Measurement of salivary cortisol is a practical and non-invasive tool for studying stress reactivity to various types of stressors even in young infants. Whereas studies using physical stressors during the first months of life have found robust cortisol responses to painful stimuli, research with older infants using psychological stressors (e.g., parental separation) has produced mixed findings, limiting our understanding of potential developmental changes in cortisol reactivity across infancy. In the present study, we used meta-analysis to systematically investigate whether psychological stressor paradigms are associated with measurable cortisol responses in infants under 18 months of age and whether the magnitude of the responses is moderated by the type of psychological stressor (i.e., separation, frustration, novelty, or disruption of parental interaction), infant age, and other potential moderators. Across 47 studies (N = 4095, age range: 3-18 months), we found that commonly used psychological stressor paradigms are associated with a small (Hedges' g = .11) increase in salivary cortisol levels in typically developing infants. Stressor type moderated the effect sizes, and when effect sizes in each category were analyzed separately, only the separation studies were associated with a consistent increase in cortisol following the stressor. Age did not moderate the effect sizes either in the full set of studies or within the separate stressor types. These meta-analytic results indicate that the normative cortisol response to psychological stressors across infancy is small and emphasize the need for standardized stressor paradigms to assess cortisol responses systematically across infancy.

中文翻译：

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唾液皮质醇对婴儿期心理压力的反应：荟萃分析

唾液皮质醇的测量是一种实用且非侵入性的工具，可用于研究对各种类型压力源的压力反应，甚至在小婴儿中也是如此。虽然在生命的头几个月使用身体压力源的研究发现皮质醇对疼痛刺激有强烈的反应，但对使用心理压力源（例如父母分离）的大龄婴儿的研究产生了不同的结果，限制了我们对整个婴儿期皮质醇反应性潜在发育变化的理解. 在本研究中，我们使用荟萃分析来系统地调查心理压力源范式是否与 18 个月以下婴儿的可测量皮质醇反应相关，以及反应的大小是否受心理压力源类型（即分离、挫折，新奇，或父母互动中断）、婴儿年龄和其他潜在的调节因素。在 47 项研究（N = 4095，年龄范围：3-18 个月）中，我们发现常用的心理压力源范式与典型发育婴儿的唾液皮质醇水平小幅增加（Hedges' g = .11）有关。压力源类型调节了效应大小，当单独分析每个类别的效应大小时，只有分离研究与压力源后皮质醇的持续增加有关。无论是在全套研究中还是在单独的压力源类型中，年龄都没有调节效应大小。