Abstract
Many authors have proposed that early life stress (ELS) provokes a dysregulation of the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis and contributes negatively to the management of stress in adulthood. However, these associations have not always been observed, making it necessary to include new factors that could explain the different results found. In this regard, people with ELS experiences report less social support during adulthood, suggesting that loneliness could be a mediating factor. Thus, our aims were to investigate whether ELS was related to both perceived stress and diurnal HPA axis activity, and whether loneliness mediates these relationships, in a community sample (N=187, 18–55years old). Fourteen cortisol samples were collected on two non-consecutive days to obtain the overall diurnal cortisol, diurnal cortisol slope, and bedtime levels. Additionally, ELS was assessed with the Risky Families Questionnaire (RFQ) and the Recalled Childhood and Adolescence Perceived Stress (ReCAPS) measure. Results revealed that ELS was associated with perceived stress, but not HPA axis functioning, and loneliness mediated the relationship between ELS and perceived stress, but not between ELS and HPA axis functioning. Similar results were found for both ELS questionnaires, suggesting that the ReCAPS is an adequate tool. These results highlight the importance of loneliness in understanding the long-term effects of ELS, and they indicate different effects of ELS on subjective and physiological stress indicators.
Highlights
Life stress (ELS) is usually operationalized as a wide variety of adverse experiences that occur in the first stages of the individual’s development, and they include negligence, socioeconomic disadvantage, physical or psychological maltreatment, or early parental loss, among others (Fogelman and Canli, 2018)
The aims of this study were to investigate whether Early life stress (ELS) was associated with the current perception of stress and the HPA axis functioning in adulthood, and the mediating role of loneliness in these relationships
The results showed that ELS was related to perceived stress, but not to HPA axis functioning
Summary
Life stress (ELS) is usually operationalized as a wide variety of adverse experiences that occur in the first stages of the individual’s development, and they include negligence, socioeconomic disadvantage, physical or psychological maltreatment, or early parental loss, among others (Fogelman and Canli, 2018). As the stress-sensitization model proposes, the ELS-related negative effects may enhance vulnerability to several stress-related psychopathological conditions (McLaughlin et al, 2010), such as posttraumatic stress disorder (Kiser et al, 1991; Yehuda et al, 2010), anxiety (Heim and Nemeroff, 2001; Lähdepuro et al, 2019), depression (Colman and Ataullahjan, 2010; Gallo et al, 2017), eating disorders (Su et al, 2016), psychosis (Read et al, 2005), bipolar disorder (Post et al, 2015), and substance abuse (Scheller-Gilkey et al, 2004; Keyes et al, 2012) This predisposition could be due to the fact that having experienced trauma during childhood or adolescence increases vulnerability to the effects of subsequent stressful events, which aggravates the health consequences of stressors in adulthood (Hammen et al, 2000; McLaughlin et al, 2010). It has been observed that having suffered from overall early maltreatment is associated with a greater perception of stress during adulthood in different types of populations, such as individuals with cocaine dependence in periods of abstinence (Hyman et al, 2007), female inmates (Brewer-Smyth and Burgess, 2008), and breast cancer (Han et al, 2016) or coronary artery (Bossé et al, 2018) patients, fewer studies have been carried out in the general population (Betz et al, 2020)
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