Poster #104 - Emotion Knowledge Relates to Cortisol Levels for Children Attending Head Start Preschool

• In Event: Poster Session 17

Abstract

The present study examines emotion knowledge in relation to levels of the stress hormone cortisol for children attending Head Start preschool. Emotion knowledge refers to one’s ability to define and label emotions in oneself and in others (Izard et al., 2001). The development of emotion knowledge begins in infancy and rapidly increases during the preschool years (Pons et al., 2004). Emotion knowledge is considered a precursor to the ability to successfully regulate emotions in response to challenge (Cole et al., 2010, Klein et al., 2018), and may matter particularly for children who face disproportionate stressors due to poverty (Capistrano et al., 2016).

The stressors endemic to poverty circumstances (e.g., economic hardship, residential instability, family chaos, neighborhood violence) tax physiological systems that respond to stress such as the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal or HPA axis (Evans, 2003; Smith & Vale, 2006). Child emotion knowledge may support effective responses to stress and reduce the physiological burden. Yet poverty circumstances can undermine the development of emotion knowledge through compromised parenting (Ahnert et al., 2004; Albers et al., 2008) as well as the impact of high stress levels on cognition.

Robust research has linked emotion regulation and HPA functioning (Brennan et al., 2008; Gunnar & Quevedo, 2007). Yet no published studies to date have examined links between child emotion knowledge and cortisol for any age group. This study explores how emotion knowledge relates to cortisol levels for preschool children facing economic hardship. Implications concern understanding child competencies that may promote resilience in the face of poverty-related stress.

Method

Participants were 310 children ages 3 to 5 (M = 4.1 years, SD = 6.71 months) who attended a U.S Head Start preschool. By parent report, 52% were female, 48%, male, 55% Black/African American, 15% Hispanic/Latinx American, 10% Asian American, and 20% White/European American. All faced economic hardship.

Ethical procedures were used in the conduct of this study, which was part of a broader study of child development, and all were approved by the appropriate IRBs. Parents or caregivers provided informed consent and demographic information.

Child salivary cortisol was sampled in duplicate at 9am, after preschool arrival and before breakfast. Saliva samples were frozen until analysis for cortisol with high sensitivity immunoassay following standardized procedures (e.g., Blair et al., 2011).

Emotion knowledge was measured using a well validated Emotion Matching Task (EMT) in which a research assistant asks children to respond to photographs of ethnically diverse elementary school children's emotion expressions (Izard et al., 2003).

Results and Interpretation

A zero-order correlation analysis examined relations linking specific components of emotion knowledge and cortisol levels (see Table 1). The components of the emotion matching task (EMT) that related statistically to cortisol were expressive emotion knowledge, emotion expression matching, and EMT total score.

A hierarchical regression analysis (See Table 2) revealed that the EMT total score explained variance in cortisol levels beyond that accounted for by demographic covariates. Results suggest that competence in the area of emotion knowledge may relate to lower stress levels for preschool children facing economic hardship.

Authors

• Ellie Brown, West Chester University

• Sara King, West Chester University
  Presenting Author

• Mallory Leigh Garnett, University of Delaware

• Steven John Holochwost, City University of New York Lehman College