Stress During Transition From Preschool to School: Children’s Morning Cortisol Concentrations Across Five Measurement Times

• In Event: Developmental psychophysiology and developmental psychopathology: Temporal and contextual considerations

Abstract

Entering kindergarten is the first school transition in a child’s life. A challenging transition from preschool to school may lead to academic difficulties, externalizing and internalizing problems or substance abuse later in development (Racz et al., 2013). This first transition is considered a universal social stressor by several authors because children enter a new environment with new comrades and new social and cognitive demands. Many studies showed a global increase in stress, measured by cortisol concentration especially in the morning, for children entering school (Parent, Lupien, Herba, Dupéré, Gunnar and Séguin, 2019). However, those studies examined small samples with different methodologies and 3 or less measurements points. Also, we do not know if this stress reaction starts before school entry (anticipation effect) and how long it takes for the cortisol to go back to baseline levels after the exposure (recuperation). This research project aims to clarify the global stress reaction pattern of children during their transition from preschool to school. In particular, the cortisol response was evaluated in 3 different contexts: 1) anticipation to school entry, 2) school transition and 3) recuperation after exposure to new school environment.

To address our objective, 384 children (52% girls), recruited from two cohorts of a pregnancy study, were followed across the transition to kindergarten. Parents took morning salivary cortisol samples from their children (30 minutes after awakening) at 5 different time points across the transition. Cortisol concentration were assessed twice before school entry in June (t1; baseline) and mid-August (t2) and 3 times after school entry at first (t3) and second week (t4) of school, then 2 months after school entry in November (t5). Paired t-tests were tested to compare significant means differences between measurement times.

Results showed means (in μg/L) of 0.326 (SD = 0.167), 0.310 (SD = 0.171), 0.345 (SD = 0.195), 0.360 (SD = 0.180), 0.317 (SD = 0.158) respectively at t1, t2, t3, t4 and t5 (see Figure 1). Significant mean differences (p ˂ .05) were found between the mid-August sample and the first two post-transition samples, and between the first two post-transition samples and the November sample [t-tests: t2-3(317) = -2.39; t2-4(302) = -3.01; t3-5(300) = 2.23; t4-5(292) = 3.04].

These results revealed 1) no cortisol anticipation effect 2 weeks before school entry, 2) cortisol concentration increases during first and second week of school and 3) return to cortisol concentration baseline 2 months after school entry. We also observed high variability at every measurement point which suggests that children have different cortisol responses to school transition and might allow us to identify atypical stress response patterns. Then, these might allow us to distinguish children who will be able to functionally adapt versus some who could develop adaptation issues, such as internalizing problems. This study was the first to examine so many children from different cohorts and at several points in time. Better understanding the experience and extent of the stress response at school transition will allow us to further examine which children might show inadaptation during school entry.

Authors

• Maggy Leblond, Université de Montréal (UdeM)
  Presenting Author

• Sophie Parent, Université de Montréal
  Non-Presenting Author

• Natalie Castellanos Ryan, Université de Montréal
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sonia Lupien, Université de Montréal
  Non-Presenting Author

• William D. Fraser, Université de Sherbrooke
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jean Richard Seguin, Université de Montréal
  Non-Presenting Author