Salivary Cortisol, Personality, and Aggressive Behavior in Adolescent Boys: A 5-Year Longitudinal Study

doi:10.1097/01.CHI.0000070246.24125.6D

Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

Volume 42, Issue 9, September 2003, Pages 1101-1107

https://doi.org/10.1097/01.CHI.0000070246.24125.6D Get rights and content

ABSTRACT

Objective

The present investigation tested the hypothesis that low resting salivary cortisol concentration in preadolescent boys would be associated with aggressive behavior later in adolescence. Second, it tested whether personality traits would mediate this relation.

Method

Resting salivary cortisol concentrations from 314 boys (10–12 years of age) were assayed. When the boys reached 15 to 17 years of age these concentrations were analyzed in the context of personality traits, measured with the Multidimensional Personality Questionnaire, and aggressive behavior, measured with the Youth Self-Report inventory.

Results

Low cortisol in preadolescence was associated with low harm avoidance, low self-control, and more aggressive behavior 5 years later, during middle adolescence. Cortisol was not related to negative emotionality or any of its factors (including trait aggression). Low self-control was identified as the primary personality mediator of the relation between low cortisol and later aggressive behavior.

Conclusions

In adolescent boys, low resting cortisol concentrations appear predictive of clinically important personality factors. Increased aggressive behavior in adolescents with low resting cortisol may be more strongly associated with lack of self-control than with a specifically “aggressive personality.”

Section snippets

Participants

The participants in this study were 314 adolescent boys tested at the Center for Education and Drug Abuse Research (CEDAR) in Pittsburgh. The CEDAR project is an ongoing 20-year study aimed at determining the etiology of substance use disorders. However, the broad array of assessments administered have also allowed the identification of risk factors and correlates of aggressive or otherwise antisocial behaviors (e.g., Giancola, 2000;Giancola et al., 1996). The boys involved in the present

Retention Analysis

Of the 455 boys whose cortisol levels were assessed at T₁, a significant number were not yet of sufficient age to take part in T₂ measures. Therefore, an analysis was conducted to determine whether the 314 examined in the present study differed from the 141 who had not provided data at both time points. The two groups were compared on the variables of age, years of education, ethnicity, SES, and T₁ cortisol. Bidirectional t tests revealed that the boys who had not yet participated in T₂

DISCUSSION

The results of the present study supported the hypothesis that preadolescent cortisol level is related to important personality features and to aggressive behavior in middle adolescence. This finding bolsters previously identified correlations between cortisol and aggression in children and adolescents (e.g., McBurnett et al., 2000;Tennes et al., 1986) and extends them by demonstrating that low cortisol is actually predictive of aggressive behavior 5 years later. The present sample was

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: Mr. Shoal is supported by National Research Service Award T32-DA-07304 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Dr. Giancola is supported by grant R01-AA-11691 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and by the University of Kentucky Research Challenge Trust Fund. CEDAR is supported by grant P50-DA-05605 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

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ARTICLESSalivary Cortisol, Personality, and Aggressive Behavior in Adolescent Boys: A 5-Year Longitudinal Study

ABSTRACT

Objective

Method

Results

Conclusions

Section snippets

Participants

Retention Analysis

DISCUSSION

J Psychosom Res

Psychoneuroendocrinology

Pers Individ Dif

Physiol Behav

Biol Psychiatry

Pers Individ Dif

J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry

Metabolism

Biol Psychiatry

Biol Psychiatry

J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry

Drug Alcohol Depend

J Am Acad Child Psychiatry

Psychiatry Res

J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry

Clin Biochem

Biol Psychiatry

Manual for the Youth Self Report and 1991 Profile

Manual for the Child Behavior Checklist and Revised Child Behavioral Profile

The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations

J Pers Soc Psychol

Aggression: Its Causes, Consequences, and Control

Hormonal aspects of aggression and violence

Personality differences predict health-risk behaviors in young adulthood: evidence from a longitudinal study

J Pers Soc Psychol

Psychopathology and substance-related problems during early adolescence: a survival analysis

J Clin Child Psychol

ARTICLES
Salivary Cortisol, Personality, and Aggressive Behavior in Adolescent Boys: A 5-Year Longitudinal Study