Cortisol Levels Relate to Executive Functioning in the Classroom for Children Attending Head Start Preschool

• In Event: Poster Session 03
  In Poster Session: PS 03 Topic - School Readiness/Childcare

Abstract

Poverty circumstances tax physiological systems that respond to stress (Lupien, King, Meany & McEwen, 2001; Blair et al., 2011) as well as the brain areas influenced by stress hormones, such as the prefrontal cortex (Hanson et al., 2013; Hair et al., 2015; Noble et al., 2015; Blair & Raver, 2016). These impacts are of concern, particularly as the prefrontal cortex is responsible for competencies that undergird school success, such as executive functioning or the control of attention, impulses, and behavior in the service of learning and prosocial behavior (Lezak, 1995; Miller & Cohen, 2001; Welsh et al., 2010; Best et al., 2011). Robust research has linked the stress hormone cortisol to laboratory tasks of executive functioning (e.g., Raver et al., 2013) as well as to teacher ratings of related constructs (Smider et al., 2002; Hall et al., 2010). Yet no studies we know of have examined cortisol across the preschool day in relation to teacher ratings of executive functioning in the classroom setting. The present study examines the stress hormone cortisol across the preschool day in relation to teacher ratings of executive functioning for children attending Head Start.

Participants included 318 children attending a Head Start preschool in a large, mid-Atlantic US city, as well as their primary caregivers and teachers. Mean child age was 4 years, 9 months (SD = 7.72 months). Of the children, 53.5% were female, and 51.3% were Black/African American, 16.7% Latino/Hispanic American, 11.9% Asian American, and 20.1% White/European American. Nearly 100% were low-income, with income levels <2X the federal poverty threshold.

Ethical standards were followed in the conduct of this study, and all procedures were approved by the appropriate institutional review boards. In September, caregivers completed a demographic interview. In late September and early October, children provided saliva samples that would be assayed for the stress hormone cortisol, with collection, storage, and analysis taking place according to standard procedures (Blair et al., 2005). Samples were taken at four time points across the preschool day: 9am, 10:30am, noon, and 1:30pm. Cortisol output across these time points of the preschool day was analyzed using area under the curve with respect to ground (AUCg), using the following, standard formula (Pruessner et al., 2003): AUCG= (m2+m1) t12+ (m3+m2) t22+(m4+m3) t32. In mid-October, teachers completed ratings of child executive functioning on the well validated BRIEF (Gioia, Isquith, Guy & Kenworthy, 2000), with 86 items supporting subscales of: Shifting, Initiation, Inhibition, Emotional Control and Working Memory, Planning, Organizing, and Monitoring, as well as a Global Executive Composite (GEC).

Table 1 displays correlations for study variables and Table 2 displays results of a regression analysis examining child cortisol across the preschool day as a predictor of the BRIEF GEC (F(5, 315) = 10.854, adj. R2 = .15, p < .001). Child age, sex and cortisol across the day explained unique variance in teacher-rated executive functioning. Implications concern understanding the impact of poverty-related stress on classroom behavior and supporting the positive development of children facing economic hardship.

Authors

• Ellie Brown, West Chester University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Zachary Weaver, West Chester University
  Presenting Author

• Mallory Leigh Garnett, University of Delaware
  Non-Presenting Author

• Megan Streich, West Chester University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Geeta Shivde, West Chester University
  Non-Presenting Author