Poster #36 - Psychological and Physical Abuse and Cortisol Response to Stress: The Moderating Role of Psychosocial Resources

• In Event: Poster Session 05

Abstract

Introduction. Child abuse is associated with alterations in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis functioning (see Holochwost et al., 2020 for a review). Psychological and physical abuse are two common forms of child abuse and are particular prevalent in China (Ji & Finkelhor, 2015; Wang et al., 2016). However, the unique adverse effects of psychological and physical abuse on HPA axis functioning remain largely unexplored. Less is known about the protective factors against these effects. To address these gaps, the present study examined the unique effects of psychological and physical abuse on cortisol stress response and explored the moderating role of psychosocial resources in these associations among a sample of Chinese preadolescent children.
Method. The sample consists of 150 Chinese children at Grades 5 and 6 (age ranges = 9 to 13 years old, Mage = 10.69, SD = 0.93; 74 girls and 76 boys) and their primary caregivers. Participating primary caregivers were predominantly mothers (60%) and fathers (34%), ranging in age from 31 to 60 years (Mage = 39.76, SD = 4.92).
Psychosocial resources was operationalized as perceived social support (Zimet et al., 1988), perceived control (Whitaker et al., 2000), positive coping (Slatcher et al., 2015), self-esteem (Rosenberg, 1965), and resilience (Connor & Davidson, 2003). Children completed these self-reported questionnaires concerning psychosocial resources. Primary caregivers rated the frequency of psychological and physical abuse using Parent-Child Conflict Tactics Scales (Straus et al., 1998). Children and one of their primary caregivers were also invited to the university for a laboratory session. During the laboratory session, children participated in the Modified Trier Social Stress Test (TSST-M; Yim et al., 2010), and provided six salivary cortisol samples.
To simultaneously examine multiple phases of the cortisol response to acute stress (i.e., cortisol reactivity slope, peak cortisol values, cortisol recovery slope), we performed a series of two-piece multilevel growth curve models with landmark registration (GCM-LR; Lopez-Duran et al., 2014). Children’s sex, age, body mass index, and family socioeconomic status were included as covariates.
Results. Both psychological and physical abuse were associated with blunted cortisol reactivity slopes (Table 1, Model 1a). Psychological abuse, but not physical abuse, was associated with lower peak cortisol values and flatter cortisol recovery slopes (Table 1, Model 1a). Further, psychosocial resources moderated the association between abuse and hyporesponsiveness of the HPA axis (Table 1, Model 2a). Specifically, the association between psychological abuse and lower peak cortisol values and the association between physical abuse and steeper cortisol recovery slope (faster cortisol recovery following stressor) were observed only among children with lower levels of psychosocial resources (Figure 1). These findings indicate the differential effects of psychological and physical abuse on various phases of cortisol stress response, and the protective role of psychosocial resources. This study may have practical implications, given that preadolescence serves as a possibly sensitive period to maximum benefit of interventions of adversity.

Authors

• Jianing Sun, Pennsylvania State University, University Park
  Presenting Author

• Yanping Jiang

• Samuele Zilioli, Wayne State University

• Mingjun Xie, Beijing Normal University

• Lihua Chen

• Danhua Lin, Beijing Normal University