Cortisol levels and conduct disorder in adolescent mothers.
OBJECTIVE
To examine the association between cortisol levels and conduct disorder (CD) in adolescent mothers. Past research has shown that low levels of cortisol were associated with CD, particularly with its aggressive symptoms. The authors tested the hypothesis that adolescent mothers with CD would show lower levels of salivary cortisol compared to mothers without CD at 4 and 9 months postpartum.


METHODS
Midmorning salivary cortisol levels were measured in 228 adolescent mothers (age at delivery 16.9 +/- 1 years [mean +/- SD]) during a laboratory visit at 4 and 9 months postpartum. CD was diagnosed during pregnancy according to the CD subsection on the criteria for antisocial personality disorder (DSM-III-R).


RESULTS
Results did not confirm the hypothesis. Lower cortisol levels were not significantly associated with a CD diagnosis, the number of CD symptoms, or aggressive symptoms.


CONCLUSIONS
Despite valid measures and strong statistical power, this study failed to find an association between cortisol levels and CD in a sample of adolescent mothers. The results may have been influenced by the fact that participants were 4 and 9 months postpartum and by comparisons of mothers with CD to mothers living in stressful circumstances.
Azar
Rima
R
Department of Psychology, University of Montreal and Research Institute for the Social Development of Youth-RISD, Canada. rima.azar@umontreal.ca
Zoccolillo
Mark
M
Paquette
Daniel
D
Quiros
Elsa
E
Baltzer
Franziska
F
Tremblay
Richard E
RE
D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D019955:Conduct Disorder / Q000378:metabolism*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000378:metabolism*; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology*; D011792:Quebec
D006854:Hydrocortisone