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Updated: Jul 8, 2025

A Modified Trier Social Stress Test for Vulnerable Mexican American Adolescents
Published on: July 10, 2017
Maltreatment type differences in cortisol stress response trajectories across adolescence
Melissa K Peckins1, Sonya Negriff2,3, Elana B Gordis4
1Department of Psychology, St. John's University, Queens, New York, USA.
Abstract:
This study examined cortisol stress response trajectories across adolescence in 454 maltreated and comparison youth recruited from Los Angeles County between 2002 and 2005 (66.7% maltreated; 46.7% girls; 39.0% Latino; 37.7% Black; 12.3% Mixed or Biracial; 11.0% White; Mage = 10.9 years, SD = 1.2). Adolescents' peak activation and cortisol reactivity and recovery slopes following the Trier Social Stress Test for Children were calculated at four waves, then used to model peak activation and cortisol reactivity and recovery trajectories arrayed by age. Maltreated youth had blunted cortisol reactivity at age 9 relative to comparison youth (b = -.19, p = .02). Sexually and physically abused youth showed blunted cortisol reactivity and recovery trajectories relative to emotionally abused and neglected youth.
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