This study sought to examine whether diurnal cortisol served as an intermediary pathway linking childhood adversity and daily hassles to adolescent sleep behaviors (i.e., duration and quality). Data were drawn from 255 Chinese adolescents (32.2% female; Mage = 11.678 years, SD = 0.741, range = 10-14 years). Adolescents filled out a survey on demographics and childhood adversity at T1. One year later (T2), they completed 7-day reports on daily hassles and sleep behaviors and provided saliva samples for 3 consecutive days. Six months later (T3), adolescents completed a follow-up survey on their sleep behaviors. Multilevel structural equation models were conducted to examine the mediating effects of diurnal cortisol on associations between stressors and sleep duration and quality. Specific associations emerged between stressors and adolescent diurnal cortisol: Adolescents who reported greater childhood adversity at T1 exhibited a smaller cortisol awakening response (CAR) at T2; by contrast, on days when adolescents perceived more daily hassles, they exhibited a larger CAR the next day. For links between diurnal cortisol and sleep behaviors, distinct associations were observed for daily (within-person) versus longer term (between-person) effects. Finally, waking cortisol and CAR mediated the links between prior-day daily hassles and next-day sleep duration; the indirect effects of diurnal cortisol were not supported for the links between childhood adversity and sleep behaviors. Observing the temporal, time-lagged mechanism of diurnal cortisol explaining the links between daily stressors and sleep behaviors, this study points to important implications for practices on promoting adolescent sleep health. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).
PURPOSE
Examining circadian hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity during adolescence is vital for understanding physiological changes. Limited research explores risk and protective factors for diurnal HPA activity. This study investigates how adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and coping are associated with changes in diurnal cortisol patterns, using a combination of physiological biomarkers (i.e., salivary cortisol), daily diaries, and longitudinal assessments spanning two years.
METHODS
The sample included 316 Chinese adolescents (33% females; T1 Mage = 10.79 years, SD = 0.84). At T1, adolescents reported ACEs, completed 7-day diaries on coping, and provided saliva samples for three consecutive days. Two years later (T2), adolescents completed a follow-up assessment on diurnal cortisol activity. Latent change score modeling was conducted to investigate changing patterns in diurnal cortisol and associations of ACEs and coping with the changing patterns.
RESULTS
From T1 to T2, waking cortisol decreased, CAR increased, and diurnal cortisol slopes became steeper. ACEs were associated with initial levels of diurnal cortisol activity but not changes in it: more ACEs were linked to higher T1 waking cortisol and a smaller T1 CAR. Higher ACEs were also associated with later wake-up times; later wake-up was associated with lower T1 CAR, more blunted T1 diurnal slopes, and flatter diurnal slopes across time. Daily coping (mean and variability) moderated the associations between ACEs and diurnal cortisol.
CONCLUSION
By observing coping as a moderator between ACEs and cortisol patterns, this study demonstrates that associations between ACEs and diurnal cortisol differ across adolescents' coping use and coping variability.
Mingjun Xie, Yijia Li, Yueqing Hu et al.· Psychoneuroendocrinology· 0 citations
BACKGROUND
Although the association between childhood trauma and psychopathology is well established, the mechanisms underlying this link remain complex. Sleep is a multidimensional construct that has been implicated in the pathway; less is known about the period of early adolescence or which sleep facets matter.
METHODS
Participants (N = 4108) were from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) cohort. Baseline childhood trauma load was assessed via caregiver report. Objective Fitbit sleep metrics were assessed two years later, including average duration, timing, social jetlag, wake after sleep onset (WASO), and duration and timing variability. Internalizing and externalizing symptoms were assessed via youth report at 3-year follow-up. Models adjusted for sociodemographic covariates and prior psychopathology at 2-year follow-up. Separate mediation models tested each sleep facet as a mediator.
RESULTS
Higher baseline trauma load predicted worse sleep health at 2-year follow-up across all sleep metrics. Shorter average sleep duration, greater social jetlag, and later average bedtimes at the 2-year follow-up predicted higher internalizing and externalizing symptoms at the 3-year follow-up, even after adjusting for prior psychopathology and covariates. Sleep duration and social jetlag mediated associations between trauma load and internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Average bedtime mediated the relationship with internalizing but not externalizing symptoms. All effects were small in magnitude. Average wake time, sleep variability, and WASO were not significant mediators.
CONCLUSIONS
Sleep partially but weakly mediates the longitudinal relationship between trauma and youth psychopathology. Findings highlight that multiple facets of sleep may contribute modestly to this relationship and be a potential target for intervention.
