Department of Developmental, Personality, and Social Psychology, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, Ghent, 9000, Belgium.
Department of Developmental and Educational Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol. 2024 May;52(5):757-771. doi: 10.1007/s10802-023-01156-8. Epub 2023 Nov 27.
This study examined the extent to which adolescent peer victimization predicted acute inflammatory responses to stress, and whether both resting parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity and PNS stress reactivity moderated this association. 83 adolescents (M = 14.89, SD = 0.52, 48% female) reported their history of peer victimization and were exposed to a standardized social stress task before and after which dried blood spot samples were collected to assay inflammatory markers. Inflammatory responses to the stress task were assessed with a latent inflammatory change factor using the cytokines interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-10 (IL-10), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). PNS functioning, indexed by high-frequency heart rate variability, was measured at rest and during the stressor. Contrary to hypotheses, analyses revealed no direct relation between peer victimization and acute inflammatory responses, and resting PNS activity did not moderate this association. However, peer victimization predicted stronger inflammatory responses among adolescents with weaker PNS reactivity to the stress task (b = 0.63, p = .02). This association was not observed among adolescents with stronger PNS reactivity, for whom a negative but non-significant trend was found. Weaker PNS reactivity may thus indicate victimized adolescents' vulnerability for acute inflammatory responses, whereas stronger PNS reactivity may indicate adolescents' resilience to a social stressor.
本研究考察了青少年同伴侵害对压力下急性炎症反应的预测程度，以及静息副交感神经系统（PNS）活动和 PNS 应激反应是否都调节了这种关联。83 名青少年（M=14.89，SD=0.52，48%为女性）报告了他们的同伴侵害史，并在经历了标准化的社会压力任务后，在任务前后采集了干血斑样本以检测炎症标志物。使用细胞因子白细胞介素-6（IL-6）、白细胞介素-10（IL-10）和肿瘤坏死因子-α（TNF-α）的潜炎性变化因子评估对压力任务的炎症反应。PNS 功能，由高频心率变异性表示，在休息时和应激时进行测量。与假设相反，分析显示同伴侵害与急性炎症反应之间没有直接关系，静息 PNS 活性也没有调节这种关联。然而，同伴侵害预测了对压力任务的 PNS 反应较弱的青少年的更强的炎症反应（b=0.63，p=0.02）。在 PNS 反应较强的青少年中没有观察到这种关联，他们的炎症反应呈负相关但无统计学意义。因此，较弱的 PNS 反应可能表明受侵害的青少年对急性炎症反应的脆弱性，而较强的 PNS 反应可能表明青少年对社会应激源的弹性。
