Bonny Donzella

Megan R. Gunnar*
William K. Krueger Cortisol and Vagal Tone
Jan Alwin
Institute of Child Development
University of Minnesota
Responses to Competitive
51 East River Road
Minneapolis, MN 55455 Challenge in Preschoolers:
Associations with
Temperament

Received 4 March 2000; accepted 27 June 2000

ABSTRACT: Sixty-one 3- to 5-year-old nursery school children participated in a study of tempera-

ment and stress responses to competition. Each child individually participated in a competition
against a familiar adult experimenter to determine who would win enough games to receive a prize.
After initially winning three games (Win Period), the children lost the next three games (Lose Period),
before winning the ®nal games and receiving the prize. Salivary cortisol, vagal tone, affect and turn-
taking behavior were measured in response to the competition and examined in relation to child
temperament using a teacher-report version of the Child Behavior Questionnaire. Behavioral
measures indicated that the procedures were emotionally engaging and the threat of losing was
aversive. Surgency (extroversion) was positively correlated with positive affect during Win periods
and tense/angry affect during the Lose period of the competition. Vagal tone decreased as the
children began to play against the adult and children who were more tense/angry while losing
showed additional suppression of vagal tone when they began to lose the competition. Most of the
children did not show a cortisol response to the competition; however, the 15% who increased
cortisol (responses >1 SD of classroom baselines) were described by teachers as more surgent and
lower in effortful control. All but one of these children who increased in cortisol was male. Cortisol
responsive children also displayed higher levels of tense/angry affect during the Lose period.
Surgent, extroverted children appear to be vulnerable to competition stress. ß 2000 John Wiley &
Sons, Inc. Dev Psychobiol 37: 209±220, 2000

Keywords: stress; temperament; cortisol; vagal tone

Temperamental differences in stress reactivity have behavioral problems of children (Boyce & Jemerin,
been argued to play a role in the physical health and 1990; Garmezy & Rutter, 1983; Jemerin & Boyce,
1990). In research on infants and young children, the
search for the stress reactive child has focused almost
*Correspondence to: Megan R. Gunnar exclusively on children who are shy, anxious, and fe-
E-mail: (gunnar@tc.umn.edu) arful (Biederman et al., 1993; Hirshfeld, Biederman,
Contract grant sponsor: National Institute of Child Health and
Human Development Brody, Faraone, & Rosenbaum, 1997; Kagan, 1994).
Contract grant number: HD16494 It is these children who are expected to have lower
Contract grant sponsor: National Institute of Mental Health thresholds for activating both sympathetic and neu-
Research Scientist Award (M.R.G)
Contract grant number: MH00946 roendocrine responses to novel, discrepant, and mil-
dly fear-eliciting events (Kagan, Reznick, & Snidman,
ß 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 1987). Evidence for the greater stress reactivity of

210 Donzella et al.
extremely shy, inhibited children is accumulating,
along with evidence that these children may be iden-
ti®able early in infancy and that they may be at greater
risk for developing anxiety disorders (Rosenbaum
et al., 1993; Schmidt & Fox, 1998; Schmidt et al.,
1997; Schmidt, Fox, Schulkin, & Gold, 1999). How-
ever, not all of the research on infants and young
children is consistent with a focus on shyness or
behavioral inhibition as the sole temperamental dispo-
sition associated with stress vulnerability. This is
particularly true in studies examining activity of the
hypothalamic±pituitary±adrenocortical system in in-
fants and preschool children.
Maternal separation elevates cortisol, the hormone
produced by the HPA system (Gunnar, Mangelsdorf,
Larson, & Hertsgaard, 1989). While separation has
been viewed as a fear-eliciting stressor, increases in
cortisol to separation do not correlate with parental
reports of infant ``distress to novelty'' (the scale that
presumably re¯ects fearfulness), but rather with ``dis-
tress to limitations'' (the scale that presumably ref-
lects anger and low frustration tolerance) (Gunnar,
Larson, Hertsgaard, Harris, & Brodersen, 1992). Ent-
ering a new social group should be stressful for the
shy, inhibited child. However, in a study of 2-year-old
children beginning nursery school, shyness did not
predict rises in cortisol in the early weeks of school;
instead, larger increases were noted for assertive,
aggressive children (de Haan, Gunnar, Tout, Hart, &
Stansbury, 1998). In a similar vein, studies of children
who are familiar with their peer group have repeatedly
found that larger rises in cortisol over the day and/or
higher levels over days are noted for extremely sur-
gent (e.g., extroverted, sensation-seeking) children
and those with poor self- or effortful control (Dettling,
Gunnar, & Donzella, 1999; Gunnar, Tout, de Haan,
Pierce, & Stansbury, 1997; Tout, de Haan, Kipp-
Campbell, & Gunnar, 1998).
As with shy, inhibited temperament, a tendency to
approach novelty and seek sensation can be predicted
from responses to stimulation early in infancy (Fox,
Henderson, Rubin, Calkins, & Schmidt, in press).
Children who later approach new situations and peo-
ple with vigor, at 4 months of age tend to react with
high motor activity and high positive affect to intense
stimulation. This same stimulation elicits motor
activity combined with fussing and crying for infants
who tend later to be shy and inhibited. This type of
surgent, extroverted temperament is more stable over
time than is shy, inhibited temperament (Fox et al., in
press) and unless tempered by strong self-regulatory
abilities, is associated with aggressive behavior and
dif®culties in peer interaction by the early preschool
years (Rubin, Coplan, Fox, & Calkins, 1995). While
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surgent temperament is associated, at times, with
greater cortisol responsivity, what has not been clear
in the research on preschoolers is whether this is
because these children have a lower threshold to res-
pond with elevated cortisol to particular situations. Or,
on the other hand, whether they tend to behave in
ways that result in stressful social encounters or even
seek out stressful stimulation (Gunnar, Marvinney,
Isensee, & Fisch, 1988). The following study was
designed to determine whether children who exhibit
larger cortisol stress responses in reaction to a stressor
that they neither created nor sought are also more
surgent, extroverted children.
One theme that seems to unite the ®ndings des-
cribed above is that surgent children respond with
more distress, frustration, or anger when they exper-
ience threats to their control over valued outcomes.
Loss of control is known to be a potent stimulus of the
HPA axis in research on animals (Bohlin et al., 1985;
Hanson, Larson, & Snowdon, 1976; Maier, Ryan,
Barksdale, & Kalin, 1986). In research on adults,
perceived control affects whether Type A coronary
prone individuals experience heightened sympathetic
and neuroendocrine responses to challenge, and thus
are exposed to the combination of stress hormones
that might be the most damaging to the cardiovascular
system (Frankenhaeuser, 1979). Threats to control
over valued outcomes might be expected to occur
frequently in preschool settings where children are
exposed to the need to argue and negotiate over toys,
play themes, and activities (Laursen & Hartup, 1989).
All such encounters would contain elements of
competition, which in studies of primate social groups
has been identi®ed as an important source of stress
(Sapolsky, 1992).
In the following study of preschool-aged children,
we examined whether competition that included a
period when the children were clearly at risk of losing
would produce elevations in cortisol for more surgent
children. In studies of adults, competition in the
context of sports and games has been shown to elevate
cortisol (Suay et al., 1999). While elevations in stress
hormones partly may be due to the physical exertion
involved in many competitive sports, increases have
also been noted among coaches that appear unrelated
to physical exertion (Kugler, Reintjes, Tewes, &
Schedlowski, 1996). Individual differences in the
magnitude of response to competition has been stu-
died in research on adults, with some evidence that
larger increases are noted for individuals who are
more emotionally engaged (Kugler et al., 1996).
Given this, we anticipated that surgent temperament
might correlate positively with cortisol responses to
challenge.

