The present longitudinal study examined resting heart rate and heart rate variability and reactivity to a stressful gambling task in adopted adolescents with aggressive, delinquent, or internalizing behavior problems and adopted adolescents without behavior problems (total N=151). Early-onset delinquent adolescents showed heart rate hyporeactivity to the stress-eliciting gambling task compared to late-onset delinquent adolescents and adolescents without behavior problems. Heart rate, heart rate variability, and reactivity to stress were not related to environmental factors such as early-childhood parental sensitivity, parental socioeconomic status, or adoptee’s health status at arrival. We conclude that the distinction between delinquency and aggression and between childhood-onset and adolescence-onset delinquency is important for the study of stress reactivity in adolescents.
Published: 2008
Problem Behavior and Heart Rate Reactivity in Adopted Adolescents: Longitudinal and Concurrent Relations
Nicole Bimmel, Marinus H. Van IJzendoorn, Marian J. Bakermans-Kranenburg, Femmie Juffer, Eco J. C. De Geus
- Item Type: journalArticle
- Publication Title: Journal of Research on Adolescence
- Volume: 18
- Pages: 201-214
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- DOI: /10.1111/j.1532-7795.2008.00557.x
- ISSN: 1532-7795
- Short Title: Problem Behavior and Heart Rate Reactivity in Adopted Adolescents
- Library Catalog: Wiley Online Library