Figure 1. Morning cortisol level moderates the effect of hostile, over-reactive parenting on emergent literacy.

Note. Hostile, over-reactive parenting is centered at the mean, which represents low hostile, over-reactive parenting (2 on a scale from 1 to 7). This figure shows that, within the range from low to moderate levels of over-reactive parenting observed in this study, more hostile, over-reactive parented predicted lower emergent literacy for children with morning cortisol levels at or above the 38th percentile. For children with lower morning cortisol levels, at or below the 31^st percentile, hostile, over-reactive parenting predicted higher emergent literacy. No significant effect of hostile, over-reactive parenting on emergent literacy was detected for children with cortisol levels between the 32^nd and 37^th percentiles.