ArticlePsychological medicine2021
Developmental pathways from preschool irritability to multifinality in early adolescence: the role of diurnal cortisol.
Article in Psychological medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 4 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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 19 citations in OpenAlex.
- Understanding irritability through the lens of self-regulatory control processes in children and adolescents: a systematic review.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Annual Research Review: What processes are dysregulated among emotionally dysregulated youth? - a systematic review.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2025Pooled it
- Irritability as a Transdiagnostic Construct Across Childhood and Adolescence: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Clinical child and family psychology review · 2025Pooled it
- Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis: Early Irritability as a Transdiagnostic Neurodevelopmental Vulnerability to Later Mental Health Problems.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Domain Generality or Domain Specificity? The Associations Between Family Adversity, Irritability, and Psychopathology in Adolescence.Child psychiatry and human development · 2026Article
- Influence of the HPA Axis on Anxiety-Related Processes: An RDoC Overview Considering Their Neural Correlates.Current psychiatry reports · 2025Review
- Peer socialization processes in the development of callous-unemotional traits.Development and psychopathology · 2025Article
- Biological sensitivity to adolescent-parent discrepancies in perceived parental warmth.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2023Article
- Measuring irritability in young adults: An integrative review of measures and their psychometric properties.Journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing · 2023Review
- Does stress predict the development of internalizing symptoms in middle childhood? An examination of additive, mediated, and moderated effects of early family stress, daily interpersonal stress, and physiological stress.Developmental psychology · 2022Article
- Developmental patterning of irritability enhances prediction of psychopathology in preadolescence: Improving RDoC with developmental science.Journal of psychopathology and clinical science · 2022Article
- Preschool Irritability Predicts Adolescent Psychopathology and Functional Impairment: A 12-Year Prospective Study.Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry · 2022Article
- A Transdiagnostic Perspective on Youth Irritability.Current directions in psychological science · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundEarly irritability predicts a broad spectrum of psychopathology spanning both internalizing and externalizing disorders, rather than any particular disorder or group of disorders (i.e. multifinality). Very few studies, however, have examined the developmental mechanisms by which it leads to such phenotypically diverse outcomes. We examined whether variation in the diurnal pattern of cortisol moderates developmental pathways between preschool irritability and the subsequent emergence of internalizing and externalizing symptoms 9 years later.
methodWhen children were 3 years old, mothers were interviewed about children's irritability and completed questionnaires about their children's psychopathology. Six years later, children collected saliva samples at wake-up and bedtime on three consecutive days. Diurnal cortisol patterns were modeled as latent difference scores between evening and morning samples. When children were approximately 12 years old, mothers again completed questionnaires about their children's psychopathology.
resultsAmong children with higher levels of irritability at age 3, a steeper diurnal cortisol slope at age 9 predicted greater internalizing symptoms and irritability at age 12, whereas a blunted slope at age 9 predicted greater externalizing symptoms at age 12, adjusting for baseline and concurrent symptoms.
conclusionOur results suggest that variation in stress system functioning can predict and differentiate developmental trajectories of early irritability that are relatively more internalizing v. those in which externalizing symptoms dominate in pre-adolescence.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.