School of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Australia.
Medical Faculty, Institute of Medical Sociology, University of Duesseldorf, Duesseldorf, Germany.
Stress. 2020 Mar;23(2):136-143. doi: 10.1080/10253890.2019.1651285. Epub 2019 Aug 10.
Compared with age-matched employees, university students report higher levels of chronic stress and this may affect their decision-making. The impact of chronic stress and physiological reactivity upon cognitive function is receiving more attention, but few studies have empirically assessed the associations of these variables concurrently. Our aim was to investigate if chronic student stress, as assessed by effort-reward imbalance (ERI) and overcommitment, and physiological reactivity, were related to decision-making. As measures of physiological reactivity, we collected salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) and continuously recorded heart rate variability (HRV) data from male students ( = 79) at pretest and immediately after some computerized decision-making tasks (simple and choice- reaction times). Our findings suggest that students who are higher in overcommitment and who are more physiologically reactive (sAA and HRV indices) at the pretest stage may be more "at-risk" of poor decision-making than others. If others can replicate our findings in more diverse samples, this will contribute to an evidence base for interventions targeted at reducing overcommitment, ERI, and dysregulated autonomic reactivity to improve decision-making.
与年龄匹配的员工相比，大学生报告称他们承受着更高水平的慢性压力，这可能会影响他们的决策能力。慢性压力和生理反应对认知功能的影响越来越受到关注，但很少有研究从实证的角度同时评估这些变量之间的关系。我们的目的是研究慢性学生压力（通过工作投入-回报失衡和过度投入来评估）和生理反应是否与决策有关。作为生理反应的测量指标，我们从男学生（n=79）那里收集了唾液α-淀粉酶（sAA）和连续记录的心率变异性（HRV）数据，这些学生在预测试和一些计算机化决策任务（简单和选择反应时间）后立即进行了测试。我们的研究结果表明，在预测试阶段，过度投入程度较高且生理反应较强（sAA 和 HRV 指数）的学生，其决策可能比其他人更“有风险”。如果其他人能在更多样化的样本中复制我们的发现，这将有助于为减少过度投入、工作投入-回报失衡和自主反应失调以改善决策能力的干预措施提供证据基础。
