Depression history as a moderator of relations between cortisol and shame responses to social-evaluative threat in young adults

• Stressors involving social-evaluative threat elicit cortisol and shame responses.
• The association between cortisol and shame may differ by depression history.
• Remitted- (n = 56) and never-depressed (n = 46) young adults completed a stress task.
• Higher cortisol levels predicted increases in shame in never-depressed adults.
• Cortisol levels were unrelated to shame responses in remitted-depressed adults.

Changes in cortisol and shame are commonly elicited by psychosocial stressors involving social-evaluative threat. According to social self preservation theory, this coordinated psychobiological response is adaptive. Individuals with a history of depression, however, may exhibit diminished cortisol reactivity to acute stressors, which could interfere with coordinated cortisol and shame responses. The present study examined temporal relations between cortisol and shame responses to a psychosocial stress task in young adults who varied in their history of depression (56 remitted-depressed, 46 never-depressed). Lagged effects multilevel models revealed that depression history moderated relations between cortisol levels and shame ratings 25–55 min later. The pattern of these interactions was similar: whereas higher cortisol levels predicted increases in shame in never-depressed individuals, cortisol levels were unrelated to shame responses in remitted-depressed individuals. Findings suggest a dissociation between cortisol and shame responses to stress in individuals with a history of depression.