Relational victimization, friendship, and adolescents' hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis responses to an in vivo social stressor

Calhoun, Casey D.; Helms, Sarah W.; Heilbron, Nicole; Rudolph, Karen D.; Hastings, Paul D.; Prinstein, Mitchell J.

doi:10.1017/s0954579414000261

Cited by 67 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 87 publications

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“…The association between not having a best friend and the increased overall cortisol daily output in females is in line with the hypotheses of the ameliorative effects of friendships in the context of stress ( 28 ). Likewise, substance use has also been associated with altered cortisol profiles in adolescence ( 29 ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Daily salivary cortisol profile: Insights from the Croatian Late Adolescence Stress Study (CLASS)

et al. 2016

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IntroductionThe aim of the study was to examine basal hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity and to determine associations of various covariates (gender, sleep-wake rhythm, demographic, academic, life style and health-related characteristics) with altered daily salivary cortisol profiles in late adolescence.Materials and methodsThe total analytic sample consisted of 903 Croatian secondary school students aged 18 - 21 years (median 19 years). Salivary cortisol was sampled at home at three time points over the course of one week and its concentrations were measured by using the enzyme immunoassay.ResultsIn comparison to males, female students had a higher cortisol awakening response (CAR) (median 4.69, IQR 10.46 and median 3.03, IQR 8.94, respectively; P < 0.001), a steeper (“healthier”) diurnal cortisol slope (DCS) (median 0.51, IQR 0.55 and median 0.44, IQR 0.51, respectively; P = 0.001), and a greater area under curve with respect to ground (AUCG) (median 206.79, IQR 111.78 and median 191.46, IQR 104.18, respectively; P < 0.001). Those students who woke-up earlier and were awake longer, had a higher CAR (P < 0.001), a flatter (“less healthy”) DCS (P < 0.001), and a greater AUCG (P < 0.001), than students who woke-up later and were awake shorter. Less consistent but still significant predictors of salivary cortisol indexes were age, school behaviour, friendship, diet healthiness and drug abuse.ConclusionGender and sleep-wake up rhythm were major determinants of the altered daily salivary cortisol profiles in late adolescence. The predictive power of other covariates, although less clear, has a potential for identifying vulnerable subgroups such as male drug users and females without a best friend.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Daily salivary cortisol profile: Insights from the Croatian Late Adolescence Stress Study (CLASS)

et al. 2016

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“…The only time that differs is the five minutes of speech preparation when the participant is either with the parent or the friend and the time during the speech and math when the participant is alone with the assessors. Interestingly, social buffering effects have been observed when the supportive figure is present before, during, and after the stressor (e.g., Calhoun et al, 2014; Coan, Schaefer, & Davidson, 2006; Hostinar et al, 2015), but the time course of these effects (reactivity vs. recovery) likely differs depending on the timing of supportive figure’s presence.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Results indicated that, across participants, children demonstrated lower cortisol levels after a negative event when they reported being with their best friend relative to negative events without their best friend present (Adams, Santo, & Bukowski, 2011). There is also evidence that when allowed to debrief with a friend, 12- to 16-year-olds who had good quality relationships with the friend who debriefed them returned to baseline faster following a social evaluative stressor than did same-aged youth who had poor relationships with the friend who debriefed them (Calhoun et al, 2014). Of course, in both of these cases it could be that being the type of individual who can develop and maintain high quality friendships might be associated with characteristics that make one more stress-resilient.…”

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confidence: 99%

Social stress buffering by friends in childhood and adolescence: Effects on HPA and oxytocin activity

Doom

Doyle

Gunnar

2016

Social Neuroscience

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Previous research has demonstrated that before puberty, parents are able to buffer, and often completely block, cortisol responses to social evaluative stressors (e.g., Trier Social Stress Test; TSST). However, after puberty, parents no longer provide a powerful buffer of the HPA axis from a social-evaluative stressor. The current study investigates whether friends can buffer the HPA axis in both children and adolescents compared to parents and whether similar stress-ameliorating patterns can also be observed in oxytocin activity. A total of 109 participants (54 children ages 9–10 and 55 adolescents ages 15–16; half of each sex) completed the TSST and were randomly assigned to prepare for their speech with their parent or friend for 5 minutes beforehand. Salivary cortisol and urinary oxytocin were measured before and after the TSST. For children, cortisol responses were comparable regardless of who helped the child prepare the speech. For adolescents, however, friends actually amplified the cortisol response compared to parents. In addition, adolescents produced less oxytocin than children, as did males compared to females. Notably, for boys, oxytocin levels decreased across the session if participants prepared with a friend rather than their parent. The mean change was in the same direction but not significant for girls. These results indicate that friends do not take over the social buffering role by age 15–16, which may inform interventions in at-risk children and adolescents.

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“…As intimacy has been described as a key feature of the social buffering of stress (Smith et al, 2009), it is plausible that friends rather than parents may be better at helping older adolescents return to baseline after initiation of the stress response. Indeed, a study of older adolescents ages 12–16 revealed that recovering from a stressor with a friend who exhibited low negative qualities in the friendship was related to better HPA axis recovery (Calhoun et al, 2014). Our results suggest that the social changes associated with increasing age explain why parents were ineffective at helping to regulate the stress response for older adolescents in our sample.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The roles of puberty and age in explaining the diminished effectiveness of parental buffering of HPA reactivity and recovery in adolescence

Doom

Hostinar

VanZomeren-Dohm

et al. 2015

Psychoneuroendocrinology

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Parental support is a powerful regulator of stress and fear responses for infants and children, but recent evidence suggests it may be an ineffective stress buffer for adolescents. The mechanisms underlying this developmental shift are not well-understood. The goal of the present study was to examine the independent and joint contributions of pubertal status and chronological age in explaining this shift. A sample of 75 typically-developing youth (M age = 12.95 years, SD = 0.70, range = 11.7–14.6 years; 37 females) was recruited to complete a modified Trier Social Stress Test (TSST-M) in the laboratory. Participants were recruited in such a way as to disentangle pubertal stage and chronological age by phone screening for markers of pubertal stage and then recruiting roughly equal numbers of younger and older, pre/early and mid/late pubertal youth who were then randomly assigned within groups to condition. The TSST-M was used as the stressor and youth prepared either with their parent or stranger (parent condition: N = 39). Pubertal stage was confirmed by the Petersen Pubertal Development Scale at the time of testing and treated, along with chronological age, as a continuous variable in the analyses. The results revealed an interaction of pubertal stage and support condition for cortisol reactivity to the TSST-M such that preparing for the speech with the parent became a less potent buffer of the HPA axis as pubertal stage increased. Age did not interact with condition in predicting cortisol reactivity. In contrast, the parent’s presence during speech preparation decreased in its effectiveness to hasten recovery of the HPA axis as children got older, but pubertal stage was not predictive of recovery rate. These patterns were specific to cortisol and were not observed with salivary alpha-amylase levels or subjective stress ratings for the task. These analyses suggest that the switch away from using parents as social buffers may be the result of neurobiological mechanisms associated with puberty.

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Relational victimization, friendship, and adolescents' hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis responses to an in vivo social stressor

Cited by 67 publications

References 87 publications

Daily salivary cortisol profile: Insights from the Croatian Late Adolescence Stress Study (CLASS)

Daily salivary cortisol profile: Insights from the Croatian Late Adolescence Stress Study (CLASS)

Social stress buffering by friends in childhood and adolescence: Effects on HPA and oxytocin activity

The roles of puberty and age in explaining the diminished effectiveness of parental buffering of HPA reactivity and recovery in adolescence

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