Stress across the Transition from Preschool to School: Association with the Development of Anxiety Symptoms in Children

Abstract

Children experiencing maladjustment during the transition from preschool to school could further develop internalizing disorders, such as anxiety. Children’s sensitivity to stress is a good indicator of children’s adjustment, but atypical sensitivity, measured by cortisol concentrations, was often linked to later development of anxiety symptoms. Our previous study (PNEC, 2022) showed that most children’s morning cortisol concentrations increased during the first two weeks of kindergarten, and that the adaptation response rate varied between children two months after school entry. The current study aimed to test whether children’s atypical morning cortisol concentration across the transition to kindergarten was associated with an increase in anxiety symptoms 1.5 years later. To model morning cortisol concentrations during the transition, a latent growth model was used (n = 384; one sample for each of the four time-points). Anxiety symptoms were measured twice, before kindergarten entry and in first grade, by parent-report questionnaires. The items were combined using latent variables, one for each time-point. Controlling for pre-transition anxiety symptoms, cortisol level during the first week of school (β = -0.18) predicted anxiety symptoms 1.5 years later. Changes in cortisol levels across the transition did not add to the prediction. This study showed that low morning stress response to a normative environmental stressor was followed by increased levels of anxiety symptoms. Consistent with the stress sensitization hypothesis, this lower stress response is frequently linked to anxiety problems in children who previously experienced adversity; this remains to be examined in this sample.