The impact of poverty, relationships and social context on stress system functioning in childhood

About this book

The last two decades of research in developmental psychobiology have yielded many results in support of the idea that the development of stress system functioning is socially regulated. However, evidence in support of the social regulation hypothesis has been limited by its focus on the mother-child relationship as an organizing force. In this dissertation I addressed this limitation both empirically and theoretically. First I conducted a study to examine the effects of relationship conflict, social context and social condition on cortisol regulation in young children in the context of childcare. My results indicate that the cortisol levels of young children living in poverty decrease while in the context of high quality center-based childcare. Conflict in children's relationships with their mothers and teachers accounted for differences in this effect. Finally, when children were moved from the chaotic classroom environment to a small group context there was an eight percent decrease in cortisol levels, on average. Second, I use Urie Bronfenbrenner's bioecological theory of human development as a framework to consider the impact social influences other than mothers on stress system development, and to propose a research agenda for future work examining the social regulation of cortisol regulation in childhood.