BACKGROUND Urbanization is steadily increasing worldwide. Previous research indicated a higher incidence of mental health problems in more urban areas, however, very little is known regarding potential mechanisms underlying this association. We examined whether urbanicity was associated with mental health problems in children directly, and indirectly via hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis functioning. METHODS Utilizing data from two independent samples of children we examined the effects of current urbanicity (n = 306, ages seven to 12 years) and early childhood urbanicity (n = 141, followed from birth through age 7 years). Children's mothers reported on their mental health problems and their family's socioeconomic status. Salivary cortisol samples were collected during a psychosocial stress procedure to assess HPA axis reactivity to stress, and at home to assess basal HPA axis functioning. Neighborhood-level urbanicity and socioeconomic conditions were extracted from Statistics Netherlands. Path models were estimated using a bootstrapping procedure to detect indirect effects. RESULTS We found no evidence for a direct effect of urbanicity on mental health problems, nor were there indirect effects of urbanicity through HPA axis functioning. Furthermore, we did not find evidence for an effect of urbanicity on HPA axis functioning or effects of HPA axis functioning on mental health problems. CONCLUSIONS Possibly, the effects of urbanicity on HPA axis functioning and mental health do not manifest until adolescence. An alternative explanation is a buffering effect of high family socioeconomic status as the majority of children were from families with an average or high socioeconomic status. Further studies remain necessary to conclude that urbanicity does not affect children's mental health via HPA axis functioning.

中文翻译：

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城市性、下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺轴功能以及儿童的行为和情绪问题：路径分析。


背景技术世界范围内的城市化正在稳步增长。先前的研究表明，更多城市地区心理健康问题的发生率较高，然而，人们对这种关联的潜在机制知之甚少。我们研究了城市化是否与儿童的心理健康问题直接相关，以及通过下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺（HPA）轴功能间接相关。方法 利用两个独立儿童样本的数据，我们研究了当前城市化（n = 306，年龄 7 至 12 岁）和幼儿城市化（n = 141，从出生到 7 岁的跟踪）的影响。孩子们的母亲报告了她们的心理健康问题和家庭的社会经济状况。在社会心理压力过程中收集唾液皮质醇样本，以评估 HPA 轴对压力的反应性，并在家中评估基础 HPA 轴功能。社区层面的城市化和社会经济条件取自荷兰统计局。使用引导程序来估计路径模型以检测间接影响。结果 我们没有发现任何证据表明城市化对心理健康问题有直接影响，也没有发现城市化通过 HPA 轴功能产生间接影响。此外，我们没有发现城市化对 HPA 轴功能的影响或 HPA 轴功能对心理健康问题的影响的证据。结论 城市化对 HPA 轴功能和心理健康的影响可能要到青春期才会显现出来。另一种解释是较高的家庭社会经济地位的缓冲效应，因为大多数儿童来自中等或较高社会经济地位的家庭。 仍然需要进一步的研究来得出结论，城市化不会通过 HPA 轴功能影响儿童的心理健康。