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Integrating the measurement of salivary -amylase into studies of child health, development, and social relationships

Katie T. Kivlighan

Clancy Blair

Pennsylvania State University

Mona El-Sheikh

Jacquelyn Mize

Jared A. Lisonbee

Joseph A. Buckhalt

Auburn University

Laura R. Stroud

Brown Medical School

Kathryn Handwerger

Tufts University

Eve B. Schwartz

Salimetrics LLC, State College PA

To advance our understanding of how biological and behavioral processes interact to determine risk or resilience, theorists suggest that social developmental models will need to include multiple measurements of stress-related biological processes. Identified in the early 1990s as a surrogate marker of the sympathetic nervous system component of the stress response, salivary-amylase has not been employed to test biosocial models of stress vulnerability in the context of child development until now. In this report, we describe a standard assay that behavioral scientists can use to improve the next generation of studies and specific recommendations about sample collection, preparation, and storage are presented. More importantly, four studies are presented with mother–infant dyads (N= 86), preschoolers (N= 54), children (N = 54), and adolescents (N = 29) to illustrate individual differences in stress-related change in -amylase levels, that patterns of -amylase stress reactivity distinctly differ from those measured by salivary cortisol, and associations between individual differences in -amylase and social relationships, health, negative affectivity, cognitive/academic/behavior problems, and cardiovascular reactivity. We conclude that the integration of measurements of the adrenergic component of the locus ceruleus/autonomic (sympathetic) nervous system, as indexed by salivary -amylase, into the study of biosocial relationships may extend our understanding of child health and development to new limits.

Key Words: biosocial relationships • child development • cortisol • salivary alpha-amylase • salivary biomarkers

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