Abstract
Bullying has been identified as the most common form of aggression and a major source of stress among children and adolescents. The main objective of this study was to analyze the association that school context in general and bullying in particular might have with hair cortisol concentration (HCC), examining the effect of executive function and sex on this association. The study included 659 11-year-old preadolescents from the cohorts of Gipuzkoa and Sabadell of the INMA (INfancia y Medio Ambiente-Children and Environment) project. We gathered information about school-related factors (bullying, school environment, problems with peers and academic performance) and executive function (risky decision-making). Hair samples were collected to measure cortisol concentrations and Structural Equation Modeling was used to examine associations between school-related factors, executive function and HCC. Results showed that being involved as a bully/victim was related to higher HCC and, higher HCC was associated with poorer executive function. This study may contribute to a better understanding of the consequences that chronic exposure to a stressful factors may have on preadolescents' health and developmental outcomes. Besides, our results are relevant for designing programs for prevention and intervention, which could modify individual physiological responses to stress and reduce the effects of stress on the health.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 742-759 |
| Number of pages | 18 |
| Journal | Child Neuropsychology |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue number | 5 |
| Early online date | 28 Aug 2022 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The work was supported by the Generalitat de Catalunya [2014 SGR 822,2009 SGR 501]; Instituto de Salud Carlos III [FIS-PI06/0867, FIS-PI13/02187, CB06/02/0041, CP13/00054, CP16/00128, CP18/0001, FIS-PI09/00090, FIS-PI18/011428, FIS-PI18/01237, PI041436, PI081151, PI12/01890, PI15/00118, PI16/00118, PI16/00261, PI17/01340, PI18/00547, PI2018059, Red INMA G03/176]; Centro de Excelencia Seero Ochoa [CEX2018-000806-S]; Diputación Foral de Gipuzkoa [DFG 89/17, DFG06/002, DFG08/001, DFG15/221]; Department of Health Basque Government [2005111093,2009111069,2013111089,2015111065,2018111086]; Spanish Ministry of Economy [SAF2012-32991]; EU Comission [261357,308333,603794,634453]
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.