Experiencing the threat of potentially losing the
competition was also expected to be emotionally cha-
llenging to children. Regulating behavior under these
conditions might be expected to tax preschooler's
emerging emotion-regulatory abilities (Kopp, 1989).
Effortful control has been hypothesized to be the
dimension of temperament that in¯uences how well
children can regulate behavioral and physiological
responsivity under conditions of high emotional
challenge (Derryberry & Rothbart, 1997; Eisenberg
et al., 1999). In previous research, we have found that
children who exhibit high cortisol levels in the
classroom are described by teachers and parents as
low in effortful control (Gunnar et al., 1997). Thus
effortful control, either directly or in interaction with
surgent, extroverted temperament might be related to
how intensely children respond to competition and the
threat of losing.
In addition to neuroendocrine measures, stress
reactivity is also often studied using cardiovascular
measures (Al'Absi et al., 1997; Jemerin & Boyce,
1990; Lundberg, Westermark, & Rasch, 1993). Heart
rate (or conversely heart period) and indices of heart
period variability have been used (Berntson et al.,
1997; Kagan et al., 1987). Of these, respiratory sinus
arrhythmia or vagal tone, a measure that re¯ects the
parasympathetic input to the heart, has been measured
in a number of studies of young children (Porges,
1992). Emotionally challenging tasks suppress chil-
dren's heart periods (i.e., increase heart rate) and
vagal tone (Calkins, 1997). When restraint is used as
the stressor, larger suppressions in vagal tone are
noted for children who are more easily angered or
frustrated (Calkins, 1997; Porges, 1996; Porges,
Doussard-Roosevelt, Portales, & Suess, 1994). Thus,
in addition to measuring cortisol, we also measured
vagal tone. It was expected that children who exhi-
bited signi®cant elevations in cortisol to the compe-
titive game would be more surgent in temperament,
perhaps less behaviorally regulated as indexed by the
effortful control dimension of temperament, and more
autonomically-responsive, as measured by suppres-
sion of vagal tone, particularly during periods of the
competition when it appeared that the child would
lose.
METHOD
Participants
The participants were 61 children, aged 3.74±5.76
years (M ˆ 4.61, SD ˆ 0.51) who were drawn from six
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Cortisol and Vagal Tone Responses 211
preschool classrooms (4 morning, 2 afternoon classes)
at a university laboratory nursery school. Only
children pro®cient in English and without develop-
mental delays, and emotional or behavioral problems
were asked to participate. A total of 73 children met
these criteria of which 12 refused to participate. Based
on teacher reports of child temperament (see below)
children refusing to participate were described as
shyer and sadder in temperament than those agreeing
to participate (shyness: M ˆ 3.3, SD ˆ 1.3 vs. 2.6,
SD ˆ 0.9; t (13.2) ˆ 1.77, p ˆ .10; sadness: M ˆ 3.9,
SD ˆ .31 vs. 3.2, SD ˆ .67; t (31.2) ˆ 5.6, p < :01). Of
those participating, there were 26 girls and 35 boys.
Most of the children were Caucasian (n ˆ 43), 11 were
Asian, and seven were Hispanic or of multi-racial
heritage.
Procedures
Two experimenters conducted all of the sessions.
These experimenters participated in classroom activ-
ities for several weeks to become familiar to the
children. During this period, children were taken in
small groups on ``®eld trips'' to the testing room to
familiarize them with the procedures and facilitate
their informed assent. Part of the ®eld trip involved
demonstrating a small Nerf TM rocket that the children
would be allowed to launch if they participated in the
procedures and won the competition (see below). The
testing room was located within a few feet of the
preschool classrooms. The testing room was often
used for small-group activities and was a familiar area
for the children. Testing took place several months
into the school year. Thus, testing was performed once
the children were familiar with the school, the setting,
the experimenters, and had been shown the events that
would transpire.
While still in the classroom, the children were
asked individually if they wanted to play the games
and get a chance to launch the rocket. Testing was
conducted during the freeplay period within 1.5 hr of
the start of each nursery school day. Children were
given an opportunity to decline participation on any
given day. In many instances, children declined
because they were already engaged in an activity that
they did not want to leave. They were allowed to do so
and were asked again on another day. If a child
declined repeatedly, the teacher was consulted. If the
teacher thought that the refusals might re¯ect anxiety,
the teacher offered to accompany the child to the
testing room. In several instances, children then
agreed to participate when the teacher walked with
them to the room. As noted above, 12 children refused
participation altogether.

