Social Buffering Over the Pubertal Transition

社会缓冲在调节压力方面的有效性似乎会随着时间的推移而减弱。 青春期的同时，压力反应增加，年轻的青少年变得更加 易受压力相关的情感病理影响然而，人们缺乏知识， 关于儿童社会缓冲的神经基础和神经系统的变化， 对青春期潜在社会缓冲的反应。其中两个拟议的实验解决了 知识的差距。此外，到目前为止，随着青春期的到来， 主要是利用下丘脑-垂体-肾上腺皮质（HPA）的活性进行检查 轴作为应力测量。所有三个拟议的实验将检查的普遍性， 通过检查交感神经和副交感神经反应的影响，除了唾液 皮质醇尿催产素也将被检查，因为它的作用作为一种抗应激激素。 最后，父母和朋友在青春期前后作为社会缓冲器的有效性 只针对社会评价压力源进行了研究。拟议的实验将 确定社交缓冲的丧失是否也像成年人一样延伸到威胁刺激 以及两个朋友一起经历压力事件的情况。最后， 这三项研究都将探讨青春期是否与性的出现有关。 父母和朋友的社会缓冲差异。参与者将是11-14岁， 护士检查的坦纳分期、沿着分期以及自我报告、睾酮和DHEA将作为指数 青春期状态我们之前的研究揭示了父母对孩子的有效性的减弱， 作为HPA轴在青春期过渡和随之而来的失败的社会缓冲 作为压力缓冲器的朋友所提出的实验是逻辑延伸， 这项工作研究结果将有可能促使人们更多地关注 社会压力缓冲中的发展中断可能是 青少年早期的情感问题

The effectiveness of social buffering in regulating stress appears to wane for a period with puberty at the same time that stress-reactivity increases and young adolescents become more vulnerable to stress-related affective pathology. However, there is a dearth of knowledge regarding the neural underpinnings of social buffering in children and the changes in neural responses to potential social buffers with puberty. Two of the proposed experiments address this gap in knowledge. In addition, to date, the loss of social buffering effectiveness with puberty has primarily been examined using activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis as the stress measure. All three proposed experiments will examine the pervasiveness of the effect by examining sympathetic and parasympathetic responses, in addition to salivary cortisol. Urinary oxytocin will also be examined because of its role as an anti-stress hormone. Finally, the effectiveness of parents and friends as social buffers during the peripubertal period has only been examined for social evaluative stressors. The proposed experiments will determine whether the loss of social buffering also extends to threat stimuli as it does in adults and to situations in which two friends are both experiencing the stressful event together. Finally, all three proposed studies will explore whether puberty is associated with an emergence of sex differences in social buffering by parents and friends. Participants will be 11-14 years old and Tanner staging by nurse exam along with self-report and testosterone and DHEA will index pubertal status. Our prior research uncovered the waning of the effectiveness of parents to serve as social buffers of the HPA axis over the pubertal transition and the concomitant failure of friends to “step in” as stress buffers. The proposed experiments are the logical extension of this work. The results will have the potential to drive significant attention to the role of developmental disruptions in social stress buffering as possible contributing factors in the rise of affective problems in the early teen years.