Daily Stress and Cortisol Patterns in Midlife and Older Parents of Children with Developmental Disabilities.

Objective: The current study aims to investigate the association between daily stressful experiences and daily diurnal cortisol in midlife and older parents of children with developmental disabilities and a matched sample of parents of children without developmental disabilities.

Methods: Analyses were employed using data from the third wave of the National Study of Daily Experiences (NSDE 3) within the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study, a population-based sample. The study sample included 55 parents of children with developmental disabilities and 591 comparison parents who provided diurnal cortisol data.

Results: Multilevel modeling showed that parents of children with developmental disabilities exhibited a less pronounced cortisol awakening response on days when the severity of daily stressors was higher than their average level across days, a pattern that was different than in the comparison group. This finding may suggest a blunted cortisol awakening response, which aligns with previous research on parents of children with developmental disabilities and other groups facing chronic stress.

Conclusions: The current study describes a distinct pattern of cortisol response to stressful parenting, evident in midlife and older age, reflecting the lifelong impacts of parenting children with developmental disabilities.