Laurent, H. K., Leve, L. D., Neiderhiser, J. M., Natsuaki, M. N., Shaw, D. S., Fisher, P. A., Marceau, K., Harold, G. T., & Reiss, D. (2013). Effects of parental depressive symptoms on child adjustment moderated by Hypothalamic Pituitary Adrenal activity: Within- and between-family risk. Child Development, 84, 528–542. PMC: 3532571

We investigated child hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) activity as a moderator of parental depressive symptom effects on child problem behaviors in an adoption sample (N = 210 families). Adoptive parents’ depressive symptoms and child internalizing/externalizing were assessed when children were 18, 27, and 54 months, and child morning/evening HPA activity was measured through salivary cortisol at 54 months. Children’s daily cortisol levels and day-to-day variability were tested as moderators of longitudinal associations between parent and child symptoms at within- and between-family levels. Mothers’ symptoms related directly to child internalizing, but child evening cortisol moderated effects of fathers’ symptoms on internalizing, and of both parents’ symptoms on externalizing. Different paths of within-family risk dynamics vs. between-family risk synergy were found for internalizing vs. externalizing outcomes.