Autonomic and Adrenocortical Interactions Predict Mental Health in Late Adolescence: The TRAILS Study
Abstract
The present study is informed by the theory of allostatic load to examine how multiple stress responsive biomarkers are related to mental health outcomes. Data are from the TRAILS study, a large prospective population study of 715 Dutch adolescents (50.9 % girls), assessed at 16.3 and 19.1 years. Reactivity measures of the hypothalamic pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and autonomic nervous system (ANS) biomarkers (heart rate, HR; respiratory sinus arrhythmia, RSA; and pre-ejection period, PEP) to a social stress task were used to predict concurrent and longitudinal changes in internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Hierarchical linear modeling revealed relatively few single effects for each biomarker with the exception that high HR reactivity predicted concurrent internalizing problems in boys. More interestingly, interactions were found between HPA-axis reactivity and sympathetic and parasympathetic reactivity. Boys with high HPA reactivity and low RSA reactivity had the largest increases in internalizing problems from 16 to 19 years. Youth with low HPA reactivity along with increased ANS activation characterized by both decreases in RSA and decreases in PEP had the most concurrent externalizing problems, consistent with broad theories of hypo-arousal. Youth with high HPA reactivity along with increases in RSA but decreases in PEP also had elevated concurrent externalizing problems, which increased over time, especially within boys. This profile illustrates the utility of exam…
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Loneliness affects youth's diurnal cortisol, potentially causing chronic increases in cortisol in young adulthood, leading to higher risks of depression, anxiety, inflammation, and other adverse health outcomes.
“Loneliness affects youth’s diurnal cortisol, a key stress hormone [83, 84], potentially causing chronic increases in cortisol in young adulthood, leading to higher risks of depression, anxiety, inflammation, and other adverse health outcomes [85–87].”
From The prospective association of adolescent loneliness and low resilience with anxiety and depression in young adulthood: The HUNT study (2025) · cites this paper as [85]
Cites
Angold, A., Costello, E. J., & Erkanli, A. (1999) · Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry · doi:10.1111/1469-7610.00424 · Cited by 1,872 · see citing works
Stress revisited: a critical evaluation of the stress concept
Koolhaas, J. M., Bartolomucci, A., Buwalda, B., de Boer, S. F., Flügge, G., Korte, S. M., Meerlo, P., Murison, R., Olivier, B., Palanza, P., et al. (2011) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2011.02.003 · Cited by 1,626 · see citing works
Responses to stress in adolescence: Measurement of coping and involuntary stress responses.
Connor-Smith, J. K., Compas, B. E., Wadsworth, M. E., Thomsen, A. H., & Saltzman, H. (2000) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-006x.68.6.976 · Cited by 1,241 · see citing works
Stressed or Stressed out: What Is the Difference?
McEwen, B. S. (2005) · Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience · doi:10.1139/jpn.0540 · Cited by 593 · see citing works
Alink, L. R. A., van IJzendoorn, M. H., Bakermans‐Kranenburg, M. J., Mesman, J., Juffer, F., & Koot, H. M. (2008) · Developmental Psychobiology · doi:10.1002/dev.20300 · Cited by 359 · see citing works
El-Sheikh, M., & Whitson, S. A. (2006) · Journal of Family Psychology · doi:10.1037/0893-3200.20.1.30 · Cited by 205 · see citing works
Blunted cardiovascular reactivity relates to depression, obesity, and self-reported health
Phillips, A. C. (2011) · Biological Psychology · doi:10.1016/j.biopsycho.2010.03.016 · Cited by 126 · see citing works
Integrative Physiology: Homeostasis, Allostasis, and the Orchestration of Systemic Physiology
Berntson, G. G., & Cacioppo, J. T. (2009) · Handbook of Psychophysiology · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511546396.019 · Cited by 112 · see citing works
Heart rate variability predicts control over memory retrieval.
Gillie, B. L., Vasey, M. W., & Thayer, J. F. (2014) · Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/0956797613508789 · Cited by 95 · cited 2× · see citing works
“thoughts and emotions about the task (Gillie et al. 2014).”
BackgroundEl-Sheikh, M., & Hinnant, J. B. (2011) · Development and Psychopathology · doi:10.1017/s0954579411000320 · Cited by 84 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Adolescent Suicide as a Failure of Acute Stress-Response Systems.
Miller, A. B., & Prinstein, M. J. (2019) · Annual Review of Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-050718-095625 · Cited by 235 · see citing works
“…that atypical presentations of these same systems have implications for understanding emotion dysregulation (Miller et al. 2017b, Tottenham et al. 2010) and a range of both internalizing and externalizing symptoms (Burghy et al. 2012, Chen et al. 2015, Nederhof et al. 2015, Slavich & Irwin 2014).”
BackgroundTazawa, Y., Liang, K.-C., Yoshimura, M., Kitazawa, M., Kaise, Y., Takamiya, A., Kishi, A., Horigome, T., Mitsukura, Y., Mimura, M., et al. (2020) · Heliyon · doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03274 · Cited by 101 · see citing works
Granata, L., Gildawie, K. R., Ismail, N., Brenhouse, H. C., & Kopec, A. M. (2022) · Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience · doi:10.1016/j.dcn.2022.101143 · Cited by 15 · see citing works
Parlikar, N., Strand, L. B., Kvaløy, K., Espnes, G. A., & Moksnes, U. K. (2025) · Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology · doi:10.1007/s00127-025-02888-2 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
“Loneliness affects youth’s diurnal cortisol, a key stress hormone [83, 84], potentially causing chronic increases in cortisol in young adulthood, leading to higher risks of depression, anxiety, inflammation, and other adverse health outcomes [85–87].”
- Authors
- Nederhof, E., Marceau, K., Shirtcliff, E. A., Hastings, P. D., & Oldehinkel, A. J.
- Affiliations
- University Medical Center Groningen (NL)
- Brown University (US)
- Iowa State University (US)
- University of California, Davis (US)
- Corresponding author
- Nederhof, Esther
- Venue
- Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology
- Published
- 2014-11-25
- Volume
- 43
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 847-861
- ISSN
- 0091-0627 (ISSN-L)
- 1573-2835
- OpenAlex
- W2119185209
- Cited by
- 41
- References
- 10
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 1 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 1.30
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (publishedVersion)
- University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Behavioral Neuroscience › Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child and Adolescent Psychosocial and Emotional Development
- Keywords
- allostatic load, allostasis, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, autonomic nervous system, heart rate reactivity, respiratory sinus arrhythmia, pre-ejection period, social stress, internalizing problems, externalizing problems, adolescent mental health, sex differences, biomarker interaction, hypoarousal
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Anxiety, Arousal, Autonomic Nervous System, Depression, Female, Heart Rate, Humans, Hydrocortisone, Hypothalamo-Hypophyseal System, Male, Mental Health, Pituitary-Adrenal System, Prospective Studies, Saliva, Stress, Psychological, Allostasis, Young Adult, Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
