ArticleSocial neuroscience2015
The social buffering of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis in humans: Developmental and experiential determinants.
Article in Social neuroscience, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 73 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
73 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- A systematic review and meta-analysis of the association between parenting and child autonomic nervous system activity.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2022Pooled it
- The association between adversity and hair cortisol levels in humans: A meta-analysis.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2019Pooled it
- Children's altruism following acute stress: The role of autonomic nervous system activity and social support.Developmental science · 2021Trial
- Parenting matters: Parents can reduce or amplify children's anxiety and cortisol responses to acute stress.Development and psychopathology · 2020Trial
- Trial
- Healthy Foundations Study: a randomised controlled trial to evaluate biological embedding of early-life experiences.BMJ open · 2018Trial
- Social Physiology: Human homeostasis is more efficient in social proximity.Science advances · 2026Article
- Perceived Social Support Moderates the Response to Stress and Alcohol Cues During Early Abstinence From Alcohol.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2026Article
- Steroids, stress, and body mass index interact to accelerate female pubertal development.The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism · 2026Article
- Profiles of risk and resilience, and diurnal cortisol rhythms in Mexican-origin mothers.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Article
- Predicting Positive Affect in Infancy.Developmental science · 2026Article
- Adolescent residential mobility, local nasal inflammation, and adult susceptibility to the common cold.Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2026Article
- Circadian rhythms of arousal in parent-child interaction: a 24-hour co-regulation process.Child development perspectives · 2026Article
- The Development of Trait Anxiety in Nonhuman Primates During the First Year of Life.Developmental science · 2026Article
- Social exclusion in educational settings and the risk of alienation in adolescent development: a narrative review from a mind-body interaction perspective.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Review
- Allostatic Load, Social Participation, and Healthy Ageing: Longitudinal Evidence on the Impact of Chronic Stress.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- The moderating role of lifetime social engagement on the relationship between C-reactive protein and negative symptoms among young adults at clinical high risk for psychosis.Brain, behavior, and immunity · 2025Article
- Social Buffering of Acute Early Life Stress Sex-Dependently Ameliorates Fear Incubation in Adulthood.Developmental psychobiology · 2025Article
- Positive childhood experiences in obesity and hypertension among young adults: Associations across adverse childhood experiences levels.American journal of preventive cardiology · 2025Article
- Parenting Under Pressure: How Child Limited Prosocial Emotions Shape the Stress-Warmth Connection.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2025Article
13 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Social buffering, a subset of social support, is the process through which the availability of a conspecific reduces the activity of stress-mediating neurobiological systems. While its role in coping and resilience is significant, we know little about its developmental history in humans. This brief review presents an integrative developmental account of the social buffering of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) stress reactivity in humans, from infancy to adulthood. During infancy, parents are powerful stress-regulators for children, but child temperament also plays a role and interacts with parenting quality to predict the magnitude of stress responses to fear or pain stimuli. Recent work indicates that parental support remains a potent stress buffer into late childhood, but that it loses its effectiveness as a buffer of the HPA axis by adolescence. Puberty may be the switch that alters the potency of parental buffering. Beginning in middle childhood, friends may serve as stress buffers, particularly when other peers are the source of stress. By adulthood, romantic partners assume this protective role, though studies often reveal sex differences that are currently not well understood. Translational research across species will be critical for developing a mechanistic understanding of social buffering and the processes involved in developmental changes noted in this review.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.