Abstract
Associations between early deprivation/neglect in the form of institutional care with the cortisol awakening response (CAR) were examined as a function of pubertal status among 12-and 13-year-old postinstitutionalized youth. CARs indexed hypothalamic-pituitaryadrenocortical reactivity. Postinstitutionalized youth were compared to youth adopted internationally from foster care (adoption control) and to nonadopted youth reared in families comparable in parental education and income to the adoptive families. Postinstitutionalized youth exhibited a blunted CAR if they were at earlier, but not if they were at later, stages of puberty. Similarly, for both groups of internationally adopted youth combined, earlier but not later stages of puberty were associated with more blunted CARs at higher but not lower levels of parent-reported preadoption physical and social neglect.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 19-28 |
| Number of pages | 10 |
| Journal | International Journal of Behavioral Development |
| Volume | 36 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 2012 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Preparation of this manuscript was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (T32 MH15755 and T32 HH01684 to the first author, T32 HD007151 to the second and third authors, R01 MH058857 to the last author) and a University of Minnesota Graduate School fellowship to the second author.
Keywords
- Cortisol awakening response
- Emotional neglect
- Hypothalamic-pituitary- adrenal (HPA) axis
- Institutional care
- Physical neglect
- Puberty