212 Donzella et al.
Once in the testing room, 3 Ag/AgCl ECG
electrodes were placed in a triangular pattern on the
child's chest for cardiac measurement. A baseline
measure of cardiac data was obtained while the E and
child watched a 4-min segment of a familiar television
show (Sesame Street). The E and child then played the
competitive game. At the end of the game, the elect-
rodes were removed and the child was allowed to
launch the rocket several times. The sessions took
approximately 30 min from leaving to returning to the
classroom and were videotaped unobtrusively for later
coding. The children returned to the classroom in time
to take part in saliva collection for cortisol determina-
tion. Salivary cortisol was being collected in each
classroom from all children daily as a part of a study
of temperament, social behavior, and salivary cortisol
(see Sebanc, Tout, Donzella, & Gunnar, 2000). Sam-
ples collected on the day the child participated in the
competitive game were used to determine postgame
cortisol concentrations and were compared to the
median of the child's cortisol levels on nongame days.
The E and child played eight games of MemoryTM.
In this game, four pairs of pictures were laid out face
down on a small board. Each player was allowed to
turn over two pictures on each move. If the player
turned over two of the same picture, the player took
that pair off the board and was allowed another move.
When two nonmatching pictures were turned over,
play shifted to the other player. The player with the
most pairs won that game. Each board was precon-
structed and the E had memorized the placement of all
pictures. This allowed the E to manipulate who won
each game. The protocol called for the child to win the
®rst three games, the E to win the next three, and the
child to win the ®nal two games. Keeping in mind the
differing skill levels among children, the number of
moves required for the children to win games differed.
On average, though, with set up and transition each
game lasted 1 min. Each period of the game (Win I,
Lose, Win II) lasted approximately 3 min.
Before the play started, the rules of the game were
demonstrated until the child showed clear under-
standing. Both the E and child chose small ®gures
(avatars) to represent themselves. The E then showed
the child a two-sided pyramid. Each side consisted of
three 1 in. steps leading to a platform at the pinnacle.
The E and child placed their avatars at the base of the
pyramid, one on each side. The goal of playing the
games was to get one's avatar to the platform at the
top. The player reaching the top ®rst won the overall
competition and got to launch the rocket. With each
game win, the avatar belonging to the winner climbed
one step. With each loss, the player's avatar moved
down a step. The steps and avatars were used to make
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sure that the children knew how close both they and
the E were from winning or losing the competition.
This was also reinforced by the Es comments follo-
wing each game. After the ®rst three wins the child's
avatar was one step away from the platform. The E
said, ``Look, all you need is one more win and your
guy will get to the top and you will get to launch the
rocket!'' After the next three losses the Es piece was
one step away, while the childs piece had descended to
the base of the pyramid. The E said, ``All I need is one
more win and I will get to launch the rocket!'' At this
point many children were very disappointed and the E
said, ``maybe we should change the rules. If you win
the next game, you can move your guy up two steps.''
This allowed the children to reach the platform in two
wins. Shortening the ®nal win period to two games
was based on the reactions of several pilot subjects
who appeared to be having dif®culty controlling their
emotions by the end of the Lose period. Once the child
became the overall winner, the E removed the elect-
rodes and the child was permitted to launch the rocket.
Several launches were allowed with the goal that each
child would be happy and satis®ed before returning to
the classroom.
Measures
Salivary Cortisol. Saliva for cortisol determination
was obtained by having the children dip 2-in. long
cotton dental rolls into less than 1/16th of a teaspoon
of sugar-sweetened Kool-AidTM drink mix crystals.
Children then placed the cotton rolls in their mouths
until saturated. The procedure took 5±10 min and was
performed by all the children at a set time in each
classroom. The timing of the classroom collections
was within 10 min of the children's return to the
classroom after the competition. Only children who
provided samples with suf®cient saliva for assay could
be included in the analysis: eight children were
excluded for insuf®cient volume or for refusing to
provide saliva samples after the competition. Separate
multivariate analyses were computed for the cardiac
data, behavioral data, and teacher report temperament
measures analyzed in this report to determine whether
children who failed to provide postgame cortisol
measures differed from those who did. In these analy-
ses, gender and useable cortisol data served as
between-subject factors and age was entered as the
covariate. No signi®cant multivariate or follow-up
univariate effects for the useable cortisol factor were
obtained. Baseline cortisol was determined from the
classroom cortisol data obtained on 25 days of saliva
collection after the children were familiar with the

