TY - JOUR
T1 - Within-person changes in basal cortisol and caregiving modulate executive attention across infancy
AU - Brandes-Aitken, Annie
AU - Braren, Stephen
AU - Vogel, Sarah C.
AU - Perry, Rosemarie E.
AU - Brito, Natalie H.
AU - Blair, Clancy
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), 2021.
PY - 2022/10/2
Y1 - 2022/10/2
N2 - One pathway by which environments of socioeconomic risk are thought to affect cognitive development is through stress physiology. The biological systems underpinning stress and attention undergo a sensitive period of development during infancy. Psychobiological theory emphasizes a dynamic pattern of context-dependent development, however, research has yet to examine how basal cortisol and attention dynamically covary across infancy in ecologically valid contexts. Thus, to address these gaps, we leveraged longitudinal, multilevel analytic methods to disentangle between- from within-person associations of hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis activity and executive attention behaviors across infancy. We use data from a large longitudinal sample (N = 1,292) of infants in predominantly low-income, non-urban communities at 7-, 15-, and 24-months of age. Using multilevel models, we investigated longitudinal associations of infant attention and basal cortisol levels and examined caregiving behaviors as moderators of this relationship. Results indicated a negative between- and within-person association between attention and cortisol across infancy and a within-person moderation by caregiver responsiveness. In other words, on the within-person level, higher levels of cortisol were concomitantly associated with lower infant attention across the first 2 years of life. However, variation in the caregiver’s level of responsiveness either buffered or sensitized the executive attention system to the negative effects of physiological stress.
AB - One pathway by which environments of socioeconomic risk are thought to affect cognitive development is through stress physiology. The biological systems underpinning stress and attention undergo a sensitive period of development during infancy. Psychobiological theory emphasizes a dynamic pattern of context-dependent development, however, research has yet to examine how basal cortisol and attention dynamically covary across infancy in ecologically valid contexts. Thus, to address these gaps, we leveraged longitudinal, multilevel analytic methods to disentangle between- from within-person associations of hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis activity and executive attention behaviors across infancy. We use data from a large longitudinal sample (N = 1,292) of infants in predominantly low-income, non-urban communities at 7-, 15-, and 24-months of age. Using multilevel models, we investigated longitudinal associations of infant attention and basal cortisol levels and examined caregiving behaviors as moderators of this relationship. Results indicated a negative between- and within-person association between attention and cortisol across infancy and a within-person moderation by caregiver responsiveness. In other words, on the within-person level, higher levels of cortisol were concomitantly associated with lower infant attention across the first 2 years of life. However, variation in the caregiver’s level of responsiveness either buffered or sensitized the executive attention system to the negative effects of physiological stress.
KW - attention
KW - caregiving
KW - cortisol
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85139739023&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85139739023&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1017/S0954579421000262
DO - 10.1017/S0954579421000262
M3 - Article
C2 - 34210373
AN - SCOPUS:85139739023
SN - 0954-5794
VL - 34
SP - 1386
EP - 1399
JO - Development and Psychopathology
JF - Development and Psychopathology
IS - 4
ER -