Psychiatry Investig.  2021 Nov;18(11):1131-1136. 10.30773/pi.2021.0256.

Effect of Childhood Trauma on the Association Between Stress-Related Psychological Factors and Hair Cortisol Level in Young Adults

• Kim WJ
• Park KM
• Park JT
• Seo E
• Bang M
• An SK
• Park HY
• Lee E

• KMID: 2522495
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.30773/pi.2021.0256

Abstract

Objective
Relationship between hair cortisol concentration (HCC) and stress-related psychological measures are inconclusive, possibly due to overlooked heterogeneity regarding childhood trauma and a lack of comprehensive research on stress-related psychological factors. This study aims to compare young adults without history of childhood trauma to young adults who experienced childhood trauma using HCC and various stress-related psychological factors, as well as investigate the impacts of childhood trauma on the association between HCC and stress-related psychological measures.
Methods
A total of 206 young, healthy adults were recruited. We divided participants into two groups depending on whether or not they had suffered moderate-to-severe childhood trauma (CT+ and CT-) and compared HCC and various stress-related psychological measures between groups. Using multiple linear regression analyses, we assessed the associations between HCC and stress-related psychological measures for each group.
Results
We found no difference between the groups in HCC or the reported number of stressful life events in the past year; however, CT+ individuals reported higher stress perception, more depressive and anxiety-related symptoms, and more difficulties in emotion regulation than CT- individuals. HCC was associated with emotion dysregulation among the CT- individuals, but not among the CT+ individuals.
Conclusion
These findings suggest that history of childhood trauma should be considered in studies using HCC as a biomarker for stress in young adults. Furthermore, HCC might be a useful biomarker of stress and stress-related emotion dysregulation in individuals without moderate-to-severe childhood trauma.

Keyword

Childhood trauma; Hair cortisol concentration; Stress; Emotion regulation