classroom (i.e., 4 months into the school year). Most
(50%) of the children contributed 18 or more saliva
samples from which their median classroom cortisol
level was determined and used as the measure of
classroom baseline cortisol in the present study (See
Sebanc et al., 2000 for further analyses of these class-
room data).
Once all the samples were collected, they were
assayed using a modi®cation of the CIBA magic
cortisol assay (Kirschbaum, Strasburger, Jammers, &
Hellhammer, 1989). All samples from a child were
assayed in duplicate in the same assay batch. Samples
differing by 20% were re-assayed. Samples yielding
values above 2.5 mg/dl were diluted. Those that failed
to dilute linearly were excluded from analysis. The
correlation between duplicates was .96. The inter- and
intra-assay coef®cients of variation for control
samples were 12.0 and 6.37, respectively.
Heart Period and Vagal Tone. Cardiac data were
acquired using the Vagal Tone Monitor-II (VTM-II,
Delta-Biometrics, Inc., Bethesda, MD). Raw ECG
data was digitized at 1 kHz and bandpass ®ltered at 5
and 200 Hz, with a 3 dB cutoff. A computer algorithm
detected R-spikes from the raw wave, and computed
interbeat intervals (IBIs). MXedit software was used
to visually display the heart period data, to edit out-
liers, and to quantify mean IBI and the Vagal Tone
Index (Porges, 1985). (Note: baseline Vagal Tone data
were reported in Sebanc et al., 2000). Baseline meas-
ures of vagal tone and heart period were assessed
during the 4-min Baseline period, and each of the 3-
min test periods (Win I, Lose, Win II). At least 2 min
of artifact-free data was required for each period in
order to compute average vagal tone and heart period
measures. Using this criteria, useable data during the
Baseline and Win I periods were obtained from 61 of
the children, while 60 had useable data during the
Lose and Win II periods.
Affect and Turn-Taking. One videotape containing
data on ®ve subjects was accidentally erased. Affect
was scored for each game for the remaining 56 chil-
dren. One set of coders scored the children's affect
from the videotapes. Four categories of affect were
noted: positive; anger/frustration; tense/anxious; and
sad. For each scale, 0 represented no evidence of the
affect. Mixtures of affects were allowed within coding
intervals. Based on pilot data, positive and sad were
made into 3-point scales, while anger/frustration and
tense/anxious were 4-point scales. Positive affect was
scored as 1: closed mouth smile, positive toned voca-
lization, or facial expression of interest or enthusiasm;
and 2: open mouthed smile, happy vocalization
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Cortisol and Vagal Tone Responses 213
(``yay''), laugh/giggle. Anger/frustration was scored
as 1: pout; 2: negative exclamation, arguing, or insis-
tence on winning; 3: tantrumming, refusal to continue
(``This is a dumb game!''). Only one child ever dis-
played the most intense level for anger/frustration,
thus in practice this was a 3-point scale. Tense/an-
xious was scored as 1: watchful, worried expression;
2: slowing of approach when taking turn, rigid body
posture; and 3: freezing, prolonged hesitation when
taking his/her turn. Sad was scored as 1: mild expre-
ssions of sadness including head down, shoulders
sagging, vocalization of `oh no', mouth turned down
at corners; and 2: more intense or prolonged sad ex-
pressions that might include watering of eyes, wiping
eyes, pursing of mouth in apparent attempt not to cry,
sharp gasps and deep sighs. Inter-coder agreements
ranged from 89 to 97%. The scores for each category
of affect were averaged within the baseline and three
game periods (Win I, Lose, Win II) to yield three
measures for each affect. Descriptive statistics were
examined for these measures and showed that very
few of the children ever expressed any overtly angry
affect and those that did often also exhibited higher
levels of tense/anxious affect. The measure of anger/
frustration was therefore combined with that of tense/
anxious to yield a tense/angry variable scored in each
of the game periods.
A second set of coders scored the children's turn
taking behavior from the videotapes. On each of the
children's moves, coders scored whether the child
took their turn without hesitation (0), paused or
hesitated, as if thinking, when turning over the card
but appeared to know it was his/her turn (1), or failed
to move, had to be told or prompted (``it's your turn'')
(2). On each of the E's turn the observers scored
whether the child waited and gave the E his/her turn
(0), started approach to the cards but stopped without
needing to be told (1), touched the cards but then did
not turn them over and did not interfere with E's turn
(2), or moved out of turn (3). A (3) was also scored if
the child obviously cheated during his/her turn as this
meant he/she interfered with the E's opportunity to
win. A separate ``cheat'' scoring was not employed as
so few children actually attempted this strategy. The
mean coef®cient k for turn-taking measures was .86.
Because of technical errors in taping (i.e., the chil-
dren's hands were not visible) turn-taking data were
missing for two children.
Temperament. For each child, the head teacher in
each class completed a version of the child behavior
questionnaire (CBQ; Ahadi, Rothbart, & Ye, 1993),
modi®ed with help from M. Rothbart (see Gunnar,
et al., 1997). Key scales from the three higher order
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214 Donzella et al.

