Positive coping supports children's emotional wellness: Behavioral evidence and neuroendocrine mechanisms

A positive coping style is recognized as a stable disposition to promote psychological resilience and emotional wellness, enabling an adaptive process of assessing the environment and dealing with future challenges. Such adaptive process is believed to involve a nuanced interplay of the hippocampal system and the primary stress hormone cortisol activity. As a hallmark of diurnal cortisol rhythm, cortisol awakening response (CAR) is sensitive to upcoming stress and subserves preparation of the hippocampal system for rapid behavioral adaption. Yet, little is known how the hippocampal system and CAR contribute to the merit of positive coping on emotional wellness. Methods: In Study 1, we examined the effects of positive coping on children's emotional regulation skill, trait and state anxiety as well as CAR in 89 children. In Study 2, we further investigated the effects of positive coping and CAR on longitudinal changes in hippocampal-neurocortical functional organizatioon involved in emotional processing. Results: Behaviorally, positive coping predicted better emotional regulation ability, but lower anxiety and lower response caution in emotional decision-making. At a neuroendocrinal level, positive coping associated with greater CAR predictd higher hippocampal connectivity with ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (vlPFC) and stimulus-sensitive neurocortex one year later. Moreover, CAR mediated an indirect association between positive coping and longitudinal increases in hippocampal-neocortical connectivity. Positive coping and CAR together accounted for the maturity of vlPFC through longitudinal changes in hippocampal-neocortical connectivity. Conclusion: Our findings suggest a cognitive neuroendocrinal mechanism through which positive coping shapes hippocampal-neocortical maturation via stress hormone response to support emotional wellness. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest.