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Cortisol Patterns for Young Children Displaying Disruptive Behavior: Links to a Teacher-Child, Relationship-Focused

Bridget E Hatfield1, Amanda P Williford2

  • 1College of Public Health and Human Sciences, School of Social and Behavioral Health Sciences, Oregon State University, Waldo 420, Corvallis, 97331, OR, USA. bridget.hatfield@oregonstate.edu.

Prevention Science : the Official Journal of the Society for Prevention Research
|September 11, 2016
PubMed

Insights

Teacher-child relationships impact young children's behavior and stress. A Banking Time intervention improved children's cortisol patterns, suggesting sensitive interactions benefit the stress response system.

Area of Science:

  • Child development
  • Early childhood education
  • Stress response systems

Background:

  • Supportive teacher-child relationships positively influence children's behavior and academic success.
  • Children in childcare may exhibit atypical cortisol patterns, indicating stress.
  • Warm teacher interactions can buffer negative effects of childcare on children's stress response.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To assess the impact of a dyadic intervention on children's hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity.
  • To investigate the association between improved teacher-child interaction quality and children's stress response.
  • To explore the effects of relationship-focused interventions on children's cortisol patterns in early education settings.

Main Methods:

  • Salivary cortisol was used to measure hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis activity.
  • Seventy teachers and 113 preschool children participated in a randomized controlled trial.
  • Intervention conditions included Banking Time, Child Time, and Business-as-Usual.

Main Results:

  • Children in the Banking Time intervention showed a significantly greater decline in morning cortisol levels.
  • This decline was compared to children in the Business-as-Usual condition.
  • The Banking Time intervention demonstrated a positive effect on children's stress response system activity.

Conclusions:

  • School-based interventions promoting sensitive teacher-child interactions may improve young children's stress response.
  • These findings provide preliminary evidence for the benefits of relationship-focused interventions on children's physiological stress regulation.
  • Early education settings can be a context for interventions targeting children's stress response.

Keywords:
CortisolDisruptive behaviorsPreschoolSocioemotional interventionsTeacher-child relationships

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