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a–c Mean Scores of Psychological Stress Response Scores (a), Heart Rate Variances (b) and Cortisol Change Scores (c)
Source publication
The present study examined the effects of a new frustration-provoking stressor, the Frustration Social Stressor for Adolescents (FSS-A), on psychological and physiological stress responses, compared to a well-established anxiety-provoking stressor, an adapted version of the Trier Social Stress Test for Teenagers (TSST-T) and a Low-Stress (LS) contr...
Citations
... Further, as mentioned above, a more anxiety-provoking or frustrationprovoking stressor could be a better choice to influence stress and cortisol levels of participants. 59 Despite the above-mentioned limitations, the current study expands the actual knowledge about cortisol reactivity in youth with obesity and may provide important clinical implications. When the influence of alexithymia and attachment avoidance can be replicated in future research, it could expose relevant treatment targets for youth with obesity. ...
Background
Despite previous research pointing out a bifurcation in cortisol stress reactivity, it is not yet clear if all variables explaining inter‐individual differences in stress responses are captured.
Objectives
To explore which (psychosocial and demographic) variables predict the cortisol response after a standardized stress‐and affective state (SAS)‐induction in youth with overweight and obesity.
Methods
As part of a randomized control trial (SRCTN83822934) investigating the effects of emotion regulation (ER)‐training on top of a 10‐month inpatient multidisciplinary obesity treatment, 79 children and adolescents (9–15 years) with moderate obesity (M adjusted BMI = 154.35% overweight, SD = 24.57) completed a SAS‐induction before leaving the clinic.
Results
Those whose cortisol levels decreased (N = 59.5%) from baseline to reactivity showed higher levels of alexithymia than increasers (p = 0.049). Attachment avoidance was a significant positive predictor of relative cortisol decrease after SAS‐induction (p = 0.001). Age was significantly related to less cortisol decrease (p = 0.006). No significant effect of ER‐intervention group on relative cortisol change was found.
Conclusions
The current study provides evidence for a bifurcation in cortisol stress reactivity in youth with obesity. Our data further suggested that psychosocial variables (alexithymia and attachment avoidance) influence the cortisol stress response. Future research should further explore whether the attenuators are a more vulnerable group.
... Building on previous research on the Frustration Social Stressor for Adolescents (FSS-A, Cameron et al., 2017;McKay et al., 2021;Pollak et al., 2019), a laboratory-based frustration-provoking psychosocial stressor, the present study examines teenagers' attachments to parents and peers, trait anger and anxiety, and internalizing and externalizing behavioral indices in relation to their coping during the FSS-A. Specifically, we hypothesized that (1) more positive parental and peer attachment are related to greater use of adaptive coping (i.e., primary control engagement and secondary control engagement) and less use of maladaptive coping (i.e., primary control disengagement, secondary control disengagement, involuntary engagement, and involuntary disengagement) during psychosocial stress; (2) higher levels of internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems are predictive of more use of maladaptive coping and less use of adaptive coping; and (3) higher trait anger and/or trait anxiety are related to more extensive use of maladaptive coping. ...
Background
Certain individual factors are associated with adaptive and effective stress-coping strategies, which can buffer the negative impact of stress on mental and physical health.
Objective
The present study investigated adolescents’ coping responses to a psychosocial stressor with respect to their self-reported attachment relationships, trait affects, and parent-reported internalizing and externalizing behaviors.
Methods
Early adolescents from a community sample were tasked to cope with a frustration-provoking stressor, the Frustration Social Stressor for Adolescents (FSS-A). We conducted correlational and regression analyses between individual differences measures (parental and peer attachment, trait anger and anxiety, and externalizing and internalizing behaviors) and stress-coping responses.
Results
Detailed correlations were delineated among all variables. Subsequently, regression analyses revealed that positive parental attachment significantly predicted low levels of maladaptive involuntary disengagement coping with stress; greater trait anger predicted higher levels of involuntary engagement coping; and greater trait anxiety predicted higher levels of secondary control disengagement coping.
