Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, USA.
Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, USA.
Child Psychiatry Hum Dev. 2024 Dec;55(6):1701-1711. doi: 10.1007/s10578-023-01521-0. Epub 2023 Mar 30.
Both social support and social stress can impact adolescent physiology including hormonal responses during the sensitive transition to adolescence. Social support from parents continues to play an important role in socioemotional development during adolescence. Sources of social support and stress may be particularly impactful for adolescents with social anxiety symptoms. The goal of the current study was to examine whether adolescent social anxiety symptoms and maternal comfort moderated adolescents' hormonal response to social stress and support. We evaluated 47 emotionally healthy 11- to 14-year-old adolescents' cortisol and oxytocin reactivity to social stress and support using a modified version of the Trier Social Stress Test for Adolescents that included a maternal comfort paradigm. Findings demonstrated that adolescents showed significant increases in cortisol and significant decreases in oxytocin following the social stress task. Subsequently, we found that adolescents showed significant decreases in cortisol and increases in oxytocin following the maternal comfort paradigm. Adolescents with greater social anxiety symptoms showed higher levels of cortisol at baseline but greater declines in cortisol response following maternal social support. Social anxiety symptoms were unrelated to oxytocin response to social stress or support. Our findings provide further evidence that mothers play a key role in adolescent regulation of physiological response, particularly if the stressor is consistent with adolescents' anxiety. More specifically, our findings suggest that adolescents with higher social anxiety symptoms show greater sensitivity to maternal social support following social stressors. Encouraging parents to continue to serve as a supportive presence during adolescent distress may be helpful for promoting stress recovery during the vulnerable transition to adolescence.
社会支持和社会压力都可以影响青少年的生理机能，包括在青春期这个敏感过渡期间的激素反应。来自父母的社会支持在青少年的社会情感发展中继续发挥着重要作用。社会支持和压力的来源可能对患有社交焦虑症的青少年特别有影响。本研究的目的是检验青少年社交焦虑症状和母亲安慰是否调节了青少年对社会压力和支持的激素反应。我们使用青少年特里尔社会应激测试的修改版评估了 47 名情绪健康的 11 至 14 岁青少年的皮质醇和催产素对社会压力和支持的反应，该测试包括母亲安慰范式。研究结果表明，青少年在经历社会压力任务后皮质醇显著增加，催产素显著减少。随后，我们发现青少年在经历母亲安慰范式后皮质醇显著减少，催产素增加。社交焦虑症状更严重的青少年在基线时皮质醇水平更高，但在接受母亲的社会支持后皮质醇反应下降幅度更大。社交焦虑症状与催产素对社会压力或支持的反应无关。我们的研究结果进一步证明，母亲在青少年生理反应调节中起着关键作用，尤其是当压力源与青少年的焦虑一致时。更具体地说，我们的研究结果表明，社交焦虑症状更严重的青少年在经历社会压力源后对母亲的社会支持更为敏感。鼓励父母在青少年感到压力时继续充当支持的存在，这可能有助于促进青春期脆弱过渡期间的压力恢复。
