Stress-Related Changes in Attentional Bias to Social Threat in Young Adults: Psychobiological Associations with the Early Family Environment

Abstract

This study investigated the association of chronic childhood stress exposure with acute stress-related attentional alterations that have been previously linked to vulnerability to mental and physical illness in early adulthood. Participants were randomized in a crossover design to complete both a mild laboratory social stress task and a computerized task assessing attentional bias to socially threatening words. Salivary cortisol was measured throughout the study. Exposure to acute laboratory stress altered attentional processing, and this relationship was moderated by chronic childhood stress exposure. Also, a positive association between cortisol reactivity and attentional bias was observed, with cortisol reactivity negatively related to childhood chronic stress exposure. While previous work has supported a role for early chronic stress exposure in influencing acute stress reactivity, this work provides initial insight into how both prior chronic childhood stress and current acute stress together relate to the attentional gateway and may be associated with stress adaptation and psychological vulnerability into adulthood.

Keywords: Chronic stress; acute stress; attentional bias; cortisol; family conflict.

Figure 1

Interaction of conflict and randomization group on masked social threat bias for extreme high and low conflict groups, **p<.01, ***p<l.001

Figure 2

Interaction of conflict exposure and cortisol reactivity in predicting attentional bias to masked social threat after acute stress exposure. Low Conflict = −1 SD on CPIC; High Conflict = +1 SD on CPIC.