Brandon J. Auer

Penn State College of Medicine

The purpose of this study was to investigate the feasibility, acceptability, and short-term adherence to an adult outdoor group sport play program designed to maximize enjoyment that was modified to incorporate COVID-19 risk mitigation strategies. We enrolled 17 healthy, but sedentary, central Pennsylvania adults (mean age = 31.6 ± 7.3) without obe...

Background: Few Americans accumulate enough physical activity (PA) to realize its benefits. Understanding how and why individuals use their discretionary time for different forms of PA could help identify and rectify issues that drive individuals away from certain physical activities, and leverage successful strategies to increase participation in...

Despite the inverse relationship between physical activity (PA) and physical function, few older adults achieve PA recommendations. In response to observations that “lack of time” underlies reduced PA among older adults, recent work suggests even short bouts of PA can improve health and fitness. In addition, because they are frequently visited by o...

Despite the myriad benefits associated with regular physical activity (PA), few American adults accrue sufficient weekly PA. Though “lack of time” is often cited as a correlate of physical inactivity, a growing body of evidence suggests that, perhaps more importantly, people allocate their limited leisure-time to activities they find more enjoyable...

div>Adversity is a pervasive feature of human life, often contributing to poor physical and mental health outcomes. While social support can buffer against the negative consequences associated with stressful life events, the conditions under which people seek to establish potentially protective social ties with others in times of distress require...

Peer rejection and acceptance experiences are commonplace with potential to promote emotional and adrenocortical stress reactivity. Risk for heightened stress reactivity during these social challenges may be influenced by individual differences in social interaction anxiety (SIA) and the common gene variant, OXTR rs53576, but this relationship rema...

Background: Few adults in the United States obtain sufficient physical activity (PA) despite knowledge of the associated health benefits. The current feasibility study examined the feasibility of a novel modified sports intervention designed to promote enjoyment and sustained PA in sedentary adults. Methods: The US adults (N = 22, mean age 39.2...

Mental health programs to improve problem-solving skills and reduce stress through social gameplay can improve psychiatric outcomes, but little is known about whether adult patients are interested in using them. Primary care patients (n = 467) completed a cross-sectional survey to assess interest in using 2 types of group programs for mental health...

BACKGROUND Positive affect journaling (PAJ), an emotion-focused self-regulation intervention, has been associated with positive outcomes among medical populations. It may be adapted for Web-based dissemination to address a need for scalable, evidence-based psychosocial interventions among distressed patients with medical conditions. OBJECTIVE This...

Background Positive affect journaling (PAJ), an emotion-focused self-regulation intervention, has been associated with positive outcomes among medical populations. It may be adapted for Web-based dissemination to address a need for scalable, evidence-based psychosocial interventions among distressed patients with medical conditions. Objective This...

Background: Worry or fear related to speaking in front of others, or more broadly, communicating and interacting with others, is common. At elevated levels, however, it may contribute to heightened stress reactivity during acute speaking challenges. The purpose of this study was to examine multi-system physiological stress reactivity in the contex...

Fewer adults meet guidelines for aerobic physical activity, and many report a lack of enjoyment as a barrier. This survey was designed to determine the interest of primary care patients in participating in program designed to maximize enjoyment. Primary care patients (n = 540) in Central Pennsylvania reported their interest in participating in a "a...

The study tested the hypothesis that variation in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR rs53576) and self-report of rejection sensitivity are associated with adrenocortical reactivity to social stress. Participants (N=94; 36.17% male; Mage=20.18yrs; 62.8% Caucasian) completed a writing task on a salient problem in society, provided self-report via quest...

Intrasexual competition is seen in many species and involves competition for access to members of the opposite sex. The article examines different elements of intrasexual competition. It begins by examining the evolutionary dynamics of intrasexual competition. It goes onto discuss how and why it is expressed differently for males and females. Behav...

Social hierarchies and physiology are intricately linked, but these associations have not been well studied in adolescence, typically a time of increased focus on social status. Three studies were conducted to better understand the relationship between social dominance, personality and related physiological responses of adolescents upon hierarchy f...

This study examined sex differences in salivary cortisol responses to experimental stressors and subsequent desire to affiliate in the context of mortality cues following the Tend-and-Befriend model. Participants were randomly assigned to a mortality salience prime or a control condition. They were then assigned to view a video of crying infants or...

The goal of the study was to determine whether father-daughter relationship quality is related to activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis (salivary cortisol) and autonomic nervous system (salivary alpha-amylase, sAA) in late adolescence-emerging adulthood during peer interactions. In the 1st study, reported father-daughter relatio...

Young women typically use same-sex friendships as a source of social support during times of stress. However, friendship interactions that are characterized by co-rumination, excessive problem discussion and negative affect focus, while related to quality friendships, are also related to internalizing symptoms. The goal of the current study was to...