@article{ref1,
title="Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and its ratio to cortisol moderate associations between maltreatment and psychopathology in male juvenile offenders",
journal="Psychoneuroendocrinology",
year="2018",
author="Kimonis, Eva R. and Fleming, Georgette E. and Wilbur, Rhonda R. and Groer, Maureen W. and Granger, Douglas A.",
volume="101",
number="",
pages="263-271",
abstract="This study examined whether DHEA and its ratio to cortisol moderated risk for psychopathology among incarcerated youth exposed to childhood maltreatment. Resistance to stress-related psychopathology under adversity was also examined in relation to callous-unemotional (CU) traits, a personality construct characterized by resistance to pathological anxiety and blunted reactivity to threatening stimuli. Participants were 201 ethnically heterogeneous (41.8% White, 35.3% Black, 17.2% Hispanic) adolescent boys (M age = 16.75, SD = 1.15 years) incarcerated in a juvenile detention facility in the South Eastern United States who provided four afternoon saliva samples (later assayed for DHEA and cortisol) and completed self-report questionnaires. <br><br>RESULTS indicated that childhood maltreatment was associated with greater internalizing problems at lower DHEA concentrations and at higher cortisol-to-DHEA ratios. Conversely, higher DHEA levels and lower cortisol-to-DHEA ratios were associated with greater CU traits, irrespective of maltreatment exposure. CU traits did not attenuate levels of psychopathology in maltreated youth. <br><br>FINDINGS inform biosocial models of how exposure to parental maltreatment in early life contributes to risk and resilience through mechanisms associated with adaptive environmentally sensitive biological systems and processes.<br><br>Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0306-4530",
doi="10.1016/j.psyneuen.2018.12.228",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2018.12.228"
}