Stress In Children Research Articles

Family aggression and attachment avoidance influence neuroendocrine reactivity in young adult couples.

Family-of-origin aggression (FOA) exposure is a chronic childhood stressor that has been linked to altered stress reactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis in adulthood. The effects of FOA also spill over between partners in romantic couples, such that one partner's FOA history influences the other's HPA reactivity during couple interactions. However, the direction of these effects is inconsistent, with both heightened and blunted HPA reactivity observed; this heterogeneity suggests the presence of moderators. This study measured HPA reactivity during emotionally vulnerable conversations between young adult romantic partners to assess whether romantic attachment avoidance accounts for this divergence by moderating actor and partner effects of FOA on HPA. A total of 112 opposite-sex couples (224 young adults) provided information on FOA and avoidance, completed dyadic interaction procedures, and provided saliva samples to assess HPA reactivity during interactions. Multilevel structural equation models revealed that FOA did not predict either the actor's or the partner's HPA reactivity. However, FOA and avoidance interacted to produce both actor and partner effects, such that greater FOA exposure heightened HPA reactivity when avoidance was high but blunted reactivity when avoidance was low. The results support the conjecture that proximal relationship-related characteristics, such as attachment avoidance, influence whether distal relationship-related stressors, such as FOA, amplify or attenuate physiological reactivity during emotionally vulnerable interactions. Because HPA reactivity has been linked to a variety of health outcomes, identifying relationship-related buffers of associations between FOA and HPA response may inform future interventions to protect health for FOA-exposed youth. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Causality between Dpression and Stress in Children using Community Child Centers

Causality between Dpression and Stress in Children using Community Child Centers

Preventing Toxic Childhood Stress in the COVID Era: A Role for Telemedicine

The coronavirus pandemic has resulted in unprecedented stress for families and children. Curve-flattening measures have disrupted the relational networks of millions. Stress in the absence of protective relationships can quickly become toxic, harming mental and physical health. If toxic stress is characterized by an absence of protective relationships, telemedicine may have a role in collective prevention efforts by enabling and preserving patient-provider continuity. Through virtual visits and check-ins, trusted health care providers can serve as a source of emotional support and psychosocial buffering for families under stress. By leveraging technology to deliver care remotely, telemedicine lets patients and providers connect, relate, and engage. Connection enables the conveyance of compassion and empathy. Telemedicine may thus serve as an important conduit for fostering protective relationships, buffering toxic stressors, and promoting safety and healing. Telemedicine will not resolve the needs created by the pandemic, but it may be one component for addressing them.

Facing Forced Displacement: Overcoming Adverse Childhood Experiences

This study aimed to explore the experience of displacement of the participating refugee children and their ways of coping based on their personal narratives and stories. Fifteen refugee children were interviewed about their experiences of forced displacement in Greece. Qualitative analysis was used based on the principles of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Three overarching themes emerged from the data: (a) losses and pains, (b) pressure from multiple sources and (c) life's lessons from stressful experiences. The themes represent children's stress experiences, whereas the latter reflects the ways in which children managed to cope.

Initial Challenges of Caregiving During COVID-19: Caregiver Burden, Mental Health, and the Parent-Child Relationship.

Research confirms that the mental health burdens following community-wide disasters are extensive, with pervasive impacts noted in individuals and families. It is clear that child disaster outcomes are worst among children of highly distressed caregivers, or those caregivers who experience their own negative mental health outcomes from the disaster. The current study used path analysis to examine concurrent patterns of parents’ (n = 420) experience from a national sample during the early months of the U.S. COVID-19 pandemic. The results of a multi-group path analysis, organized by parent gender, indicate good fit to the data [X2(10) = 159.04, p < .01]. Results indicate significant linkages between parents’ caregiver burden, mental health, and perceptions of children’s stress; these in turn are significantly linked to child-parent closeness and conflict, indicating possible spillover effects for depressed parents and compensatory effects for anxious parents. The impact of millions of families sheltering in place during the COVID-19 pandemic for an undefined period of time may lead to unprecedented impacts on individuals’ mental health with unknown impacts on child-parent relationships. These impacts may be heightened for families whose caregivers experience increased mental health symptoms, as was the case for fathers in the current sample.

Illuminating ethnic-racial socialization among undocumented Latinx parents and its implications for adolescent psychosocial functioning.

