1. Effect of Childhood Trauma on the Association Between Stress-Related Psychological Factors and Hair Cortisol Level in Young Adults
- Author
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Kim, Won Jae, Park, Kyung Mee, Park, Jung Tak, Seo, Eunchong, Bang, Minji, An, Suk Kyoon, Park, Hye Yoon, and Lee, Eun
- Subjects
business.industry ,Emotion regulation ,Life events ,Hair cortisol concentration ,Stress ,digestive system diseases ,Childhood trauma ,Stress perception ,Psychiatry and Mental health ,Stress (linguistics) ,Medicine ,Biomarker (medicine) ,Original Article ,Young adult ,business ,Association (psychology) ,Cortisol level ,Biological Psychiatry ,Clinical psychology - Abstract
Objective Relationship between hair cortisol concentration (HCC) and stress-related psychological measures are inconclusive, possibly due to overlooked heterogeneity regarding childhood trauma and a lack of comprehensive research on stress-related psychological factors. This study aims to compare young adults without history of childhood trauma to young adults who experienced childhood trauma using HCC and various stress-related psychological factors, as well as investigate the impacts of childhood trauma on the association between HCC and stress-related psychological measures.Methods A total of 206 young, healthy adults were recruited. We divided participants into two groups depending on whether or not they had suffered moderate-to-severe childhood trauma (CT+ and CT-) and compared HCC and various stress-related psychological measures between groups. Using multiple linear regression analyses, we assessed the associations between HCC and stress-related psychological measures for each group.Results We found no difference between the groups in HCC or the reported number of stressful life events in the past year; however, CT+ individuals reported higher stress perception, more depressive and anxiety-related symptoms, and more difficulties in emotion regulation than CT- individuals. HCC was associated with emotion dysregulation among the CT- individuals, but not among the CT+ individuals.Conclusion These findings suggest that history of childhood trauma should be considered in studies using HCC as a biomarker for stress in young adults. Furthermore, HCC might be a useful biomarker of stress and stress-related emotion dysregulation in individuals without moderate-to-severe childhood trauma.
- Published
- 2021