Conclusion
Early adolescents reporting higher levels of trait anger or trait anxiety tended to use fewer adaptive coping strategies under a frustrating stressor while those with more positive parental attachment were less likely to engage in maladaptive strategies. These findings contribute to previous literature by identifying the association between parental attachment, trait affect, and the utilization of coping strategies. These findings have important practical insights into designing stress-coping interventions for teenagers.
... Adolescence is a period characterized by continuous changes at the physical, emotional, cognitive, and social levels, and these fluctuations can become a source of stress. In their everyday lives, adolescents are exposed to many stressful situations that induce specific emotions (e.g., sadness, fear, guilt, etc.) which can trigger emotion regulation (ER) and coping processes [1,2]. ER is a process that is relevant to adaptive functioning and through which individuals influence how they experience and express emotions [3]. ...
This study explored the association between temperament—i.e., positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA)—and emotion regulation (ER), and what momentary factors influence the selection of rumination or reappraisal during adolescents’ daily life. The type of social situation in which negative events occurred, the self-rated degrees of discomfort, the types of predominant emotions experienced, and the use of reappraisal and rumination were assessed at 24 different times with an ecological momentary assessment approach given to 71 adolescents. PA, NA, and ER style were evaluated using self-reports. Bivariate Pearson correlations analysis revealed that NA and negative ER style correlated positively with the rumination use whereas PA correlated negatively with the rumination use. Negative ER style moderated the relationship between NA and the frequency with which rumination was used. The moderated function of positive ER style could not be tested due to its lack of association with the rumination use. Adolescents selected rumination more often during family-related events and when experiencing depression-like emotions. No interaction effects were shown between negative ER style and the momentary factors related with the type of social situation and the type of prevailing emotion during negative event. No associations between study variables and reappraisal were found. This study provides a better understanding of ER patterns in adolescence.
Objective:
Irritability, typically defined as a proneness to anger, particularly in response to frustration, falls at the intersection of emotion and disruptive behavior. Despite well-defined translational models, there are few convergent findings regarding the pathophysiology of irritability. Most studies utilize computer-based tasks to examine neural responses to frustration, with little work examining stress-related responding to frustration in social contexts. The present study is the first to utilize the novel Frustration Social Stressor for Adolescents (FSS-A) to examine associations between adolescent irritability and psychological and physiological responses to frustration.
Method:
The FSS-A was completed by a predominantly male, racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse sample of 64 12- to 17-year-olds, who were originally recruited as children with varying levels of irritability. Current irritability was assessed using the Multidimensional Assessment Profiles-Temper Loss scale (MAP-TL-Youth). Adolescents rated state anger and anxiety before and after the FSS-A, and usable salivary cortisol data were collected from 43 participants.
Results:
Higher MAP-TL-Youth scores were associated with greater increases in anger during the FSS-A, but not increases in anxiety, or alterations in cortisol. Pre-task state anger negatively predicted the slope of the rise in cortisol observed in anticipation of the FSS-A.
Conclusions:
Results provide support for unique associations between adolescent irritability and anger during, and in anticipation of, frustrating social interactions. Such findings lay a foundation for future work aimed at informing physiological models and intervention targets.
Anxiety plays an important protective role in people against life-threatening factors. Accordingly, in the face of the emergence of life-threatening diseases such as the COVID-19 pandemic, concerns about the health of individuals may arise with anxiety. Heath anxiety occurs when perceived bodily sensations or changes, including but not limited to those related to infectious diseases (e.g., fever, coughing, aching muscles), are interpreted as symptoms of being ill. Most people experience some degree of health anxiety, which is a protective factor against health threats. Health anxiety plays an auxiliary role in recognizing the early signs of health damage and promotes health-promoting behaviors. When the level of health anxiety of people in the community is out of moderation, both when the rate increases or decreases from the desired level, it can cause harm and problems to people in the community in a different way. Therefore, an appropriate level of health anxiety is beneficial for individuals and it could be helpful for the prevention of the COVID-19 outbreak, which is an extremely contagious disease. © 2020 Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences. All rights reserved.
