Psychosocial Stress But Not Exercise Increases Cortisol and Reduces State Anxiety Levels in School Classes - Results from a Stressor Applicable in Large Group Settings

Abstract

Both, psychosocial stress and exercise in the past have been used as stressors to elevate saliva cortisol and change state anxiety levels. In the present study, high-school students at the age of 14 were randomly assigned to three experimental groups: (1) an exercise group (n = 18), that was running 15 minutes at a medium intensity level of 65-75% HRmax, (2) a psychosocial stress group (n = 19), and (3) a control group (n = 18). The psychosocial stress was induced to the students by completing a standardized intelligence test under the assumption that their IQ scores would be made public in class. Results display that only psychosocial stress but not exercise was able to significantly increase cortisol levels but decreased cognitive state anxiety in adolescents. The psychosocial stress protocol applied here is proposed for use in future stress studies with children or adolescents in group settings, e.g., in school.

The implicit power motive and adolescents’ salivary cortisol responses to acute psychosocial stress and exercise in school

“…Participants did not receive financial compensation for participation. Findings of this study, but not related to the power motive, were previously reported [22,33,34].…”

“…In the school setting we used, participants with a high implicit power motive showed significantly increased salivary cortisol responses to a psychosocial stressor that only announced social evaluation. This pattern of results can be expected in situations that are unpredictable, uncontrollable, and socio-evaluative for the participants [4,22]. In our study, the results were additionally independent of the actual outcome of the test situation, meaning students did not know whether they performed well or badly in the test.…”

“…Participants were told that their intelligence quotients (IQ) would be made public in front of the class immediately after the test session. The intelligence test was used in order to create a situation over which participants had no control and that is socio-evaluative [22]. In the control group (n = 21, 11 girls), students participated in a teacher-centered lesson for 15 minutes.…”

“…Given this definition it becomes obvious that an individual high in the power motive will experience more stress if his or her reputation or status is threatened in an uncontrollable, socioevaluative situation [4]. In humans and animals alike the threat of social inferiority and social evaluation lead to higher activation of the HPA axis including elevated cortisol levels [20][21][22]. Socio-evaluative situations in research in the past were established through, for example, standardized laboratory protocols [22][23][24], athletic [25] or laboratorybased contests [26].…”

“…In humans and animals alike the threat of social inferiority and social evaluation lead to higher activation of the HPA axis including elevated cortisol levels [20][21][22]. Socio-evaluative situations in research in the past were established through, for example, standardized laboratory protocols [22][23][24], athletic [25] or laboratorybased contests [26]. This research, however, was dominantly conducted with adults while only one study focused on the power motive finding that adults high in the implicit power motive responded with higher cortisol levels if they lost the contest [26].…”