dimensions of the CBQ were retained with response Behavioral Responses

options reduced from 7 to 5 points. The items were
The three affect variables (positive, tense/angry, and
combined into their scales with each based on respo-
sad) scored in each of the Win I, Lose, and Win II
nses to at least ®ve items. Internal consistency of the
periods were analyzed ®rst with age. None of the
modi®ed scales was veri®ed by computing Cronba-
correlations with age was signi®cant. Separate 2
ch's a and comparing them to those reported for the
(Gender) repeated measures analyses for each affect
full CBQ (Ahadi et al., 1993). Alphas for the modi®ed
were computed for the Win I, Lose, and Win II periods
scales were highly comparable to those from the full
using Greenhouse±Geisser corrections when appro-
CBQ and ranged from .78 to .96. Based on previous
priate. The results showed that as expected, signi®cant
factor analyses (Ahadi et al., 1993), the scales were
game period effects were found for all three affect
averaged to yield measures of surgency or extrover-
measures, positive, F(3, 116) ˆ 28.7, p < :001, sad,
sion (average of high pleasure, impulsivity, activity
F(3,116) ˆ 24.6, p < :01 and tense/angry, F(3,116)
level and shyness, reverse scored), effortful control
ˆ 10.8, p < :01. Posthoc Newman±Keuls tests indi-
(mean of attention focusing and inhibitory control),
cated that, as expected, positive affect decreased from
and negative affectivity (mean of discomfort, anger,
Win I to Lose and then increased from Lose to Win II
and sadness). The teacher version of the CBQ also
with means of .83, .55, .88 (SDs .36±.39). Sad affect
yielded a scale for physical aggression. It is important
was rarely observed during the two win periods
to note that shyness loads negatively on the surgency
(Ms ˆ .02 and .04, SDs ˆ .14, .19) but was noted more
factor. Thus, lower surgency re¯ects higher shyness.
frequently during the Lose period, M ˆ .28, SD ˆ .28.
For tense/angry affect, a signi®cant main effect of
gender was noted, F (1,58) ˆ 7.1, p < :01, with boys
RESULTS
showing more tense/angry affect overall (M ˆ .18,
SD ˆ .23) than did girls (M ˆ .07, SD ˆ .12). For both
The data were ®rst examined to determine if the
sexes combined, there was a signi®cant increase in
procedures elicited the anticipated behavioral reac-
tense/angry affect from Win I (M ˆ .05, SD ˆ .15) to
tions. Second, the inter-correlations among the beha-
Lose (M ˆ .44, SD ˆ .41) and a decrease that did not
vioral measures were examined. Third, the vagal tone
achieve signi®cance in the Win II period (M ˆ .14,
and heart period data were examined to determine if
SD ˆ .25).
these measures were suppressed in response to the
Turn-taking behavior was analyzed next. Younger
competitive games, and whether they were more su-
children were more likely to move out of turn during
ppressed during the Lose period than during the
the Win periods: Win I, r (52) ˆ ÿ.46, p < :01, Win
periods when the child was winning the competition.
II, r (52) ˆ ÿ.32, p < :05. This correlation was not
Correlation between the cardiac measures and affect,
signi®cant during the Lose period, r (52) ˆ ÿ.22, ns.
behavior, and temperament measures was then com-
Age was not correlated with inhibiting/slowing
puted. After this, the cortisol data were examined for
actions on child moves during any period of the
main effects of trials. Then children were grouped by
games (rs .00 to ÿ.10). A 2 (Gender) by 3 (Trials)
whether or not they exhibited a signi®cant rise in
ANOVA with repeated measures on the second
cortisol in response to the game. Affect, behavior,
factor revealed a signi®cant trials effect for turn-
temperament, and cardiac responses were examined
taking on the Es moves, F(2, 116) ˆ 4.97, p < :01).
for differences between children exhibiting and those
Newman±Keuls posthoc tests indicated that child-
not exhibiting a cortisol response. Finally, individual
ren behaved more impulsively during the Lose
differences in surgency were used to predict a cortisol
period (M ˆ 0.75, SD ˆ .60) compared to Win I
response. Throughout, age and/or gender were consi-
period (M ˆ .34, SD ˆ .61), but the difference
dered as covariates. Gender differences are often
between Lose and Win II (M ˆ .56, SD ˆ .79) was
found for temperament measures, with girls showing
not signi®cant. No signi®cant trials or gender effects
greater effortful control (Ahadi, et al., 1993; Davis,
were noted for turn-taking behavior on child moves,
Donzella, Krueger, & Gunnar, 1999). Age might play
Fs < 1.0.
a role in children's behavioral and physiological res-
ponses to the competition, with younger children
potentially ®nding the competition more challenging.
Temperament Associations with Affect and
Vagal tone increases with age, due to changes in body
Turn-Taking Behaviors
size and metabolism, and in adults, gender differences
have been found in parasympathetic control over the Correlations, controlling for age where necessary,
heart (Rossy & Thayer, 1998). were computed between the teacher report measures

