A discordant monozygotic twin design shows blunted cortisol reactivity among bullied children.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Childhood adverse experiences are known to engender persistent changes in stress-related systems and brain structures involved in mood, cognition, and behavior in animal models. Uncertainty remains about the causal effect of early stressful experiences on physiological response to stress in human beings, as the impact of these experiences has rarely been investigated while controlling for both genetic and shared environmental influences.

Method

We tested whether bullying victimization, a repeated adverse experience in childhood, influences cortisol responses to a psychosocial stress test (PST) using a discordant monozygotic (MZ) twin design. Thirty pairs (43.3% males) of 12-year-old MZ twins discordant for bullying victimization were identified in the Environmental

SUBMITTER: Ouellet-Morin I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3743243 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature