Latino Adolescents’ Cultural Values Moderate Cortisol Responses to Everyday Stress

• In Event: 1-186 - Latina(o) Adolescents’ Cortisol Responses to Psychosocial Stress: Experimental and Field Approaches

Integrative Statement

Culture and its multi-layered influences are organizing forces in development (Vélez-Agosto et al., 2017), yet how cultural factors may relate to HPA stress responses has received little empirical attention. More often, stress reactivity studies have compared ethnic groups as a proxy to measure cultural variation, which tends to reify deficit models without accounting for within-group cultural diversity (Doane et al., 2018). Despite being treated as one homogenous group, Latino adolescents are diverse with respect to maintaining traditional heritage values (e.g., centrality of family, respect, religion), which are theorized to play a role in how youth respond to stress (Knight et al., 2010). Using an ecological momentary assessment (EMA) approach, the present study estimated cortisol stress responses in the everyday lives of Latino adolescents, and examined how these responses varied with adolescents’ endorsement of Latino cultural values.

Latino adolescents in their final year of high school (N=209; Mage=18.10; 85.1% Mexican descent; 62.1% 2nd generation; 64.4% female) reported perceived stress and provided saliva samples five times daily for three days (N=2638). In each report, participants briefly described the most stressful event of the last hour, and rated its severity (0=no stress, 10=extreme stress). In a one-time survey, participants also completed 36 items from the Mexican American Cultural Values Scale (Knight et al., 2010), designed to be inclusive of all Latino subgroups (e.g., “Parents should teach their children that the family always comes first”; alpha=.95). See Table 1 for model covariates.

Three-level growth models were used to address nested data (samples nested within days and individuals) and the diurnal cortisol rhythm (Adam, 2006). Within-person increases in stress were not significantly associated with corresponding cortisol differences (Table 1), but this within-person association did vary significantly across individuals, χ2(6)=21.39, p<.01. As a between-person moderator, Latino cultural values significantly accounted for individual differences in the extent to which perceived stress predicted corresponding differences in cortisol (Table 1). Simple slopes for this cross-level interaction indicated that cortisol levels were lower following situations of greater stress than usual for participants scoring above-average on Latino cultural values, b =-0.02, p<.01, but not average, b=-0.01, p=.32, or below-average, b=0.01, p=.75 (Figure 1). Regions of significance indicated that greater stress than usual was followed by approximately 9.4% lower cortisol for 44.6% of participants.

Results from this study are the first to highlight how not all Latino adolescents physiologically respond to daily stress in the same manner, while also identifying cultural values as a moderator of how perceived stress relates to cortisol production in daily life. Consistent with the theorized protective role of heritage Latino cultural values (Gonzales et al., 2012), relatively lower cortisol levels following already-completed stressful situations may reflect healthy physiological regulation as cortisol resumes the natural diurnal decline (Adam et al., 2007). Traditional Latino values, including familism, respect, and religiosity, may improve stress regulation by promoting stronger family connections, social support, and social-specific coping strategies. Our study advances the exploration of culture-biology interplay and supports preventative interventions designed to appreciate cultural diversity and heritage culture connections for Latino youth.

Authors

• Michael R Sladek, Harvard University
  Presenting Author

• Leah D. Doane, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Nancy Gonzales, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kevin Grimm, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Linda Luecken, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author