ABSTRACT

Objective

The goal of this study was to examine the direct and conditional effects of active coping and prior exposure to school-related stressors on cortisol reactivity and recovery in response to an academically salient, social stress task.

Method

Participants included N= 758 adolescents (50% male; M age = 12.03 years, SD = .49) enrolled in the 7th grade in Title 1 middle schools. Adolescents were predominantly ethnic minorities (62% Hispanic, 12% non-Hispanic White, 11% non-Hispanic Black, 7% Native American, and 8% “other”). Youth completed self-reported assessments of their dispositional use of active coping strategies, prior exposure to school hassles, pubertal status, medication use, and relevant demographic information. In addition, youth engaged in an academically salient group public speaking task adapted for adolescents and provided salivary cortisol sample pre-task, immediately post-task, 15-, and 30-minutes post-task.

Results

Results from piecewise latent growth curve modeling revealed that active coping independently predicted lower cortisol reactivity to the stress task. Furthermore, active coping was associated with slower cortisol recovery when adolescents reported not having experienced any school hassles in the past three months and faster recovery when having experienced several school hassles in the past three months. Results from multinomial logistic regressions revealed that greater use of active coping strategies was less likely to predict a hyper-reactive pattern of cortisol responding compared to other patterns.

Conclusion

Findings provide support for active coping as a way to promote adaptive physiological responding to school-related stressors among ethnically diverse youth residing in low-income communities.

中文翻译：

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性格主动应对可预测青少年在学校相关压力源背景下的皮质醇反应模式

 抽象的

 客观的

本研究的目的是检查积极应对和先前接触学校相关压力源对皮质醇反应和恢复的直接和条件影响，以应对学术上突出的社会压力任务。

 方法

参与者包括 N= 758 名就读 Title 1 中学 7 年级的青少年（50% 为男性；M 年龄 = 12.03 岁，SD = 0.49）。青少年主要是少数族裔（62% 为西班牙裔，12% 为非西班牙裔白人，11% 为非西班牙裔黑人，7% 为美国原住民，8% 为“其他”）。青少年完成了对积极应对策略的倾向性使用、之前在学校遇到的麻烦、青春期状况、药物使用和相关人口统计信息的自我报告评估。此外，青少年参与了一项适合青少年的学术突出小组公开演讲任务，并在任务前、任务后立即、任务后 15 分钟和 30 分钟提供唾液皮质醇样本。

 结果

分段潜在生长曲线模型的结果表明，主动应对独立地预测了皮质醇对压力任务的较低反应性。此外，当青少年表示在过去三个月内没有经历过任何学校麻烦时，积极应对与皮质醇恢复较慢有关，而当青少年在过去三个月内经历过几次学校麻烦时，积极应对与皮质醇恢复较快有关。多项逻辑回归的结果表明，与其他模式相比，更多地使用主动应对策略不太可能预测皮质醇反应的过度反应模式。

 结论

研究结果为积极应对提供了支持，作为促进居住在低收入社区的不同种族青年对学校相关压力源做出适应性生理反应的一种方式。