An investigation into the impacts of adverse childhood experiences on autonomic and psychological stress reactivity

Abstract

Adverse childhood experiences are linked with adverse mental and physical health outcomes in adulthood, and long-term stress response alterations may contribute to this relationship. Past research suggests robust relationships between adverse childhood experiences and blunted hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and heart rate reactivity to stress. However, the influence of adverse childhood experiences on autonomic and psychological stress reactivity within laboratory settings remains under-researched. The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) is a well-established approach to inducing stress, but comparative control conditions are not as well documented. This study aimed to validate a control TSST (C-TSST) and examine whether adverse childhood experiences predict autonomic and psychological stress reactivity. In this two-part study, participants first reported the number of adverse childhood experiences to which they had been exposed prior to the age of 18 years. Subsequently, a within-subjects experimental design was employed, and eligible participants (N = 58) completed the TSST and C-TSST while physiological (i.e., heart rate, heart rate variability, skin conductance level) and psychological (i.e., stress appraisals, state anxiety) responses were measured. Repeated measures t-tests showed that, compared to the TSST condition, participants had significantly lower heart rate, skin conductance, and stress appraisal levels along with higher heart rate variability in the TSST condition. These results provide support for the C-TSST as a comparative control condition for the TSST. Simple linear regressions with adverse childhood experiences as the predictor variable and stress reactivity measures as the dependent variables revealed no significant findings. Future research should continue to explore the potentially more nuanced effects of ACEs on stress reactivity with larger and more representative samples.