Timing matters: Implications of Early-life and concurrent adversity for HPA axis activity across multiple timescales

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

The notion that adverse experiences can become biologically embedded by shaping the development of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis has been a focal point of stress literature over the last few decades. Cortisol, the end product of the HPA axis, can be measured on different timescales, including immediate responses to and recovery from stressful events, diurnal patterns, and overall HPA axis output over several months (as measured via hair cortisol levels), but the specific ways in which adversity shapes these HPA indices remains to be characterized. Likewise, some developmental scholars have advocated for considering the developmental timing of experiences of adversity. This symposium will bring together papers highlighting how early-life and concurrent exposure to adversity impact HPA axis activity.

The first paper presents meta-analytic evidence that childhood adversity may interfere with the downregulation of the HPA axis throughout the day, resulting in higher cortisol levels at bedtime. The second paper complements these meta-analytic findings by providing novel evidence that childhood neglect—an especially pernicious form of childhood adversity—is associated with chronic activation of the HPA axis, as indicated by hair cortisol levels, among pregnant women. Although current life stress did not directly shape expectant mothers’ hair cortisol levels, it did moderate the impact of childhood abuse. Our final paper reports that although children’s hair cortisol levels and cortisol responses to a stressor were not significantly associated with children’s experiences of stress prior to or during the COVID-19 pandemic, they were associated with child anxiety and fatigue in conceptually meaningful ways.

Sub Unit

• Biological Processes: Psychophysiology

Chair

• Jennifer Lauren Isenhour, University of Utah

Discussant

• Kalsea J Koss, University of Georgia

Individual Presentations

• Meta-Analysis of Associations Between Childhood Adversity and Diurnal Cortisol Regulation - Presenting Author: Kristin L Bernard, Stony Brook University; Laura Perrone, Stony Brook Unviersity; Daneele Thorpe, Stony Brook University; Grace Shariat Panahi; Yukihiro Kitagawa, University of Oregon; Oliver Lindhiem, University of Pittsburgh

• The consequences of childhood maltreatment and current life stress for pregnant women’s hair cortisol levels - Presenting Author: Jennifer Isenhour, University of Utah; Bailey Speck, University of Utah; Liz Conradt, Duke University; Sheila E Crowell, University of Utah; Lee Raby, University of Utah

• Perceived Stress, Anxiety, and Fatigue: What Does Cortisol Map Onto? - Presenting Author: Anna Parenteau, University of California - Davis; Geneva Jost, University of California - Davis; Sally Hang, University of California - Davis; Sydney C. Yi; Camelia E Hostinar, University of California - Davis