Abstract
Objectives: The current study aims to investigate the association between daily stressful experiences and daily diurnal cortisol in midlife and older parents of children with developmental disabilities (DD) and a matched sample of parents of children without DD. Methods: Analyses were employed using data from the third wave of the National Study of Daily Experiences (NSDE 3) within the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study, a population-based sample. The study sample included 55 parents of children with DD and 591 comparison parents who provided diurnal cortisol data. Results: Multilevel modeling showed that parents of children with DD exhibited a less pronounced cortisol awakening response (CAR) on days when the severity of daily stressors was higher than their average level across days, a pattern that was different than in the comparison group. This finding may suggest a blunted CAR, which aligns with previous research on parents of children with DD and other groups facing chronic stress. Discussion: The current study describes a distinct pattern of cortisol response to stressful parenting, evident in midlife and older age, reflecting the lifelong impacts of parenting children with DD.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | gbaf067 |
| Journal | Journals of Gerontology - Series B Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences |
| Volume | 80 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jun 1 2025 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Health(social science)
- Sociology and Political Science
- Life-span and Life-course Studies