Does Dampened Physiological Reactivity Protect Youth In Aggressive Family Environments?

Is an attenuated physiological response to family conflict, seen in some youth exposed to early adversity, protective or problematic? A longitudinal study including 54 youth (average age 15.2) found that those with higher cumulative family aggression exposure showed lower cortisol output during a laboratory-based conflict discussion with their parents, and were less likely to show the normative pattern of increased cortisol reactivity to a discussion they rated as more conflictual. Family aggression interacted with cortisol reactivity in predicting youth adjustment: adolescents from more aggressive homes who were also more reactive to the discussion reported more post-traumatic stress symptoms and more antisocial behavior. These results suggest that attenuated reactivity may protect youth from the negative consequences associated with aggressive family environments. Keywords cortisol; HPA axis; family conflict; childhood adversity; antisocial behavior How does a chronically aggressive family environment shape the development of children’s stress response systems? Children reared in harsh family environments have been found to show both heightened and dampened profiles of cortisol, a stress hormone secreted by the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis that has been implicated in physical and mental health. For example, among adults with clinical disorders like depression and anxiety, past childhood adversity has been tied to elevated baseline cortisol and exaggerated stress reactivity (e.g. De Bellis et al., 1999; Elzinga, Spinhoven, Berretty, Jong, & Roelofs, 2010; Harkness, Stewart, & Wynne-Edwards, 2010). However, in studies of both children and adults without significant psychological symptoms, early life stress has been more often associated with low baseline cortisol and attenuated reactivity (e.g., Carpenter et al., 2007