Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
J Abnorm Child Psychol. 2013 Jul;41(5):749-58. doi: 10.1007/s10802-013-9713-4.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate how psychological stress, gender and cortisol response to stress relate to risk behavior among 132 14-18 year old adolescents. Participants completed a laboratory based risk task prior to and immediately after a computerized psychological stress task, and salivary cortisol was collected from pre-stress to 60 min following initial stress exposure. Results indicate that adolescent boys (n = 59) and girls (n = 73) demonstrate different patterns of risk taking (RT) in response to stress, such that boys evidenced an increase in RT following stress exposure, whereas girls evidenced a decrease in RT. In addition, a gender by cortisol interaction demonstrated that for boys, both a smaller total cortisol output (AUCg) and peak cortisol response to stress (PC) was associated with greater stress-induced RT. Both cortisol measures were unrelated to stress-induced RT among girls. Taken together, data suggest that among boys, a blunted cortisol response to stress underlies an increase in risk taking in the context of psychological stress. Further research with an additional behavioral stress task is needed prior to drawing conclusions regarding the relation between female gender, cortisol response to stress, and risk taking in the context of psychological stress.
本研究旨在评估心理压力、性别和皮质醇对应激的反应如何与 132 名 14-18 岁青少年的风险行为相关。参与者在进行基于实验室的风险任务之前和之后立即进行计算机化的心理压力任务，并在初始压力暴露前至 60 分钟收集唾液皮质醇。结果表明，青少年男孩（n=59）和女孩（n=73）在应激反应中表现出不同的冒险行为（RT）模式，即男孩在应激暴露后 RT 增加，而女孩 RT 减少。此外，性别与皮质醇的相互作用表明，对于男孩来说，皮质醇总输出量（AUCg）和应激时皮质醇峰值反应（PC）较小与应激诱导的 RT 增加有关。皮质醇这两个指标与女孩的应激诱导 RT 无关。总之，数据表明，在男孩中，皮质醇对应激的反应迟钝是心理应激下冒险行为增加的基础。在得出关于女性性别、皮质醇对应激的反应和心理应激下冒险行为之间关系的结论之前，还需要进行额外的行为应激任务的研究。