The purpose of this study is to examine how parents' documentation status informs their ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) practices and the subsequent implications for Latinx youths' psychological adjustment. The mixed-methods approach combined convergent and exploratory sequential designs to explore the breadth and depth of Latinx parents' messages to their children regarding race and ethnicity. Qualitative data were used to generate hypotheses that were tested quantitatively. Analysis of interviews revealed parents' concerns with obeying the law, avoiding interaction with others, teaching children how to deal with discrimination, the importance of transmitting their culture, and concerns for their children's ever-present fear and stress. Path analysis showed that undocumented parents utilized more cultural socialization and promotion of mistrust messages than their documented counterparts. More promotion of mistrust, in turn, was associated with higher levels of adolescent depressive symptoms. Given the current sociopolitical climate and ethnic-racial tensions in the United States, it is imperative to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the nuanced ERS practices Latinx families employ to both cope with and respond to this situation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

From Child Abuse to Developing Borderline Personality Disorder Into Adulthood: Exploring the Neuromorphological and Epigenetic Pathway.

Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is one of the most common personality disorders seen in the general population. Among multiple identified risk factors, one of the most influential elements is exposure to an adverse childhood experience in terms of emotional, physical, or sexual abuse. A cascade of neuromorphological and epigenetic changes occurs in response to these childhood stressors, which may have a strong link to the development of BPD. PubMed and Google Scholar were searched for articles relevant to child abuse and the development of BPD. The search was not restricted to any time frame or geographic location. Significant epigenetic and neuromorphological changes are seen with child abuse, contributing to the development of BPD. Chronic stressors lead to hypothalamic-pituitary axis (HPA) activation, releasing cortisol that acts on the prefrontal cortex, amygdala, and hippocampus, producing the behavioral patterns seen in BPD. Overstimulation of gray matter leads to permanent neuromorphological changes, which can be visualized in functional MRI/brain scans. Hypermethylation of messenger ribonucleic acid in various sites suggests the impact of child abuse on the genetic level. Interestingly, the prevalence of BPD is seen equally in both genders but is diagnosed more frequently in females because they tend to be more likely to seek help. Understanding the impact of early age life stressors into adulthood calls for serious focus on early diagnosis and intervention. This implies the need for more studies in patients with BPD with or without any childhood traumatic experience and a better understanding of the changes that occur biopsychologically and genetically in response to trauma.

The Effect of Music Therapy, Hand Massage, and Kaleidoscope Usage on Postoperative Nausea and Vomiting, Pain, Fear, and Stress in Children: A Randomized Controlled Trial

PurposeThe objective of this study was to investigate the effects of music therapy, hand massage, and kaleidoscope usage on nausea and vomiting, pain, fear, and stress in 7-year-old to 11-year-old children after circumcision. DesignThis study was a prospective and randomized controlled trial. MethodsThe study was conducted at the pediatric surgery unit in a hospital in Turkey. The children were assigned to four groups through randomization performed using a computer program: group 1 was the control group with children who received no intervention; group 2 received hand massage; group 3 were distracted using kaleidoscope; and group 4 received music therapy. FindingsThere was a significant difference between the postoperative pain scores of the children in the intervention and control groups after the intervention (P < .05). This difference was found to be caused by the music therapy and kaleidoscope methods. There was a significant difference between the intervention and control groups' postoperative fear and anxiety levels in favor of the kaleidoscope group after the intervention (P < .05). But, no significant difference was found between the groups for the children's postoperative vomiting and nausea levels after the intervention (P > .05). ConclusionsDistraction with music therapy and kaleidoscope is recommended for use in the postoperative period in children with circumcision to reduce the severity of their pain, fear, and anxiety.

The impacts of maternal childhood adversity, stress, and mental health on child development at 6 months in Taiwan: A follow-up study.

Exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) is not only associated with one's adverse health outcomes in adulthood but also increases the risk of child developmental problems in offspring. However, the mechanisms involved in the transmission of the effects of maternal ACEs to the offspring largely remain unexplored. This study sought to identify possible psychosocial pathways of intergenerational effects of maternal ACEs on child development at 6 months. Data from a longitudinal study on maternal childhood adversity and maternal psychosocial risk during pregnancy as well as maternal mental health problems and child development at 6 months postnatal were used. Structural equation modeling with bootstrapping was used to estimate the indirect effects of maternal ACEs on child development at 6 months. The model showed that maternal ACEs indirectly influenced offspring's development via maternal stressful events during pregnancy and pre- and postnatal mental health problems. This finding highlights the possible interventions at the prenatal and postnatal periods. Early identification of women who have ACEs or who are at psychosocial risk during pre- and postnatal periods is critical to provide interventions to buffer those negative effects on offspring's development. Future studies are needed to longitudinally assess the effects of maternal ACEs on child development over time.

