Linkages Between Daily Stressors and Youth Health: The Buffering Role of Parental Warmth

Background

Major life stressors are linked to increased risks for disease in adulthood. Studies on adults have found that beyond major life stressors, daily stressors, such as interpersonal conflicts and work demands, also have health implications.  The frequency of daily stressors is linked to more negative affect, physical health symptoms, and stress physiology (e.g., the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA)) axis among adults.  Little is known, however, about daily stressors and health during adolescence, including whether protective factors, such as parental warmth buffer youth from the negative effects of stress.  In this study, we use a daily diary design to test two hypotheses: (a) The frequency of  daily stressors will be related to poorer youth health as indexed by negative affect,  physical health symptoms, and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis functioning assessed via daily cortisol patterns; and (b) Parental warmth will buffer youth from the effects of daily stressors, moderating the linkages between daily stressors and youth negative affect, physical health symptoms, and HPA functioning.

Methods

Participants were 132 youth who completed daily diary assessments focused on daily stress and health as part of a larger study of work, family and health.  On 8 consecutive evenings, youth were interviewed by phone and reported on stressors, negative affect, and physical health symptoms (e.g., cold, flu) during the prior 24 hour period. In addition, saliva samples were collected 4 times on each of 4 diary days and assayed for cortisol; from these assays we derived 3 indicators of HPA functioning: levels of cortisol before dinner and at bedtime and change in cortisol level from bedtime to dinner.  Data were analyzed using multilevel models with days (level 1, within-person) nested within individuals (level 2, between-person).  Level 1 captured each youth’s deviation from his/her own average level of daily stressors on each day.  Level 2 captured each youth’s average level of daily stressors across all 8 days. Parental warmth was entered as a moderator at Level 2. Control variables include youth age, gender, time of cortisol sample, medication use, and race.

 Results

Youth with more daily stressors, on average, experienced more physical health symptoms and more negative affect (between-person).  Controlling for average number of stressors, on days when youth experienced more stressors than usual, they also experienced more negative affect and physical health symptoms, flatter cortisol slopes, and higher bedtime cortisol levels (i.e., less healthful HPA functioning). Parental warmth moderated the within-person linkage between daily stressors and youth negative affect and bedtime cortisol: These linkages were stronger for youth with warmer parent-child relationships, but youth who reported low parental warmth had higher levels negative affect and poorer HPA functioning (high bedtime cortisol) even on days when they experienced fewer stressors than usual.   

Implications

Daily stressors have proximal linkages to youth health.  Warm-parent child relationship may enable youth to recover from daily stressors: youth who experience low warmth may not recover on days that are less stressful.  Interventions aimed at reducing the impacts of stress on youth health may be most effective if they include a focus on parent-child relationships.