Using Hair Cortisol to Examine the Role of Stress in Children's Health Inequalities at 3 Years

摘要

OBJECTIVE: Children exposed to early adversity (eg, financial hardship, family violence, parent mental health difficulties) are at greater risk of poor health outcomes. Physiological stress is one mechanism thought to explain this pathway. We investigated associations between adversity and young children's health and whether child stress (measured using hair cortisol) mediated these associations.