Researchers have recently proven that the body’s stress response system can be favorably altered by family intervention during the preschool years. Preschoolers involved in this recent study were considered high risk for antisocial behavior because they had an older delinquent sibling. These preschoolers displayed an atypical stress response during testing. Older youth with conduct disorders usually also have this atypical response to stress.

The cortisol levels in the preschoolers' saliva did not show a normal spike in anticipation of a stressful situation before the family intervention. Apparently, well-adjusted peers respond to socially stressful situations with increased levels of cortisol. Cortisol is the hormone released by the adrenal glands during times of stress.

The preschoolers did demonstrate increased cortisol levels after going through the family intervention. This suggests that early family intervention may cause life long changes in how people react to stressful situations, which offers hope for a wide range of mental health and health outcomes. The study chief was Dr. Laurie Miller Brotman of New York University School of Medicine. The findings of the study appear in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Families with a preschooler and an adolescent delinquent sibling participated in the study. Nearly half of the parents of the 92 families had not graduated from high school and nearly 60 percent had annual household incomes under $15,000. Most of the parents involved in the study group had suffered with depression, anxiety, and having trouble with the law as teenagers.

This study offers hope for families who are considering adopting a sibling group. Your family may be able to seek family therapy and change the way the way the younger children in the sibling group phsically respond to stress for the rest of their lives. Hopefully, this news will encourage more families to consider adopting sibling groups of children.

SOURCE: Archives of General Psychiatry, October 2007.
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