Margaret Canady, Alyson K. Zalta· Journal of Affective Disorde...· 0 citations
Poor sleep and mental health are closely linked in adolescence, yet most studies rely on self-reported sleep. We investigated cross-sectional associations between objective sleep features (sleep duration, duration variability, and onset time) and mental health outcomes in 1371 U.S. adolescents from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development℠ Study (ABCD®) [year 4 follow-up; mean age 14.09 ± 0.69, 51.86% female], controlling for age, sex, race/ethnicity, and parental education. Mental health outcomes were internalizing symptoms (emotional distress directed inward) and emotion regulation, including cognitive reappraisal (reframing emotional situations) and expressive suppression (inhibiting outward expression). Sleeping ≤7.05 h (β = 0.06 [95% CI: 0.00-0.11], p = 0.036), higher sleep duration variability (β = 0.09 [0.03-0.14], p = 0.001), with stronger effects in females (interaction: β = -0.12 [-0.22 to -0.02], p = 0.020), and later sleep onset times (β = 0.06 [0.01-0.11], p = 0.030) were all associated with greater internalizing symptoms. Sleep was not linked to reappraisal (all p > 0.05). Higher variability was associated with greater suppression (β = 0.09 [0.03-0.14], p = 0.001). Conclusively, objective sleep features were differentially associated with mental health outcomes.
S. Izabel, Orsolya Kiss, Adam J. Krause et al.· npj Mental Health Research· 0 citations
ABSTRACT Childhood adversity has been linked to disruptions in the development of emotion regulation, yet few longitudinal studies have examined whether distinct dimensions of adversity are differentially associated with changes in affective inhibitory control across adolescence. This study examined whether threat and deprivation experiences differentially predicted changes in affective inhibitory control across early to middle adolescence. Participants were 902 adolescents (51.5% girls) from the UEVO study, assessed at ages 12–14 years at Time 1 (T1) and 15–16 years at Time 2 (T2). Affective inhibitory control was measured using an online emotional go/no‐go task. Adolescents showed fewer false alarms to angry no‐go stimuli at T2 than at T1, indicating improvement in affective inhibitory control over time. Latent change score modeling further supported this pattern, showing that adolescents with poorer baseline performance demonstrated greater improvement over time (β = −0.66, p < 0.001). In the primary model, higher levels of threat predicted less improvement in affective inhibitory control (β = 0.09, p = 0.013), whereas deprivation was not significantly associated with change (β = −0.05, p = 0.073). Neither threat nor deprivation predicted change in false alarms to neutral faces. In sensitivity analyses adjusting for gender, age, socioeconomic status (SES), and caregiver risk, threat remained a significant predictor of less improvement (β = 0.12, p = 0.004), whereas deprivation emerged as a small predictor of greater improvement (β = −0.06, p = 0.042). Post‐hoc multigroup analyses provided no evidence that the associations between adversity and change differed by gender. These findings suggest that threat and deprivation show partly distinct associations with affective inhibitory control, with threat‐related adversity emerging as the more consistent predictor of reduced improvement across early to middle adolescence.
S. S. Sætren, Tore Tjora, C. Tamnes et al.· Developmental Science· 0 citations
INTRODUCTION
Perceived parental autonomy support (PAS) and life satisfaction (LS) may change during adolescence, yet longitudinal studies have typically examined prospective associations and developmental trajectories in separate models. This study examined how these constructs changed and were linked throughout secondary school in South Korea.
METHODS
Data came from the Grade 7 cohort of the Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey 2018, a nationally representative longitudinal survey from 2018 to 2023. The baseline sample included 2590 adolescents aged approximately 13 years: 1405 boys (54.2%) and 1185 girls (45.8%). Adolescents completed annual self-report measures of PAS and LS. The autoregressive latent trajectory model estimated growth factors, growth-factor associations, autoregressive paths, and cross-lagged paths. Wave 1 was treated as an initial condition, and growth trajectories were defined from ages 14 to 18.
RESULTS
PAS declined on average from ages 14 to 18. LS showed individual differences in change but no significant linear slope in the ALT model. The intercepts of PAS and LS were positively associated, but their slopes were not. LS was not significantly associated with later PAS, while PAS was associated with later LS from age 16 to 17 and from age 17 to 18.
CONCLUSIONS
PAS was prospectively associated with subsequent LS only during the later years of secondary school. Perceived autonomy support may therefore be particularly relevant when adolescents face increasingly consequential academic and future-oriented decisions. During this period, parents' efforts to express trust, acknowledge adolescents' perspectives, and support self-endorsed decision-making may be especially relevant to adolescents' LS.
Boseok Kim, Yuri Jeong· Journal des adolescens· 0 citations
Whether pubertal timing across the ages of 8–15.5 years was associated with diurnal cortisol slope, the cortisol awakening response, total morning cortisol, and total daily cortisol output at the age of 15.5 years was sought.