TitleDaily stressor reactivity during adolescence: The buffering role of parental warmth.
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2016
AuthorsLippold, MA, Davis, KD, McHale, SM, Buxton, OM, Almeida, DM
JournalHealth Psychol
Volume35
Issue9
Pagination1027-35
Date Published2016 Sep
ISSN1930-7810
KeywordsAdolescent, Adolescent Behavior, Adult, Child, Female, Humans, Hydrocortisone, Male, Middle Aged, Parent-Child Relations, Saliva, Stress, Psychological, Time Factors
Abstract

<p><b>OBJECTIVE: </b>This study examined youth stressor reactivity in the form of links between daily stressors and adolescents' negative affect, physical health symptoms, and cortisol patterns. We also tested whether youth gender and parental warmth moderated these linkages.</p><p><b>METHOD: </b>Participants were the children of employees in the information technology division of a large company (N = 132, mean age = 13.39 years, 55% female). Youth completed daily diary telephone interviews on 8 consecutive evenings and provided saliva samples at 4 time points over 4 days to assess daily stressors and youth physiological and affective functioning. Parental warmth was assessed during in-home interviews. Multilevel modeling was used to account for interdependencies in the data.</p><p><b>RESULTS: </b>Youth who experienced more daily stressors, on average, reported more negative affect and physical health symptoms, on average. Furthermore, on days youth reported more stressors than usual (compared to their own across-day average), they also exhibited more physical health symptoms, reduced evening cortisol decline (e.g., flatter slopes), higher bedtime cortisol, and more negative affect. Girls had stronger within-person linkages between daily stressors and daily negative affect than boys. Parental warmth moderated these within-person linkages: Youth who experienced more parental warmth had lower negative affect and steeper cortisol decline than usual on less stressful days. However, youth who experienced less parental warmth had higher negative affect and their cortisol levels declined less, even on days with lower-than-usual stress.</p><p><b>CONCLUSIONS: </b>Daily stressors are associated with youth's affective and physiological functioning, but parental warmth can support youth's stress recovery. (PsycINFO Database Record</p>

DOI10.1037/hea0000352
Alternate JournalHealth Psychol
PubMed ID27175577
PubMed Central IDPMC4993628
Grant ListU01 HD051217 / HD / NICHD NIH HHS / United States
U01 HD051256 / HD / NICHD NIH HHS / United States
R03 AG046393 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States
U01 OH008788 / OH / NIOSH CDC HHS / United States
U01 AG027669 / AG / NIA NIH HHS / United States
R01 HL107240 / HL / NHLBI NIH HHS / United States
U01 HD059773 / HD / NICHD NIH HHS / United States
U01 HD051276 / HD / NICHD NIH HHS / United States
U01 HD051218 / HD / NICHD NIH HHS / United States