Video-Feedback Parenting Intervention Effects on Children’s Behavioral Problems: The Moderating Roles of Cortisol Stress Reactivity

• In Event: Cortisol as a Stress Biomarker: Associations with Socioeconomic Risks, Racial Inequalities, and Family-Based Interventions

Abstract

Backgrounds
Children reared by caregivers with depression are at elevated risks for developing internalizing and externalizing problems (Reising et al. 2013). Video-feedback parenting intervention programs that target at-risk families have been shown to buffer the negative impacts of parental depression and reduce children’s behavioral problems (Tryphonopoulos and Letourneau, 2020). However, not all children benefit equally from the same intervention. According to the biological sensitivity to context theory (BSCT; Boyce and Ellis, 2005), high cortisol stress reactivity renders children to be more sensitive to the influences of both positive and negative environmental inputs. In support of BSCT, research suggests that children with high cortisol stress reactivity are particularly vulnerable to the negative impacts of parental depression (Laurent et al., 2013). However, fewer studies examined whether these children can also benefit more from intervention programs. The current study aimed to fill this gap by testing the effectiveness of the Filming Interactions to Nurture Development (FIND; Fisher et al., 2016), a brief video-coaching parenting intervention program, in modulating children’s vulnerability to the influences of parental depression. It was hypothesized that children with high levels of cortisol stress reactivity 1) were more vulnerable to the negative impacts of parental depression before intervention, and 2) could benefit more from FIND.
Methods
Data were drawn from a randomized controlled trial with at-risk families enrolled in Early Head Start (EHS; N = 91, children aged 4 to 36 months, 41.8% female). During pre-intervention assessment, parental depression was measured using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale (Radloff, 1977). Cortisol reactivity was indicated by the area under the curve (Pruessner et al., 2003) using nine saliva samples obtained during a pre-intervention stress paradigm. Then, families were randomly assigned to active control (EHS; n=37) or intervention (FIND+EHS; n=54) groups. Families in FIND intervention group completed 10 home-visit sessions that target improving parent-child “serve-and-return” interactions. After completing the intervention, a post-intervention assessment was conducted. Children’s behavioral problems were captured via the Child Behavioral Checklist–Preschool version (Achenbach and Rescorla, 2001) and the Brief Infant-Toddler Social Emotional Assessment (Carter and Briggs-Gowan, 2005) during both pre- and post-intervention assessments.
Results
During pre-intervention assessment, children’s high cortisol reactivity levels significantly intensified the associations between parental depression and children’s internalizing and externalizing problems (Figure 1). Thus, high levels of cortisol reactivity indicated children’s elevated vulnerability to the negative effects of parental depression. During post-intervention assessment, for children with high cortisol reactivity (Figures 2 left), parental depression was linked to children’s increased problem behaviors only in the control, but not in the FIND groups. For children with low cortisol stress reactivity (Figures 2 right), the associations between caregivers’ depression and children’s behavioral problems were not statistically significant.
Conclusion
Findings of the current study supported BSCT by showing that children with high cortisol stress reactivity were more vulnerable to the negative impacts of parental depression, but also benefited more from the FIND intervention program. FIND was shown to modulate children’s vulnerability, and thus protect them from the negative influences of parental depression.

Authors

• Sihong Liu, Stanford University
  Presenting Author

• Philip Andrew Fisher, University of Oregon
  Non-Presenting Author