Disruptive behaviors and HPA-axis activity in young adolescent boys and girls from the general population.

Full Abstract

It is important to investigate associations between biological factors and disruptive behaviors in children and adolescents. Antisocial, aggressive, and criminal behaviors in adults often begin early in life. Disruptive behaviors are often thought to be associated with low activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Cortisol, the end-product of this axis, can be measured to investigate HPA-axis activity. Previous studies on this topic concerned clinical or high risk samples. The aim of the present study was to investigate to which extent HPA-axis functioning plays a role in disruptive behaviors in pre-adolescents from the general population. One thousand seven hundred and sixty eight 10- to 12-year-olds from the Dutch general population were investigated. Disruptive behaviors were assessed with the Child Behavior Checklist, the Youth Self-Report, and the Antisocial Behavior Questionnaire. Baseline morning and evening salivary cortisol levels were assessed. Unexpectedly, small associations were found between disruptive behaviors, including attention problems, and higher cortisol levels. However, all effect sizes of significant effects were very small. Our study indicated that HPA-axis functioning may be more relevant in clinical or high risk samples than at the general population level. The association between HPA-axis functioning and attention problems, that has gotten less attention than that with aggressive or delinquent behaviors, requires further research. Furthermore, because effect sizes were relatively small, it can be concluded that, in pre-adolescence, the measures of baseline HPA-axis functioning that were used for the present study can not be used as biological markers for disruptive behaviors.

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Author information

Author/s: Sondeijker, Frouke E P L (FE); Ferdinand, Robert F (RF); Oldehinkel, Albertine J (AJ); Veenstra, R (R); Tiemeier, H (H); Ormel, Johan (J); Verhulst, Frank C (FC);

Affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam/Sophia Children's Hospital, Dr. Molewaterplein 60, 3015 GJ Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Journal of psychiatric research (J Psychiatr Res), published in England. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-Oct; vol 41 (issue 7) : pp 570-8

Dates: Created 2007/03/06; Completed 2007/07/16;

PMID: 16730747, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 12/26/2008)

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Adolescent
Antisocial Personality Disorder - diagnosis; physiopathology; psychology
Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity - diagnosis; physiopathology; psychology
Attention Deficit and Disruptive Behavior Disorders - diagnosis; physiopathology; psychology
Child
Comorbidity
Conduct Disorder - diagnosis; physiopathology; psychology
Female
Humans

Humans
Hydrocortisone - blood
Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System - physiopathology
Male
Personality Assessment
Pituitary-Adrenal System - physiopathology
Questionnaires
Reference Values
Saliva

Associated Chemicals: Hydrocortisone (50-23-7)

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