TY  - JOUR
T1  - Salivary alpha-amylase and cortisol in infancy and toddlerhood: Direct and indirect relations with executive functioning and academic ability in childhood
JF  - Psychoneuroendocrinology
Y1  - 2012
A1  - Berry, Daniel
A1  - Clancy Blair
A1  - Michael T. Willoughby
A1  - Granger, Douglas A.
KW  - Academic achievement
KW  - Early childhood
KW  - executive function
KW  - Salivary alpha-amylase
KW  - Salivary cortisol
AB  - <p>Using data from a predominantly low-income, population-based prospective longitudinal sample of 1292 children followed from birth, indicators of children&#39;s autonomic (salivary alpha-amylase; sAA) and hypothalamic&ndash;pituitary&ndash;adrenal (HPA) axis (salivary cortisol) activity at 7, 15, and 24 months of age were found to predict executive functioning at 36-months and academic achievement in pre-kindergarten. The findings suggested that the respective cortisol and sAA effects on executive functioning and academic achievement were interactive. Optimal developmental outcomes were associated with asymmetrical cortisol/sAA profiles. Higher cortisol levels were predictive of lower executive functioning and academic abilities, but only for those with concurrently moderate to high levels of sAA. In contrast, higher sAA concentrations were predictive of better executive functioning and academic abilities, but only for those with concurrently moderate to low levels of cortisol. These relations were statistically identical across infancy and toddlerhood. The conditional effects of cortisol and sAA on pre-kindergarten academic achievement were mediated fully by links between these early physiological indicators and executive functioning.</p>
VL  - 37
UR  - http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0306453012000881
IS  - 10
JO  - Psychoneuroendocrinology
ER  -