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Salivary cortisol levels in children of low-income women with high depressive symptomatology

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 April 2008

Lia C. H. Fernald ,
Heather M. Burke  and
Megan R. Gunnar
Lia C. H. Fernald*
Affiliation:
University of California, Berkeley
Heather M. Burke
Affiliation:
University of California, San Francisco
Megan R. Gunnar
Affiliation:
University of Minnesota
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Lia Fernald, School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley, 50 University Hall, MC 7360, Berkeley, CA 94720-7360; E-mail: fernald@berkeley.edu.
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Abstract

Children (N = 324 boys, 315 girls) between the ages of 2.5 and 6 (mean age = 3.63) were identified in a house to house survey in low-income areas (income <20th percentile nationally) of urban Mexico. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies—Depression Scale was administered to mothers of all children. Salivary cortisol samples were taken in children as a measure of hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenocortical (HPA) system activity at time of arrival (baseline, Time 0), 25 min after arrival (Time 1), and 50 min after arrival (Time 2). Between Time 0 and Time 1, children were administered several cognitive tests. Results of hierarchical linear modeling analyses revealed that higher levels of maternal depressive symptoms were associated with lower baseline cortisol levels in their children (p < .05), while controlling for age, gender, and time since awakening. Higher levels of maternal depressive symptoms were associated with less of an increase in salivary cortisol to the arrival of the experimenters and subsequent cognitive testing (p < .05). All results were moderated by gender, with enhanced cortisol response in girls and no response in boys. These results suggest that among very low-income families, high maternal depressive symptoms are associated with hypoactivity of the HPA system in children, particularly boys.

Type
Research Article
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 20 , Issue 2 , Spring 2008 , pp. 423 - 436
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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Footnotes

This research was supported by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Network on SES and Health, the Fogarty International Center of NIH (K01 TW06077, PI Lia Fernald), NICHD (R01 HD40864, PI Paul Gertler), and NIMH (K05 MH66208, PI Megan Gunnar). The authors thank Ryo Shiba, Francisco Papaqui, Gustavo Olaiz, Aurora Franco, Mauricio Hernandez, Stefano Bertozzi, Lynnette Neufeld, and Juan Pablo Gutierrez at Mexico's National Institute of Public Health (INSP), Andrea Gierens at the University of Trier, Paul Gertler at the University of California at Berkeley, Nancy Adler at the University of California, San Francisco, and the anonymous reviewers of this Journal.

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