of surgency and effortful control temperament
and the affect and turn-taking behaviors scored
during the competitive games. Surgency was posi-
tively correlated with positive affect during winning,
r (53) ˆ .28, p < :05, tense/angry affect during
losing, r (53) ˆ .29, p < :05, and failing to move
immediately when it was the child's turn
during the Lose period, r (53) ˆ .29, p < :05. Con-
trolling for age, effortful control was negatively
correlated with moving when it was the Es turn
during the Win I period, partial r (52) ˆ ÿ.33,
p < :05. Negative affectivity was positively correlated
with showing sad affect during the Lose period,
r (53) ˆ .36, p < :01.
Cardiac Measures
Age was signi®cantly and positively correlated with
vagal tone and heart period in all of the segments of
the game, rs ranged from .32 to .54, dfs from 58 to 59,
ps < :05. Trials and gender effects were examined
using separate, repeated measures ANOVAs for vagal
tone and heart period. Gender was not a signi®cant
factor in either analysis, F(1,58) < 1:0, while both
measures yielded a signi®cant trials effect, vagal tone,
F(3,172) ˆ 95.8, p < :001 and heart period, F(3,172)
ˆ 152.8, p < :001. Posthoc Newman±Keuls tests
revealed that for vagal tone there was a signi®cant
decrease from Baseline (M ˆ 5.8, SD ˆ 1.2) to the
Win I period (M ˆ 4.9, SD ˆ 1.2) but no changes were
noted from this period to either the Lose (M ˆ 5.0,
SD ˆ 1.2) or Win II period (M ˆ 4.8, SD ˆ 1.1). A
similar result was obtained for Heart period (Ms
590.7, 548.3, 544.8, 537.4, SDs ranged from 50.2 to
65.9). Heart period and vagal tone were highly
correlated during each phase of testing, rs > :76, dfs
58 and 59, ps < :001. To reduce the number of varia-
bles examined in subsequent analyses, the more spe-
ci®c measure, Vagal Tone, was retained and scores
were computed re¯ecting the suppression of vagal
tone from Baseline to Win I and from Win I to Lose.
Positive numbers indicated suppression. Three vagal
tone measures were thus included in later analyses:
Baseline, D Base to Win I, and D Win I to Lose. Partial
correlations controlling for age were computed to
examine the relations among these variables. Base-
line was positively correlated with D Base to Win I,
partial r (57) ˆ .35, p < :01, but not with D Win I
to Lose, partial r (57) ˆ .00, ns. Thus, children with
higher baseline vagal tone suppressed vagal tone
more to playing the competitive games, but did
not show more or less suppression in vagal tone
when they were losing as compared to winning the
competition.
10982302, 2000, 4, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/1098-2302(2000)37:4<209::AID-DEV1>3.0.CO;2-S by Universitaet De Valencia, Wiley Online Library on [02/04/2024]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
Cortisol and Vagal Tone Responses 215
Cardiac-Behavior Associations
Controlling for age, baseline vagal tone was not
associated signi®cantly with either of the two affect or
two turn-taking behaviors assessed during either the
Win or Lose periods. Neither was D Base to Win I.
However, D Win I to Lose was signi®cantly associated
with tense/angry affect, r (53) ˆ .29, p < :05. To
determine whether this correlation was due to children
who suppressed vagal tone further when they began to
lose the game, the change from win to lose was sub-
divided to yield three groups: children whose change
scores were  .5 SD below (suppressors) or above
(increasers) the mean, versus those who were within .5
SD of the mean. Newman±Keuls posthoc tests
comparing the means for these groups revealed that
only those who suppressed vagal tone from winning
to losing differed in tense/angry affect (M ˆ .76,
SD ˆ .59, n ˆ 11) from both of the other groups
(Ms ˆ .39, .33; SDs ˆ .39, .20, ns ˆ 26, 18).
Cortisol Response
The cortisol data were examined next. Neither age nor
gender was associated with cortisol. To determine
whether the response to the game differed for children
tested in the morning (AM classes) versus afternoon
(PM classes) as might be expected given the circadian
rhythm in cortisol, we computed a 2 (AM vs. PM) by 2
(classroom baseline vs. postgame) repeated measures
ANOVA. The interaction effect did not reach tradi-
tional levels of signi®cance, F(1,51) ˆ 2.7, p ˆ .10.
The change scores (postgame ÿ classroom baseline)
for AM classes were M ˆ .00, SD ˆ .11 compared to
PM classes, M ˆ .05, SD ˆ .14. As the standard
deviation in classroom medians was  .055, these
data indicated that on average the children did not
show a cortisol response to the competitive game.
However, the purpose of the study was to identify
children who did respond. Therefore, the range in
change scores was examined. Although 85% of the
children either had lower cortisol levels following the
game or did not increase more than 1 SD (i.e., .05±
.06 mg/dl), 15% of the children (n ˆ 8) did show clear
evidence of higher cortisol levels following the game.
The change scores for these children ranged from.08
to.53 mg/dl, with a mean of.24 mg/dl. We then exami-
ned the ratio of change by dividing postgame cortisol
by the child's typical classroom cortisol level. For the
group who were considered to have responded, the
ratios ranged from 1.4 to 3.4 with a mean of 2.1 indi-
cating that these children had cortisol levels following
the game that were about two times their typical
classroom levels. For the remaining children, the
 10982302, 2000, 4, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/1098-2302(2000)37:4<209::AID-DEV1>3.0.CO;2-S by Universitaet De Valencia, Wiley Online Library on [02/04/2024]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
216 Donzella et al.

average ratio was .91, SD ˆ .29, indicating little if any Table 1. Behavior, Temperament, and Cardiac Activity
change from their classroom levels. To make sure that for Children who Exhibited Elevations in Cortisol
exhibiting a signi®cant rise in cortisol was not merely during a Competitive Gamea
due to having unusually low classroom baseline levels Rise in Cortisol to Game
(i.e., law of initial values), a t-test on the classroom
cortisol levels was computed that yielded a nonsigni- NO YES
®cant trend, t (10.1) ˆ 1.85, p < :10. However, rather
Behaviors during lose period n ˆ 38 nˆ8
than having low classroom levels, children who Tense/Angry* .44 .78
increased cortisol levels following the game tended (.36) (.62)
to have slightly higher classroom cortisol baselines, Sad .34 .12
M ˆ .22 mg/dl, SD ˆ .04 compared to the other chil- (.31) (.13)
dren, M ˆ .19 mg/dl, SD ˆ .06. To rule out the possi- Impulsive during Es turns .59 .85
bility that time-of-day (i.e., AM or PM nursery school (.49) (.83)
classes) affected cortisol response the number of Inhibited during Cs turns .03 .20
children exhibiting a response was analyzed by AM (.12) (.55)
versus PM classes. The result was not signi®cant, w2 Cardiac Data n ˆ 43 nˆ8
(1) ˆ .10, ns. There was some indication, however, Baseline vagal tone 5.9 5.4
that gender affected the results as seven of the eight (1.1) (1.7)
children who showed a cortisol response were boys, D Win to lose‡vagal tone ÿ.11 .21
w2 (1) ˆ 3.1, p ˆ .06. (.44) (.55)
Teacher report CBQ n ˆ 45 nˆ8
Cortisol Responders Versus (in standard scores)
Non-Responders Surgency* .04 .74
(.81) (.77)
To examine cardiac and behavioral factors associated Effortful control .23 ÿ.36
with the rise in cortisol, a multivariate analysis of (.65) (1.48)
variance was performed, controlling for age, entering Negative affectivity .02 ÿ.60
the measures shown in Table 1. The multivariate effect (.95) (.91)
for cortisol response was signi®cant, F(10,34) ˆ 2.85, Aggression ÿ.15 .24
(.86) (.82)
p < :01. Follow-up univariate tests with Bonferroni
corrections yielded three signi®cant differences. *Signi®cant univariate effect.
Children who elevated cortisol had signi®cantly more a
Means and (standard deviations) exhibited for all available
surgent temperament, F(1,49) ˆ 15.0, p < :01 and cases.
lower effortful control temperament, F(1,49) ˆ 5.8,
p < :05. They were also more tense/angry during the
Lose period, F(1,49) ˆ 7.4, p < :01 (see Table 1).
Because all, but one, of the cortisol responding
children were males, the MANOVA was repeated To determine whether cortisol responding children
for the three signi®cant variables entering only boys to differed from the other children prior to the Lose
be certain that the difference noted for cortisol period, another MANOVA was conducted on the
responding children did not merely re¯ect gender affect measures, behavioral responses, and cardiac
differences. The result was still signi®cant, Hotelling data obtained during the Win I period. The multi-
F(3, 28) ˆ 4.65, p < :009; however, only the tempera- variate effect for cortisol response was not signi®cant,
ment variables remained signi®cant after Bonferroni F(5,40) ˆ 0.40, ns, nor were any of the follow-up
correction. Because the temperament measures univariate tests (all Fs < 1:0). Finally, we examined
were computed from more narrow-band scales, we whether the children who exhibited a rise in cortisol
computed a third MANOVA entering the scales used were highly surgent children who were in addition
to compute surgency and effortful control. The also low in effortful control. Seven of the eight
follow-up univariate tests indicated that cortisol cortisol responding children scored above the median
responders scored higher on high pleasure or sensa- on surgency, however, of these children, only three
tion seeking, F(1,48) ˆ 4.82, p < :05; impulsivity, scored below the median on effortful control, The w2
F(1,48) ˆ 9.19, p < :004; activity level, F(1,48) ˆ (1) ˆ 2.1, ns. Thus, there was no evidence that only
5.51, p < :02; and lower on inhibitory control, poorly regulated surgent children were likely to
F(1,48) ˆ 5.1, p < :05. exhibit a rise in cortisol.

