Future directions in the study of social relationships as regulators of the HPA axis across development.
Future directions in the study of social relationships as regulators of the HPA axis across development.
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DOI：
10.1080/15374416.2013.804387
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发表时间：
2013
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Gunnar MR
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Hostinar CE;Gunnar MR
许多有希望的发现支持这样一种观点，即社会关系可以抑制 HPA 轴的应激反应，并保护个体免受适应不良的心理和身体疾病状态的影响。尽管该主题与公共卫生相关，但人们对 HPA 系统社会调节的发展变化知之甚少，大多数先前的研究都集中在幼儿期和成年期。这种差距在青春期尤其引人注目，在这个年龄段，对父母作为压力缓冲来源的依赖似乎可能会减少，尽管朋友和关系伙伴作为压力缓冲的安全性可能尚不确定。此外，我们推测早期生活压力或异常的社会经历可能会影响从社会关系中获取身心健康益处的倾向，但这些想法需要更多的实证支持。最后，将社会支持与累积生活压力联系起来的研究主要依赖于自我报告的压力测量，这使得很难证明社会支持会影响慢性压力暴露的类型，而慢性压力暴露与身体和心理功能的非稳态负荷或“磨损”增加有关。最近在方法学上的进展（例如，评估头发皮质醇水平）以及使用捕获多个神经内分泌、心血管、免疫和代谢系统活动的生物标志物进行非稳态负荷综合测量，将使我们能够提出新的问题，即社会关系在多大程度上影响累积的生活压力和健康。
Many promising findings support the notion that social relationships can dampen HPA axis stress responses and protect individuals from maladaptive psychological and physical disease states. Despite the public health relevance of this topic, little is known about developmental changes in the social regulation of the HPA system, with most prior research having focused on early childhood and adulthood. This gap is particularly striking with regards to adolescence, an age period when it seems likely that reliance on parents as sources of stress-buffering decreases, even as the security of friends and relationship partners as stress buffers may not yet be certain. Furthermore, we speculate that early life stress or abnormal social experiences may impact the propensity to draw mental and physical health benefits from social relationships, but more empirical support for these ideas is needed. Lastly, research linking social support to cumulative life stress has mostly relied on self-report measures of stress, making it difficult to show that social support impacts the type of chronic stress exposure that is associated with increased allostatic load or “wear and tear” on the body and on psychological functioning. Recent advancements in methodology (e.g., assessing hair cortisol levels) as well as composite measures of allostatic load using biomarkers that capture the activity of multiple neuroendocrine, cardiovascular, immune, and metabolic systems will allow us to ask new questions about the extent to which social relationships can impact cumulative life stress and health.