Relationship Quality With Parents, Stressful Life Events, and Cortisol Production in Emerging Adulthood

The goal of this study was to examine how the quality of relationships with parents, as well as life stress, is associated with cortisol production across the day among emerging adults; an additional aim was to determine whether relationship quality moderates the association between life stress and cortisol. Participants were 178 college students who reported on parental relationships, daily hassles, and major life events; they gave saliva samples across the day to assess cortisol. Emerging adults with more warmth in maternal relationships produced less total cortisol. Maternal relationship quality also moderated associations between daily hassles and early-morning cortisol, change in cortisol across the day, and total cortisol production. For those who experienced high levels of maternal warmth, daily hassles predicted smaller reductions in cortisol from morning to evening, as well as reduced total cortisol production, in part because of lower early morning levels produced by these individuals.