Beschreibung:
<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Caring for an offspring diagnosed with a psychological chronic disorder is used in research as a model of chronic stress. Indeed, it is usually associated with disturbances in the salivary cortisol (Csal) levels of the caregiver. An imbalance between salivary testosterone (Tsal) and Csal levels is a marker of proneness to social aggression. Given this, we aimed to establish whether the salivary testosterone/cortisol (Tsal/Csal) ratio response to acute stress could be employed as a marker of proneness to anger in informal caregivers of offspring with autism spectrum (ASD). Tsal/Csal ratio and anger responses to a set of different cognitive tasks as well as anger trait and expression were compared in these informal caregivers and controls. Caregivers, particularly those of offspring with ASD, had higher Tsal/Csal ratios than controls in response to acute stress, concretely after the stress in the case of fathers (<jats:italic>p</jats:italic> = .05) and before stress when analyzing mothers (<jats:italic>p</jats:italic> = .05). Moreover, ASD fathers and mothers obtained higher magnitude of the T/C ratio response to stress (<jats:italic>p</jats:italic> = .03 and <jats:italic>p</jats:italic> =.04, respectively), anger state (<jats:italic>p</jats:italic> = .02 and <jats:italic>p</jats:italic> = .02, respectively) and expression scores (<jats:italic>p</jats:italic> = .05 and <jats:italic>p</jats:italic> = .05, respectively) than controls. Finally, high Tsal/Csal ratio levels and response to stress were significantly associated with high anger feelings increases (<jats:italic>p</jats:italic> < .01 and <jats:italic>p</jats:italic> < .001, respectively), trait (<jats:italic>p</jats:italic> < .001 and <jats:italic>p</jats:italic> > .05, respectively) and expression (<jats:italic>p</jats:italic> < .05 and <jats:italic>p</jats:italic> > .05, respectively) in caregivers.</jats:p>