Steiner Hans, Ryst Erika, Berkowitz Jessica, Gschwendt Miriam A, Koopman Cheryl
Division of Child Psychiatry and Child Development, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California 94305-5719, USA.
J Adolesc Health. 2002 Apr;30(4 Suppl):14-21. doi: 10.1016/s1054-139x(01)00387-1.
To examine gender differences in heart rate and reports of negative and positive affect among adolescents during a speech task.
Subjects were 133 adolescents, 73 girls and 60 boys, ages 14-18 years. Subjects were randomly assigned to speak for 10 minutes and asked either to free associate or to describe the most stressful event in their lives. Their heart rate was assessed at baseline and at 5 and 10 minutes after the task began. Self-ratings of negative and positive affect were assessed at baseline and at 10 minutes after the beginning of the task. Data were analyzed by Student's t-tests for independent samples, analyses of covariance, and Spearman rank-order correlation coefficients.
Girls rated their negative affect significantly higher at baseline in comparison to boys. In addition, girls had a higher baseline heart rate. However, boys' increase in heart rate 5 minutes into the speech task was significantly greater than that of girls. Also, the free association task elicited significantly greater increases in heart rate compared to a task in which the adolescent described his or her most stressful life event. However, the stressful event task elicited greater negative and less positive affect. Significant relationships between change in heart rate and ratings of post-task affect were found among girls but not among boys, suggesting that the girls' ratings of their affect are more congruent with their physiological reactions to a stressful speech task.
These results suggest that gender and task differences must be considered in assessing adolescents' stress.
研究青少年在演讲任务期间心率以及消极和积极情绪报告方面的性别差异。
研究对象为133名14 - 18岁的青少年，其中73名女孩和60名男孩。研究对象被随机分配进行10分钟的演讲，并被要求自由联想或描述他们生活中最具压力的事件。在基线时以及任务开始后5分钟和10分钟对他们的心率进行评估。在基线时以及任务开始后10分钟对消极和积极情绪进行自我评定。数据通过独立样本的学生t检验、协方差分析和斯皮尔曼等级相关系数进行分析。
与男孩相比，女孩在基线时对自己消极情绪的评定显著更高。此外，女孩的基线心率更高。然而，在演讲任务进行到5分钟时，男孩的心率增加幅度显著大于女孩。而且，与青少年描述自己生活中最具压力事件的任务相比，自由联想任务引起的心率增加显著更大。然而，压力事件任务引发了更大的消极情绪和更少的积极情绪。在女孩中发现了心率变化与任务后情绪评定之间的显著关系，而在男孩中未发现，这表明女孩对自己情绪的评定与其对压力演讲任务的生理反应更一致。
这些结果表明，在评估青少年的压力时必须考虑性别和任务差异。
