Adrenocortical attunement in mother–child dyads: Importance of situational and behavioral characteristics

► We examine adrenocortical attunement between mothers and their children. ► We explore level of situational challenge and behavioral sensitivity as moderators. ► Dyadic adrenocortical attunement is present across the testing session. ► Adrenocortical attunement is most prominent during times of increased challenge. Synchronization of behavior, emotions and autonomic physiology in mother–child dyads is related to adaptive functioning in children. It is important to explore the possibility of “attunement”, or systematic synchronization, of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis because it is sensitive to social information processing at an unconscious level. Due to limited research in humans, the present study aimed to demonstrate mother–child cortisol attunement in a human population, and examine how behavioral sensitivity may moderate this association. Saliva samples were collected from 75 mother–child dyads during a home visit. A free-play task was used to determine behavioral sensitivity within the dyad. Findings suggest that mother–child dyads demonstrate attunement of HPA axis activity and that attunement is particularly prominent during times of increased challenge. Furthermore, results suggest factors associated with behavioral sensitivity may influence attunement within the dyad. Bidirectional synchronization of adrenocortical levels may serve to positively impact later developmental outcomes in children.