ArticlePsychoneuroendocrinology2024
The cortisol/DHEA ratio mediates the association between early life stress and externalizing problems in adolescent boys.
Article in Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- Stress-related salivary biomarkers - cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone, alpha amylase, and suicidal ideation among young women living in Kampala's informal settlements.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Article
- The sex-specific role of adrenal androgens in youth psychopathology.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
- Associations among hair cortisol-to-DHEA ratio, psychological capital, harsh parenting, and internalizing problems in adolescence.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Recognition of adaptive stress response patterns in adolescents based on multiple hair biomarkers.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Does including multiple hormones and family context together clarify hormone-behavior associations? A systematic review.Comprehensive psychoneuroendocrinology · 2025Review
- Maternal History of Child Maltreatment Predicts Dysregulated Offspring Stress Response System Functioning.Child maltreatment · 2025Article
- Cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone, and depressive symptoms as pathways from child abuse to obesity.Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2025Article
- Associations between childhood maltreatment and overt aggression in depressed adolescents: the mediating effect of alexithymia and insomnia.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2025Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundDespite evidence that early life stress (ELS) can influence the functioning of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and increase maladaptive behaviors in adolescence, less attention has been paid to the role of the coordinated effects of the two primary adrenal hormones, cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), in these associations.
methods138 typically developing adolescents (76 females) reported the stressful events experienced during childhood and early adolescence across 30 domains. Two years later we assessed levels of externalizing problems and obtained salivary levels of cortisol and DHEA. Using causal moderated mediation analyses, we examined whether the ratio of cortisol to DHEA (CD ratio) mediates the association between ELS and subsequent externalizing problems.
resultsWe found that ELS is associated with both a lower CD ratio and more externalizing problems. Importantly, a lower CD ratio mediated the association between ELS and externalizing problems in boys.
conclusionsAn imbalance in adrenal hormones may be a mechanism through which ELS leads to an increase in externalizing problems in adolescent boys. These findings underscore the utility of using the CD ratio to index HPA-axis functioning.
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