Longitudinal effects of maltreatment, intimate partner violence, and Reminiscing and Emotion Training on children's diurnal cortisol regulation.

Dysregulation in children's physiological stress systems is a key process linking early adversity to poor health and psychopathology. Thus, interventions that improve children's stress physiology may help prevent deleterious health outcomes. Reminiscing and Emotion Training (RET) is a brief relational intervention designed to improve maternal caregiving support by enhancing maltreating mothers' capacity to reminisce with their young children. This study evaluated associations between maltreatment, intimate partner violence, and the RET intervention with changes in children's diurnal cortisol regulation across the 1 year following the intervention, and the extent to which improvements in maternal elaborative reminiscing differed between intervention groups and mediated change in children's physiological functioning. Participants were 237 children (aged 36 to 86 months) and their mothers. Results indicated that the RET intervention was associated with significant positive change in elaborative reminiscing, which was sustained over time. Mothers' elaboration immediately after the intervention served as a mediator of RET's effects on improvements in children's diurnal cortisol regulation (steeper diurnal slopes) from baseline to 1 year following intervention. This suggests RET is effective in facilitating physiological regulation among maltreated children.

Antioxidants and Oxidative Stress in Children: Influence of Puberty and Metabolically Unhealthy Status.

Oxidative stress could help explain the relationship between childhood obesity and a metabolically unhealthy (MU) status. Moreover, puberty could also influence this relationship, since it entails physiological cardiometabolic changes. We aimed to evaluate plasma antioxidants and oxidative stress biomarkers in MU and metabolically healthy (MH) prepubertal and pubertal children and their associations with pro-inflammatory and endothelial damage biomarkers, taking puberty into account. A total of 1444 Spanish children aged 3–17 years (48.9% males, 66% prepubertal, 47.1% with obesity) were recruited. Blood pressure, anthropometric and biochemical parameters were measured, and children were categorized as having a MU or MH status according to risk factors. Retinol, carotenes, tocopherols, total antioxidant capacity (TAC), oxidized low-density lipoprotein and selected pro-inflammatory and endothelial damage biomarkers were analyzed. General linear models adjusted for age, sex, recruitment center and body mass index, partial correlations and stepwise linear regressions were performed. Lower carotenes and tocopherols levels were found in MU than in MH children. Plasma TAC was lower in prepubertal and higher in pubertal children with obesity compared to normal-weight children. Antioxidants and oxidative stress biomarkers showed novel associations with several pro-inflammatory and endothelial damage biomarkers, with pubertal differences, supporting the importance of considering both the antioxidant and oxidative stress status and puberty in the prevention of metabolic diseases in childhood.

Adverse childhood experiences, economic hardship, and obesity: Differences by gender

The detrimental effects of childhood trauma and stress do not dissipate over time, enduring well into adulthood and affecting health and quality of life over the course of time. Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) also appear to negatively affect socioeconomic status, which elevates long-term health risks in adulthood. This study aims to examine (1) the pathway from ACEs, economic hardship, to the risk of obesity in young adulthood and (2) gender differences in the mediating role of economic hardship between ACEs and obesity. We conducted latent class analysis and a multiple group path analysis, using three waves of data from adolescence to young adulthood in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (n = 10,091). Findings present three classes of exposure to ACEs: low adversity, child maltreatment, and family dysfunction. In both women and men subgroups, the “child maltreatment” and “family dysfunction” classes experienced economic hardship more than the “low adversity” class, yet no direct association between ACEs and obesity was found. The indirect effect of economic hardship on obesity was observed only in women. Women classified to the “child maltreatment” and the “family dysfunction” classes were more likely to have obesity status by experiencing economic hardship in young adulthood, compared to the “low adversity” class. This study highlights heterogeneous types of ACEs and gender differences in the mediating role of economic hardship as a related stress. In obesity interventions, policymakers and practitioners should be aware that economic hardship may intermediate the effects of ACEs on obesity particularly for women.

When mummy and daddy get under your skin: A new look at how parenting affects children's DNA methylation, stress reactivity, and disruptive behavior.

