This study investigated associations between parenting stress in parents and self-reported stress in children with children's diurnal cortisol secretion and whether these associations are moderated by known stress-regulating capacities, namely child cognitive control. Salivary cortisol concentrations were assessed from awakening to evening on two weekend days from 53 6-to-7-year-old children. Children completed a cognitive control task and a self-report stress questionnaire with an experimenter, while parents completed a parenting stress inventory. Hierarchical, linear mixed effects models revealed that higher parenting stress was associated with overall reduced cortisol secretion in children, and this effect was moderated by cognitive control. Specifically, parenting stress was associated with reduced diurnal cortisol levels in children with lower cognitive control ability and not in children with higher cognitive control ability. There were no effects of self-reported stress in children on their cortisol secretion, presumably because 6-to-7-year-old children cannot yet self-report on stress experiences. Our results suggest that higher cognitive control skills may buffer the effects of parenting stress in parents on their children’s stress regulation in middle childhood. This could indicate that training cognitive control skills in early life could be a target to prevent stress-related disorders.

这项研究调查了父母的育儿压力与儿童自我报告的压力与儿童白天皮质醇分泌量之间的关联，以及这些关联是否受到已知的压力调节能力（即儿童认知控制）的调节。研究人员在两个周末从起床到晚上对 53 名 6 至 7 岁儿童的唾液皮质醇浓度进行了评估。孩子们与实验者一起完成了认知控制任务和自我报告压力问卷，而父母则完成了育儿压力清单。分层线性混合效应模型显示，较高的养育压力与儿童皮质醇分泌的总体减少有关，并且这种效应通过认知控制来调节。具体来说，养育压力与认知控制能力较低的儿童的昼夜皮质醇水平降低有关，而与认知控制能力较高的儿童无关。儿童自我报告的压力对其皮质醇分泌没有影响，可能是因为 6 至 7 岁的儿童还无法自我报告压力经历。我们的研究结果表明，较高的认知控制技能可能会缓冲父母养育压力对孩子中期压力调节的影响。这可能表明，在生命早期训练认知控制技能可能是预防压力相关疾病的目标。