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Psychophysiological Assessment of the Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Childhood
08:09

Psychophysiological Assessment of the Effectiveness of Emotion Regulation Strategies in Childhood

Published on: February 11, 2017

Infant emotional and cortisol responses to goal blockage

Michael Lewis1, Douglas Ramsay

  • 1Institute for the Study of Child Development, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Brunswick, NJ 08903-0019, USA. lewis@umdnj.edu <lewis@umdnj.edu>

Child Development
|March 24, 2005
PubMed

Insights

Infant sadness, not anger, correlated with higher cortisol levels during goal blockage. This suggests sadness may signal a greater need for physiological support when facing challenges.

Area of Science:

  • Developmental psychology
  • Infant emotional development
  • Stress response in infants

Background:

  • Infant emotional responses, such as anger and sadness, are crucial for development.
  • Cortisol is a key biomarker for physiological stress response.
  • Understanding the link between infant emotions and stress is vital for early intervention.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the relationship between infant anger and sadness emotional responses and their cortisol levels.
  • To examine these associations within two distinct goal blockage scenarios.
  • To differentiate the physiological stress responses associated with anger versus sadness in infants.

Main Methods:

  • Study involved 4-month-old (N=56) and 6-month-old (N=84) infants.
  • Two goal blockage paradigms were used: contingency learning and the still-face procedure.
  • Cortisol levels were measured in response to emotional expressions during the blockages.

Main Results:

  • A significant positive correlation was found between infant sadness and cortisol response.
  • Infant anger did not show a significant relationship with cortisol levels.
  • The intensity of sadness predicted a higher cortisol response.

Conclusions:

  • Infant sadness, unlike anger, is associated with a heightened physiological stress response (cortisol).
  • This finding supports the notion that sadness may indicate a greater need for support when infants encounter obstacles.
  • Anger may play a more adaptive role in helping infants overcome challenges.

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