title: Return to school accompanied by changing associations between family ecology and cortisol.
abstract: This study examines everyday family life as a social regulator of child adrenocortical activity during the normative challenge of return to school. If positive family function facilitates child adaptation, we expected that mother-child relationships following school entry would predict individual differences in evening cortisol, a context-sensitive marker for the response to concurrent demands. Among 28 children followed longitudinally, late in pre-kindergarten those living with single and/or employed mothers had higher evening cortisol. Yet early during the following school year, children with poorer mother-child relationships had higher evening cortisol. Cortisol awakening response, a comparatively stable marker of anticipated demands, was higher with maternal employment, single parents, and busier child schedules before school re-entry, and with maternal employment afterwards. We argue for a layered ecological approach to social regulation, recognizing that family structure, family functioning, and proximal features of everyday life within the family moderate child adrenocortical activity differently across contexts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Anthropology University of Alabama, P.O. Box 870210 Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA. jason.a.decaro@ua.edu
authors.forename: Jason A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: DeCaro
authors.forename: Carol M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Worthman
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological / Q000502:physiology; D001143:Arousal / Q000502:physiology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002940:Circadian Rhythm / Q000502:physiology; D005191:Family Characteristics; D005195:Family Relations; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000097:blood*; D007206:Individuality; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D010552:Personality Assessment; D015406:Single Parent; D012931:Social Environment; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D014931:Women, Working
chemical_list: D006854:Hydrocortisone