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Interaction of Adrenocortical Activity and Autonomic Arousal on Children’s Externalizing and Internalizing Behavior Problems

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Abstract

The psychobiology of stress involves two major components, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and the autonomic nervous system (ANS). Research has revealed the association between behavior problems and the psychobiology of stress, yet findings are inconsistent and few studies have addressed the moderate correlations between behavior problems. This study examines the individual and interactive effects of HPA and ANS on child behavior problems while taking into account the comorbidity of externalizing and internalizing problems. Four saliva samples were collected from each participant in a community sample (N = 429; aged 11–12 years; 50.49 % male), which were assayed for cortisol (HPA) and alpha-amylase, sAA (ANS). Children’s behavior problems were assessed using parent-report and self-report versions of the Child Behavior Checklist. Latent variables were constructed to represent trait-like individual differences in cortisol and sAA. Low levels of HPA axis activity were associated with higher levels of both externalizing and internalizing problems, but only among children with low ANS arousal. The association between externalizing and internalizing problems diminished to non-significant after taking into account the influence of HPA axis activity and ANS arousal, which suggests that the psychobiology of stress explains a fair proportion of comorbidity of behavior problems. The findings support that interaction between HPA axis and ANS functioning has potential to clarify prior mixed findings and advance our understanding of the child behavior problems.

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Acknowledgement

This project was funded, in part, under a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Health (SAP# 4100043366). The Department specifically disclaims responsibility for any analyses, interpretations or conclusions. It was also supported by the Clinical & Translational Research Center, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania (grant number UL1-RR-024134).

Conflict of Interest

In the interest of full disclosure, Douglas A. Granger is founder and Chief Scientific and Strategy Advisor at Salimetrics LLC. DAG’s relationships with these entities are managed by the policies of the Conflict of Interest Committee at the Johns Hopkins Unversity and the Office of Research Integrity and Assurance at Arizona State University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Criminology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA

    Frances R. Chen

  2. Department of Criminology, Psychiatry, and Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA

    Adrian Raine

  3. School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA

    Liana Soyfer

  4. Institute for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Douglas A. Granger

  5. School of Nursing and Bloomberg School of Public Health, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, 21218, USA

    Douglas A. Granger

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  1. Frances R. Chen
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  2. Adrian Raine
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  3. Liana Soyfer
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  4. Douglas A. Granger
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Correspondence to Frances R. Chen.

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Chen, F.R., Raine, A., Soyfer, L. et al. Interaction of Adrenocortical Activity and Autonomic Arousal on Children’s Externalizing and Internalizing Behavior Problems. J Abnorm Child Psychol 43, 189–202 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-014-9900-y

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