Child Effects on Parents’ Bedtime Cortisol: Cognitive Interference as a Mediating Mechanism

• In Event: Parent Contributions to the Coordination of Emotions, Behaviors, and Physiology Among Parent-Child Dyads

Abstract

Background: Children have important effects on their parents: The emotions and behavior of children have implications for parenting behavior (Pardini, 2008). Children may also have effects on parents’ physiology, in particular the functioning of their stress-response system, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) system. Prior studies have shown that parent and child cortisol are associated across days (Papp, Pendry, & Adam, 2009; Saxbe et al., 2014) and that this covariation may primarily be child-driven (blinded). That is child cortisol predicted next-day parent cortisol but not vice versa. This study extends this literature by testing whether parents’ cognitive interference (i.e., distracting and ruminative thoughts potentially due to stress and worry) mediates the linkages between daily child and parent bedtime levels of cortisol (See Figure 1, Conceptual Model). We also tested whether these linkages were moderated by parent gender, hypothesizing they would be stronger for mothers than fathers.

Methods: This study used a sample of 311 parent-child dyads in an eight-day daily diary study as part of the Work, Family, and Health Study. Parent reports of cognitive interference were collected in evening phone calls. Cortisol, a hormonal byproduct of the HPA system, was collected on four study days and converted to nmol/L and log transformed for analyses. Given the diurnal rhythm of cortisol (daily cortisol levels peak after waking and decline over the day), high bedtime levels of cortisol indicate HPA dysregulation. We tested mediation with autoregressive cross-lagged models with bootstrapping (Figure 1). Variables collected in the same time period were correlated. Two group nested models were used to test for moderation by parent gender. Control variables include child age and gender, parent race/ethnicity, medication use, daily stressors, weekend/weekday, and time of cortisol sample.

Results: Parents’ cognitive interference partially mediated the linkages between child and parent bedtime levels of cortisol (Figure 2). These associations were moderated by parent gender, with significant partial mediation evident for mothers but not fathers. As seen in Figure 2, for mothers, higher child bedtime cortisol levels were associated with higher levels of mothers’ cognitive interference the following day (Path A: B=.09, SE=.04, p < .05). Subsequently, higher levels of mothers’ cognitive interference were linked to higher same-day bedtime levels of cortisol (Path B: B=.08, SE=.04, p<.05). Direct effects from child to parent cortisol were also significant (Path C’: B=.12 SE=.04, p<.01). Model fit was acceptable according to RMSEA, NNFI, and CFI.

Conclusion: Mothers’ cognitive interference plays a key role in the transmission of physiological stress responses from children to their mothers. These findings may reflect an empathic stress response, where mothers experience physiological responses to child stress even if they do not experience it directly (Buchanan et al., 2012). Findings also support the perseverative cognition hypothesis as mentally reliving stressors may lead to prolonged HPA activation. However, it extends this work to suggest children’s stress-physiology may be an important trigger for such cognitive interference (Brosschot et al., 2006). Interventions such as mindfulness that temper cognitive interference may reduce the extent to which children’s stress physiology affects their mothers’ physiology.

Authors

• Melissa A Lippold, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  Presenting Author

• Peter Molenaar, The Pennsylvania State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kelly D Chandler, Oregon State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Soomi Lee, University of South Florida
  Non-Presenting Author

• David M. Almeida
  Non-Presenting Author