Individual Differences in Surgent
Temperament and Cortisol Response
Next, we addressed the question of whether individual
differences in surgent temperament could distinguish
cortisol responding children. We focused on surgency
because of the interest in surgent versus shy/inhibited
temperaments and stress reactivity. In the above cor-
tisol analysis, 15% of the sample showed a clear cor-
tisol response. Therefore, children were split into two
temperament groups: high surgent children scored in
the top 15% on surgency, and normal/low surgent
children scored in the other 85% on that factor. A
crosstabulation analysis compared surgency (high vs.
normal/low) with cortisol response (Yes vs. No), two-
tailed Fisher's exact test ˆ .02. High surgent children
are more likely to show a cortisol response to this
challenge than were normal to low surgent children.
DISCUSSION
Most of the research on stress reactivity in young
children has focused on shy, anxious, inhibited chil-
dren. While these studies have yielded important ®n-
dings, the results of the present study clearly indicate
that shy, inhibited temperament is not the only
disposition associated with increased cortisol and car-
diac reactivity. In addition, surgent temperament is
associated with increased cortisol reactivity, at least to
stressors such as the one used in the present study.
Indeed, as shyness loads negatively on the surgency
factor, the results raise the possibility that less surgent,
more shy children may be somewhat protected from
cortisol and cardiac reactivity to certain stressors.
Interpretation of these data depends, however, on our
understanding the nature of the competition stressor
employed in this study and on the behavioral cor-
relates of temperament that were observed. Thus,
prior to discussing the primary ®nding of this study,
data pertaining to the children's responses to the game
and temperament-behavior associations will be dis-
cussed.
The game was designed to engage and elicit
negative emotions to the threat of potentially losing
the competition. Positive emotional expressions decr-
eased for all the children during the Lose period, while
sad and tense/angry emotional expression increased.
Children also behaved more impulsively when they
were losing. That is, they were signi®cantly more
likely to move when it was the adult's turn. The chil-
dren's positive affect during the periods when they
were winning the game and their heightened impul-
siveness and negative emotionality when losing sugg-
10982302, 2000, 4, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/1098-2302(2000)37:4<209::AID-DEV1>3.0.CO;2-S by Universitaet De Valencia, Wiley Online Library on [02/04/2024]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
Cortisol and Vagal Tone Responses 217
ests that they were emotionally engaged in the
competition and found the threat of losing aversive.
Affect and behavior during the competition re¯ec-
ted teacher's perceptions of the children's tempera-
ment. Teacher-reported negative affectivity was
correlated with expression of more sad affect during
the Lose period, while teacher-reported effortful con-
trol was negatively correlated with impulsive moving
on the Es turn, even after controlling for the effects of
age. Critically for the present analysis, teacher-
reported surgency correlated with greater displays of
positive affect when the children were winning and
greater displays of tense/angry affect when they were
losing. This raises the possibility that the reason surg-
ency and cortisol elevations were associated is that
highly surgent children were more engaged in the
competition than the other children and thus experi-
enced the threat of losing as more aversive. Surgent
children, however, did not appear to be more impul-
sive when losing, instead they became more cautious
and seemingly tense when they started to lose the
competition.
The cardiac measures also showed changes in res-
ponse to the competition. The most signi®cant change
was from baseline to playing the game. On average,
decreases in vagal tone and heart period (i.e., incre-
ased heart rates) were noted when the children began
to play against the experimenter. Additional decre-
ases, however, were not noted for most of the children
when they began to lose the competition. The change
in vagal tone from winning to losing was, nonetheless,
associated with tense/angry affect, and this was parti-
cularly the case for children who lowered vagal tone
(  .5 SD) from winning to losing.
Despite the degree of emotional engagement
observed, for most of the children the competition
was not suf®ciently stressful to elevate salivary cor-
tisol concentrations. This is, perhaps, not surprising as
it was the period of time when they were losing the
game that was expected to be stressful and this period
was brief, lasting only about 3 min. For the remainder
of the time, the children were winning and most were
expressing positive affect. Indeed, it is less striking
that most children failed to elevate cortisol than that
15% did show clear evidence of a cortisol response.
An increase of 1 SD in cortisol was de®ned as a cor-
tisol response. For the children classi®ed as res-
ponding, the typical increase in cortisol doubled their
classroom level. For one child, indeed, postgame
levels were three times that child's typical level in the
classroom. These were quite striking increases. The
average increase in cortisol for these responding
children was roughly half that reported for adult men
in response to stressors like the Trier Social Stress

