Maternal history of child abuse moderates the association between daily stress and diurnal cortisol in pregnancy: a pilot study

Figures & data

Figure 1. Associations between evening cortisol and same-day stress by maternal child abuse group. Brackets indicate results from post hoc paired group comparisons of child abuse groups. Hierarchical linear models controlled for time of sampling, gestational age at assessment, maternal income and gravida. +p < 0.10; *p < 0.05; ns = not significant.

Figure 2. Associations between prior-day stress and cortisol 30 min after waking by maternal child abuse group. Brackets indicate results from post hoc paired group comparisons of child abuse groups. Hierarchical linear models controlled for time of sampling, gestational age at assessment, maternal income and gravida. **p < 0.01.

Table 1. Maternal history of child abuse as a moderator of associations between daily stress and cortisol.

	Same-day associations between stress and cortisol
	Cortisol at wake	Cortisol 30 min post-wake	Evening cortisol
	Coefficient (SE)	Coefficient (SE)	Coefficient (SE)
Level 1 variables
Gestational age at sampling	0.14 (0.09)	−0.11 (0.11)	−0.07 (0.08)
Sampling time	1.32 (0.88)	−1.13 (1.29)	−0.05 (0.31)
Daily stress	0.07 (0.06)	0.12 (0.09)	−0.03 (0.05)
Level 2 variables
Intercept	6.22 (5.96)	−0.04(0.23)	−0.19 (0.07)**
Gravida	3.46 (3.87)	0.05 (0.15)	−0.38 (0.76)
SES (income)	0.42 (0.69)	−0.02 (0.03)	−0.14 (0.19)
Maternal child abuse	0.06 (0.08)	0.04 (0.06)	0.14 (0.07)*
	Lagged associations between stress and next-day cortisol
Level 1 variables
Gestational age at sampling	−0.19 (0.46)	0.34 (0.71)	−0.53 (0.33)
Sampling time	3.29 (1.12)**	2.68 (1.15)*	−0.32 (0.37)
Daily stress	0.21 (0.71)	−0.49 (0.58)	0.20 (0.20)
Level 2 variables
Intercept	12.09 (16.25)	11.45 (22.54)	13.54 (9.17)
Gravida	1.28 (1.05)	0.31 (1.05)	1.15 (0.33)**
SES (income)	1.07 (0.54)	1.75 (0.71)*	0.59 (0.59)
Maternal child abuse	−0.09 (0.38)	0.79 (0.33)*	−0.08 (0.15)

*p < 0.01; **p < 0.05.