Child maltreatment is a global phenomenon that affects the lives of millions of children. Worldwide, as many as one in three to six children encounter physical, sexual, or emotional abuse from their caregivers. Children who experience abuse often show alterations in stress reactivity. Although this alteration may reflect a physiological survival response, it can nevertheless be harmful in the long run-increasing children's disruptive behavior and jeopardizing their development in multiple domains. But can we undo this process in at-risk children? Based on several lines of pioneering research, we hypothesize that we indeed can. Specifically, we hypothesize that highly dysfunctional parenting leads to an epigenetic pattern in children's glucocorticoid genes that contributes to stress dysregulation and disruptive behavior. However, we also hypothesize that it is possible to "flip the methylation switch" by improving parenting with known-effective parenting interventions in at-risk families. We predict that improved parenting will change methylation in genes in the glucocorticoid pathway, leading to improved stress reactivity and decreased disruptive behavior in children. Future research testing this theory may transform developmental and intervention science, demonstrating how parents can get under their children's skins-and how this mechanism can be reversed.

Life-History Factors Influence Teenagers' Suicidal Ideation: A Model Selection Analysis of the Canadian National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth.

Suicidality is an important contributor to disease burden worldwide. We examine the developmental and environmental correlates of reported suicidal ideation at age 15 and develop a new evolutionary model of suicidality based on life history trade-offs and hypothesized accompanying modulations of cognition. Data were derived from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (Statistics Canada) which collected information on children's social, emotional, and behavioral development in eight cycles between 1994 and 2009. We take a model selection approach to understand thoughts of suicide at age 15 (N ≈ 1,700). The most highly ranked models include social support, early life psychosocial stressors, prenatal stress, and mortality cues. Those reporting consistent early life stress had 2.66 greater odds of reporting thoughts of suicide at age 15 than those who reported no childhood stress. Social support of the primary caregiver, neighborhood cohesion, nonkin social support of the adolescent, and the number of social support sources are all associated with suicidal thoughts, where greater neighborhood cohesion and social support sources are associated with a reduction in experiencing suicidal thoughts. Mother's prenatal smoking throughout pregnancy is associated with a 1.5 greater odds of suicidal thoughts for adolescents compared to children whose mother's reported not smoking during pregnancy. We discuss these findings in light of evolutionary models of suicidality. This study identifies both positive and negative associations on suicidal thoughts at age 15 and considers these in light of adaptive response models of human development. Findings are relevant for mental health policy.

Pausing and Sentence Stress in Children with Dysarthria due to Cerebral Palsy

Introduction: Children with dysarthria due to cerebral palsy (CP) can experience problems manipulating intensity, fundamental frequency, and duration to signal sentence stress in an utterance. Pauses have been identified as a potential additional cue for stress-marking, which could compensate for this deficit. Objective: This study aimed to determine whether children use pauses to signal stress placement, and whether this differs between typically developing children and those with CP. Methods: Six children with CP and 8 typically developing children produced utterances with stresses on target words in 2 different positions. Pauses before and after the stressed target words were analyzed in terms of number, location, and duration. Results: Both groups inserted pauses into their utterances. However, neither group used pause location or duration in a systematic manner to signal the position of the words stressed. Conclusions: The results suggest that pausing was not used strategically by either group to signal sentence stress. Further research is necessary to explore the value of pausing as a cue to stress-marking in general and as a potential compensatory strategy for speakers with dysarthria.

Clinical Demonstration of the Potential of Parental Feedback in Reducing Deterioration During Group Psychotherapy With Children.

In recent years, great efforts have been exerted to minimize the rates of deterioration in clinical practice, especially in child psychotherapy. The present study explored the potential effect of routine outcome monitoring (ROM) with parents as a preventive intervention to reduce deterioration in children. Twenty-five children receiving treatment for emotional problems were randomized to parent-based, ROM-assisted group psychotherapy or to treatment as usual (TAU). A mixed-methods approach was utilized, with the number of deteriorating cases compared at the group level and two case illustrations assessed at the individual level. At the group level, there were fewer cases of deterioration in child's anxiety, parental stress, and quality of parent's alliance in the ROM-assisted group, compared with TAU. Case studies illustrated how ROM can be used as a tool to communicate with parents to prevent deterioration. Routine outcome monitoring in child psychotherapy may thus benefit therapy process and outcome. Limitations and directions for future research are discussed.

Maternal early life maltreatment and psychopathology affect the next generation: Alterations in post-awakening cortisol levels of primary school-aged children.

