| Description |
The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is one of the core components of the body's stress system. As such, the HPA axis is responsive to many different stressors, including those in childhood-such as childhood maltreatment-as well as sources of current life stress. The product of the HPA axis is the hormone cortisol. Cortisol concentrations in hair samples provide a measure of chronic HPA axis activity over a relatively long duration of time. Relatively little research has examined the predictors of hair cortisol among pregnant individuals. The purpose of the current study was to examine whether childhood maltreatment and current life stress were associated with hair cortisol concentrations among pregnant individuals. I hypothesized that childhood neglect would be negatively associated with hair cortisol levels, whereas childhood abuse will be positively associated with hair cortisol levels. I also hypothesized that contemporary stress would be positively associated with hair cortisol concentrations. The study included 137 women in their third trimester of pregnancy. The majority of the participants were White and non-Hispanic (54%) or Hispanic (27%). Women reported on their childhood maltreatment experiences using a short form of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, and women's current levels of life stress were assessed using the UCLA Life Stress Interview. Body mass index was included as a covariate. A 6 cm (about 2.36 in) length of hair was collected and sent to the Kirschbaum laboratory in Dresden, Germany to be assayed for levels of cortisol. Overall maltreatment and childhood neglect (but not childhood abuse) were positively correlated with pregnant women's hair cortisol levels. Results of the linear regression analyses, which controlled for body mass index, indicated that experiences of childhood neglect, but not childhood abuse or overall maltreatment, had a marginally significant positive association with pregnant women's hair cortisol concentrations. In addition, adult life stress was not consistently associated with hair cortisol concentrations in all three of the models that were tested. Counter to my hypothesis, these findings indicate that experiencing childhood neglect is uniquely associated with higher (rather than lower) hair cortisol concentrations. A possible explanation for these unexpected findings is that the sample consisted of women in their third trimester of pregnancy. Future studies should test whether the associations between childhood maltreatment experiences and hair cortisol concentrations differ for pregnant versus non-pregnant individuals. |
