol and Effortful Control on Midwestern Latino Youth’s Depressive Problems

• In Event: 1-186 - Latina(o) Adolescents’ Cortisol Responses to Psychosocial Stress: Experimental and Field Approaches

Integrative Statement

Youth are increasingly vulnerable to poor mental health during adolescence (Call et al., 2002), and Latino youth are at increased risk due to contextual stressors (Cauce et al., 2011). Chronic stressors can disrupt physiological systems by affecting diurnal patterns of cortisol, a hormone released by the body in response to stress (Adam, 2006). Supporting this, researchers report that Latino youth are more likely than Caucasian youth to have dysregulated cortisol responses (Cauce et al., 2011; DeSantis et al., 2007; Zeiders et al., 2012). In contrast, individuals with higher self-regulation, such as effortful control (EC), are expected to have an advantage in regard to adapting effectively in stressful situations (Eisenberg & Valiente, 2004) and EC is negatively associated with poor mental health (Nigg, 2017). Our study objective was to assess associations of diurnal cortisol markers and EC on Latino youth’s depressive problems across 2 waves of data.

Participants were 5th and 6th grade Latino youth and their parents (N=123, Mage=11.53, 59% female; 85.6% two-parent, mean income $25-30,000) residing in the Midwest in mostly rural communities (78%). Most parents (74%) had not completed high school, and were predominantly born in Mexico (91%). Most youth (96%) were born in the U.S. Mothers had lived in the U.S. on average 15.95 years (SD=6.15). Participants completed surveys in either Spanish or English, and self-collected saliva samples for 2 consecutive days (upon wake-up, 30 minutes after wake-up, and prior to bedtime). Time 2 data was collected one year later.

Cortisol measures included cortisol intercept (30-min post-awakening levels), diurnal slope, and flexibility (variability in diurnal slopes across days indexing ability to adapt to different levels of stress experienced on different days) calculated from within-individual regressions of cortisol awake response and bedtime on time since wake, and cortisol awakening response (CAR). Depressive problems were child reported at T1 and T2 using the depressive mood subscale from the EATQ-R (6-items, Capaldi & Rothbart, 1992) (T1 α = .77, T2 α = .79). Effortful control was child reported at T1 using 3 subscales (attentional control, inhibitory control, and activation control) from the EATQ-R (16-items, Capaldi & Rothbart, 1992; α = .77). Covariates include child gender (0 = boys, 1 = girls), child BMI (0 = normal weight, 1 = overweight, 2 = obese), household income, and parents’ education.

Correlations (Table 1) demonstrated significant negative associations between EC and T1 and T2 depressive problems, as well as marginal negative associations between cortisol slope and flexibility and T2 depressive problems. Cortisol measures were then run separately in regression models predicting T2 depressive problems (Table 2). T1 EC was associated negatively with T2 depressive problems, controlling for prior levels, in all models except for the CAR model. T1 depressive problems positively predicted T2 depressive problems in all models, as did child gender (coded for girls). A steeper diurnal slope and less flexibility in the cortisol diurnal slope across days were associated with more T2 depressive problems. Results suggest that cortisol patterns have longitudinal implications for youth’s mental health.

Authors

• Zoe Ellen Taylor, Purdue University
  Presenting Author

• Kristine Marceau, Purdue University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Carly Evich, Purdue University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Blake Lee Jones, Brigham Young University
  Non-Presenting Author