Early life maltreatment (ELM) has severe and lasting effects on the individual, which might also impact the next generation. On an endocrine level, the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis has been suggested to play an important role in the interplay between ELM and the development of mental disorders. Several studies have revealed that maternal post-awakening cortisol concentration, maternal sensitivity, maternal ELM and psychopathology are associated with children's cortisol levels. We investigated the post-awakening cortisol concentrations in 6- to 11-year-old children (N=53) whose mothers either had experienced ELM and had developed a lifetime mental disorder (N=15 ELM and disorder group), had experienced ELM without developing a mental disorder (N=12 ELM-only group), or had neither experienced ELM nor developed a mental disorder (N=26 HC-group). Furthermore, we assessed maternal post-awakening cortisol concentrations, maternal psychopathology, and sensitivity. Multilevel analysis revealed higher cortisol at awakening (S1) levels in children of mothers with ELM and disorder. Maternal cortisol at awakening (S1) also predicted the child's cortisol at awakening (S1), and no effect of maternal sensitivity could be found. The current results replicate an attunement of cortisol levels (S1) between mothers and children and suggest an association between the children's endocrine stress system and maternal factors such as ELM and psychopathology.

Early life stress exposure associated with reduced polyunsaturated-containing lipids in low-income children.

Background:Psychosocial stress in early childhood is associated with adult obesity and cardiometabolic disease. The association of psychosocial stress with the metabolome in childhood is unknown.Method:Low-income children (n=28, mean age 1.8 years) recruited from the community, participated. Psychosocial stress was measured by diurnal salivary cortisol (cortisol intercept and slope) and by mother-reported chaos in the home using the Confusion, Hubbub, and Order Scale (CHAOS). At mean age 6.1 years, anthropometry was collected and fasting metabolites measured using an untargeted metabolomics and shotgun lipidomics platform.Results:Cortisol slope was inversely associated with fatty acid (FA) 20:3, FA 20:4 and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) metabolites. A higher CHAOS score was associated with lower very long-chain PUFA metabolites and a trend towards lower long-chain PUFA containing triglycerides.Conclusion:Psychosocial stress in early childhood, measured with both biological markers and parent report, was associated with lower PUFAs later in childhood. Future work should examine potential mechanisms of association, including dietary intake or direct effects on polyunsaturated fatty acid levels or metabolism.

Oxidative Stress in Children with Cutaneous Mastocytosis.

Background: Thiols and ischemia-modified albumin (IMA) are novel biomarkers for the evaluation of the oxidative stress (OS) that has been associated with the pathogenesis of various neoplastic and inflammatory diseases. The aim of this study was to find out the dynamic thiol-disulfide homeostasis and IMA levels in patients with cutaneous mastocytosis (CM) to demonstrate the presence of the OS. Methods: A total of 36 patients with CM and 27 age- and sex-matched healthy participants were included in this study. Serum thiols and IMA levels were measured and compared between the 2 groups. Results: Levels of native thiol, total thiol, disulfide, disulfide/native thiol, disulfide/total thiol, native thiol/total thiol, and IMA were similar in both patients with CM and the control group. No significant difference was found with regard to mediator-releasing symptoms, clinical types, and remission status between the OS markers (thiol/disulfide variables and IMA levels) of the patients (P > 0.05). Conclusions: To our knowledge, this study is the first study in the literature that investigated thiol-disulfide homeostasis and IMA levels in pediatric patients with CM. Our study indicated that OS plays no role in the course of the pediatric CM.

Emission-related Heavy Metal Associated with Oxidative Stress in Children: Effect of Antioxidant Intake.

Heavy metals, the common pollutants emitted from industrial activities, are believed to cause harmful effects, partially through the mechanism of elevated oxidative stress, and antioxidant intake has been hypothesized to provide a potential protective effect against oxidative stress. This study aims to investigate the heavy metal exposure and the associated oxidative damage of young children living near a petrochemical complex and to assess the protective effect of antioxidant intake. There were 168 children recruited from the kindergartens near a huge petrochemical complex, with 87 as the high exposure group and 81 as the low exposure group. Urinary concentrations of eleven metals were detected by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, and four biomarkers of oxidative stress were measured in urine by liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry. The food frequency questionnaire was collected to assess participants’ intake of antioxidants. Multiple linear regression was performed to determine the predictors of metals for oxidative stress and to measure the beneficial effect of antioxidants. Weighted quantile sum regression was performed to determine the contributors among metals to the oxidative stress. Results showed that high exposure group had significantly higher concentrations of chromium, manganese, nickel, arsenic, strontium, cadmium, and lead when compared to those in low exposure group. There was no obviously difference on the total antioxidant intake and dietary profile between two groups. The elevated levels of two oxidative stress markers were significantly associated with most of the urinary metal concentrations in all study subjects after adjusting confounders, while no significant association was found between oxidative stress and antioxidant intake. Among the metals, mercury and strontium showed the dominated contributions for elevated levels of oxidative stress. It concluded that higher metal exposure was associated with elevated oxidative stress but with no protective effect by antioxidant intake among the young children residents near a petrochemical industry.