The Father-Daughter Dance: The Relationship Between Father-Daughter Relationship Quality and Daughters' Stress Response

The goal of the study was to determine whether father daughter relationship quality is related to activity of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis (salivary cortisol) and autonomic nervous system (salivary alpha-amylase, sAA) in late adolescence emerging adulthood during peer interactions. In the 1st study, reported father daughter relationships characterized by rejection, chaos, and coercion had lower morning cortisol levels and were temperamentally more sensitive to emotional changes. In the 2nd study, young women who reported father daughter relationships characterized by warmth, autonomy, support, and structure had lower pretask cortisol levels, and they had attenuated cortisol responses to problem discussion with a friend. In contrast, those who reported father daughter relationships characterized by rejection, chaos, and coercion had higher pretask cortisol levels, had elevated cortisol in response to problem discussion with a friend, and were more likely to self-disclose about psychosocial stressors. No differences were observed between reported father daughter relationship quality and sAA levels or task-related reactivity. The findings suggest that father daughter interactions potentially influence both social cognition and HPA reactivity to developmentally salient stressors in young women.