Person-centered examination of salivary cortisol and alpha-amylase responses to psychosocial stress: Links to preadolescent behavioral functioning and coping

This study adopted a person-centered approach to identify preadolescent salivary cortisol (sC) and alpha-amylase (sAA) co-activation response patterns and examine links to behavioral functioning and coping. Children (N = 151, 51.7% male) were exposed to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and one of two randomly-assigned, post-TSST coping conditions: distraction or avoidance. Multi-trajectory modeling yielded four child subgroups. Child internalizing and externalizing positively predicted High sC–High sAA relative to Low sC–Low sAA and Low sC–High sAA relative to High sC–Low sAA subgroup membership, respectively. Low sC–Low sAA children demonstrated more efficient sC recovery when primed with distraction and more protracted sC recovery when primed with avoidance. For High sC–High sAA, internalizing children, the opposite was true. Findings illustrate adjustment-linked variability in preadolescent sC–sAA co-activation response patterns that further articulates for whom effortful coping works to effectively manage stressor-induced neuroendocrine activation.