218 Donzella et al.
Test (Hellhammer, Buchtal, Gutberlet, & Kirsch-
baum, 1997; Kirschbaum, et al., 1995) and somewhat
larger than that reported in ambulatory studies of
adults (Smyth, et al., 1998). There is no way to
determine that the increases were to the period of
losing the game as opposed to simply playing
competitively against an adult. However, the fact that
the increases were associated with emotional expres-
sion during the Lose period and not with emotionality
during the times when the children were winning
supports the idea that it was the threat of losing that
activated the HPA system for these children.
The children showing a cortisol response were
described as more surgent by their teachers. They
were also distinguished by being lower in effortful
control. However, there was no evidence that highly
surgent children also needed to be low in effortful
control to produce these reactions. Both scores on
surgency and effortful control appeared to contribute
to the likelihood of large cortisol responses to this
competitive situation. These results are consistent
with other data on cortisol-temperament associations
among preschoolers where both surgency and effort-
ful control have been found to predict cortisol levels
and reactivity when children are in peer group settings
(Gunnar et al., 1997).
Although activation of the HPA axis was expected
to be associated with suppression of vagal tone, this
was not observed. The means were in the expected
direction, but there was suf®cient variation to produce
a null effect statistically. There was also no evidence
that changes in vagal tone either from baseline to
winning the game or from winning to losing were
associated with teacher-reported surgency or effortful
control. Vagal tone may not have been the most
sensitive measure to use as it re¯ects the parasym-
pathetic and not the sympathetic regulation of heart
rate. In other studies, measures of sympathetic
input, such as preejection period (PEP) have been
shown to covary more with activation of the HPA axis
(Berntson, Cacioppo, Binkley, Uchino, & Quigley,
1993).
In several ways the physiological and behavioral
responses of these children are reminiscent of the
Type A, coronary prone behavior pattern described in
the literature on coronary heart disease (Lundberg,
Rasch, & Westermark, 1991). This is especially the
case as tense and angry affect was observed both
among the children who showed cortisol elevations
and those who exhibited vagal tone suppression.
Because we did not design the study as an assessment
of Type A behavior in children, we did not include
questionnaires that might assess this disposition.
Studies of cortisol, heart rate, and blood pressure
10982302, 2000, 4, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/1098-2302(2000)37:4<209::AID-DEV1>3.0.CO;2-S by Universitaet De Valencia, Wiley Online Library on [02/04/2024]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
have been conducted with preschoolers attempting to
identify the antecedents of later coronary prone
behavior patterns. Generally, these studies have not
been successful in producing physiological responses
that correlate with Type A as assessed on question-
naires such as the MYTH (Matthews & Angulo, 1980;
Murray, Matthews, Blake, Prineas, & Gillum, 1986).
It is possible that the children who showed elevations
in cortisol in this study would score as more Type A
than the other children, however, without including
measures of Type A behavior we cannot know the
degree of overlap.
Several limitations qualify the ®ndings reported for
this study. First, we do not know the test±retest relia-
bility or generalizability of these ®ndings. The compe-
tition in the present game was formal, in the sense that
there would be a clear winner and loser and a prize
that was or was not obtained. Such formal competi-
tions are often avoided in preschool classrooms.
However, preschool children are often observed to
compete informally. Informal competitions include
things like trying to see who makes it ®rst to the
playground or who can go faster on one's tricycle. We
do not know whether more surgent children exhibit
cortisol responses to such informal competitions and,
thus, whether or not the present results generalize to
situations occurring frequently in young children's
lives outside the laboratory context. Second, there
were a number of children who refused to play the
game. These children were described as more shy and
dysphoric by their teachers. We do not know whether
these children might have shown elevations in cortisol
had they been required to participate. However, the
fact that shyness appeared to predict avoidance of a
competitive situation may indicate why shy children
have not always been found to have higher cortisol
levels in preschool peer group settings. Finally,
because we did not test children in situations designed
to be stressful for different temperament types, we can
say little about the relations between context,
temperament, and cortisol responsivity. It might be
that surgency is the critical temperament dimension
affecting cortisol responses to competition stress,
while shyness might be the critical temperament dim-
ension for responsivity to strange or novel events.
Because shyness contributes negatively to the sur-
gency dimension of temperament, this might mean
that children who are vulnerable to one kind of stre-
ssor are somewhat protected from the other. However,
without testing children in several situations designed
to provoke stress reactions for different reasons, we
cannot draw any conclusions on this point. None-
theless, with these limitations in mind, the present
results do strongly argue for expanding our analysis of

stress reactive temperament beyond a narrow focus on
the shy, inhibited, or fearful child.
NOTES
Portions of these data were presented at the 1998 American
Psychosomatic Society meeting and the 1999 Society for
Research in Child Development meeting. The authors thank
the teachers and children in the Shirley Moore Laboratory
Nursery School for their participation in this research, and
Tonya E. Sponem and Sarah K. Lane for their help with
behavioral coding and vagal tone collection.
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