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Positive and negative affect and arousal: cross-sectional and longitudinal associations with adolescent cortisol diurnal rhythms.

ABSTRACT: Psychobiological research with adolescent populations tends to focus on negative mood, stress, and psychopathology, but the role of positive emotions is insufficiently understood. The current study examines the relative contributions of both negative and positive affective experiences to the basal activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, measured by levels of cortisol across the waking day.A sample of 315 ethnically and racially diverse high school students (mean age = 17.1 years, 73% female) completed a multiple-day naturalistic salivary cortisol protocol twice over a 5-year period. Along with each saliva sample, youth provided diary reports of their current mood states. Principal components analysis revealed four factors: high arousal positive affect (PA), low arousal PA, high arousal negative affect (NA), and low arousal NA.Multilevel growth curve models suggested that greater high arousal PA was associated with adaptive patterns of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal activity: steeper cortisol slope from waking to bedtime and lower evening cortisol, independent of NA. In addition, increases in high arousal PA over the 5-year follow-up period were associated with a steepening of the diurnal cortisol slope (? = -0.038, p = .009; negative values indicate the decrease of cortisol throughout the day) and lower evening cortisol levels (? = -0.661, p = .027) based on within-person fixed-effect regression analysis.This study shows that high arousal PA, such as feeling alert and active, is associated with a steeper decline in cortisol throughout the day. Low arousal positive emotions did not display this relationship.

SUBMITTER: Hoyt LT

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4431930 | biostudies-literature | 2015 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Positive and negative affect and arousal: cross-sectional and longitudinal associations with adolescent cortisol diurnal rhythms.

Hoyt Lindsay T LT Craske Michelle G MG Mineka Susan S Adam Emma K EK

Psychosomatic medicine 20150501 4

<h4>Objectives</h4>Psychobiological research with adolescent populations tends to focus on negative mood, stress, and psychopathology, but the role of positive emotions is insufficiently understood. The current study examines the relative contributions of both negative and positive affective experiences to the basal activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, measured by levels of cortisol across the waking day.<h4>Methods</h4>A sample of 315 ethnically and racially diverse high school ...[more]

PMID: 25905661

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Project description:Inter-individual variability in metrics of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) activity, such as the slope of the diurnal decline in cortisol, cortisol awakening response (CAR), and total cortisol output, have been found to associate inversely with trait ratings of extraversion and positive affect (E/PA) and positively with neuroticism and negative affect (N/NA) in some, but not all, investigations. These inconsistencies may partly reflect varied intensity of cortisol sampling among studies and reliance on self-rated traits, which are subject to reporting biases and limitations of introspection. Here, we further examined dispositional correlates of HPA activity in 490 healthy, employed midlife volunteers (M age=43 years; 54% Female; 86% white). Trait ratings were requested from participants and 2 participant-elected informants using the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) and Extraversion and Neuroticism dimensions of NEO personality inventories. CAR was assessed as percent increase in cortisol levels from awakening to 30min after awakening; and the diurnal slope and total output of cortisol [Area Under the Curve (AUC)] were determined from cortisol measurements taken at awakening, +4 and +9h later, and bedtime, across 3 workdays. Structural equation modeling was used to estimate multi-informant E/PA and N/NA factors. We used 3days of measurement as indicators to model each of the three latent cortisol factors (slope, CAR, and AUC). With the two latent emotionality and three latent cortisol indices included there was good fit to the data (?(2)(200)=278.38, p=0.0002; RMSEA=0.028, 90% CI=0.02-0.04; CFI/TLI=0.97/0.96; SRMR=0.04). After controlling for covariates (age, sex, race), results showed higher latent E/PA associated with a steeper diurnal slope (Standardized ?=-0.19, p=0.02) and smaller CAR (Standardized ?=-0.26, p=0.004), whereas N/NA did not associate with any cortisol metric (Standardized ?'s=-0.12 to 0.13, p's=0.10 to 0.53). These findings suggest that positive emotionality may be more closely associated with indices of diurnal cortisol release than negative emotionality.

Dataset Information

Positive and negative affect and arousal: cross-sectional and longitudinal associations with adolescent cortisol diurnal rhythms.

Publications

Positive and negative affect and arousal: cross-sectional and longitudinal associations with adolescent cortisol diurnal rhythms.

Similar Datasets

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