Showing papers on "Stressor published in 2016"

Priming and memory of stress responses in organisms lacking a nervous system.

Abstract: Experience and memory of environmental stimuli that indicate future stress can prepare (prime) organismic stress responses even in species lacking a nervous system The process through which such organisms prepare their phenotype for an improved response to future stress has been termed 'priming' However, other terms are also used for this phenomenon, especially when considering priming in different types of organisms and when referring to different stressors Here we propose a conceptual framework for priming of stress responses in bacteria, fungi and plants which allows comparison of priming with other terms, eg adaptation, acclimation, induction, acquired resistance and cross protection We address spatial and temporal aspects of priming and highlight current knowledge about the mechanisms necessary for information storage which range from epigenetic marks to the accumulation of (dormant) signalling molecules Furthermore, we outline possible patterns of primed stress responses Finally, we link the ability of organisms to become primed for stress responses (their 'primability') with evolutionary ecology aspects and discuss which properties of an organism and its environment may favour the evolution of priming of stress responses

The Concept of Stress in Fish

Abstract: 1. Introduction 1.1. What Is Stress? 1.2. Dynamics of the Stress Response and Effects on Performance 1.3. Contemporary View of the GAS: Eustress versus Distress 1.4. Sensory Systems and Perception 1.5. Adaptation versus Nonadaptation Aspects of the Stress Response 1.6. Key Unknowns The general physiological response of fish to threatening situations, as with all vertebrates, is referred to as stress. A stress response is initiated almost immediately following the perception of a stressor. Mildly stressful situations can have beneficial or positive effects (eustress), while higher severities induce adaptive responses but also can have maladaptive or negative consequences (distress). The stress response is initiated and controlled by two hormonal systems, those leading to the production of corticosteroids (mainly cortisol) and catecholamines (such as adrenaline and noradrenaline and their precursor dopamine). Together these regulate the secondary stress response factors that alter the distribution of necessary resources such as energy sources and oxygen to vital areas of the body, as well as compromise hydromineral imbalance and the immune system. If fish can resist death due to a stressor, they recover to a similar or somewhat similar homeostatic norm. Long-term consequences of repeated or prolonged exposures to stress are maladaptive by negatively affecting other necessary life functions (growth, development, disease resistance, behavior, and reproduction), in large part because of the energetic cost associated with mounting the stress response (allostatic load). There is considerable variation in how fish respond to a stressor because of genetic differences among different taxa and also within stocks and species. Variations within the stress response are introduced by the environmental history of the fish, present ambient environmental conditions, and the fish's present physiological condition. Currently, fish physiology has progressed to the point where we can easily recognize when fish are stressed, but we cannot always recognize when fish are unstressed because the lack of clinical signs of stress does not always correspond to fish being unstressed. In other words, we need to be aware of the possibility of false negatives regarding clinical signs of stress. In addition, we cannot use clinical data to precisely or accurately infer severity of a stressor.

The psychological response to injury in student athletes: a narrative review with a focus on mental health

Abstract: Background Injury is a major stressor for athletes and one that can pose significant challenges. Student athletes must handle rigorous academic as well as athletic demands that require time as well as significant physical requirements. Trying to perform and succeed in the classroom and on the playing field has become more difficult as the demands and expectations have increased. If an athlete is injured, these stressors increase. Main thesis Stress is an important antecedent to injuries and can play a role in the response to, rehabilitation and return to play after injury. The psychological response to injury can trigger and/or unmask mental health issues including depression and suicidal ideation, anxiety, disordered eating, and substance use/abuse. There are barriers to mental health treatment in athletes. They often consider seeking help as a sign of weakness, feeling that they should be able to ‘push through’ psychological obstacles as they do physical ones. Athletes may not have developed healthy coping behaviours making response to injury especially challenging. Purpose I discuss the current state of knowledge regarding the psychological response to injury and delineate resources necessary to direct the injured athlete to a mental health care provider if appropriate.

Life Stress and Health: A Review of Conceptual Issues and Recent Findings.

Abstract: Life stress is a central construct in many models of human health and disease. The present article reviews research on stress and health, with a focus on (a) how life stress has been conceptualized and measured over time, (b) recent evidence linking stress and disease, and (c) mechanisms that might underlie these effects. Emerging from this body of work is evidence that stress is involved in the development, maintenance, or exacerbation of several mental and physical health conditions, including asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, anxiety disorders, depression, cardiovascular disease, chronic pain, human immunodeficiency virus/AIDS, stroke, and certain types of cancer. Stress has also been implicated in accelerated biological aging and premature mortality. These effects have been studied most commonly using self-report checklist measures of life stress exposure, although interview-based approaches provide a more comprehensive assessment of individuals' exposure to stress. Most recently, online systems like the Stress and Adversity Inventory (STRAIN) have been developed for assessing lifetime stress exposure, and such systems may provide important new information to help advance our understanding of how stressors occurring over the life course get embedded in the brain and body to affect lifespan health.

Predicting the synergy of multiple stress effects

Abstract: Toxicants and other, non-chemical environmental stressors contribute to the global biodiversity crisis. Examples include the loss of bees and the reduction of aquatic biodiversity. Although non-compliance with regulations might be contributing, the widespread existence of these impacts suggests that for example the current approach of pesticide risk assessment fails to protect biodiversity when multiple stressors concurrently affect organisms. To quantify such multiple stress effects, we analysed all applicable aquatic studies and found that the presence of environmental stressors increases individual sensitivity to toxicants (pesticides, trace metals) by a factor of up to 100. To predict this dependence, we developed the “Stress Addition Model” (SAM). With the SAM, we assume that each individual has a general stress capacity towards all types of specific stress that should not be exhausted. Experimental stress levels are transferred into general stress levels of the SAM using the stress-related mortality as a common link. These general stress levels of independent stressors are additive, with the sum determining the total stress exerted on a population. With this approach, we provide a tool that quantitatively predicts the highly synergistic direct effects of independent stressor combinations.

Expecting Rejection: Understanding the Minority Stress Experiences of Transgender and Gender-Nonconforming Individuals.

Abstract: Purpose: Transgender and gender-nonconforming (TGNC) individuals often are the target of enacted or external (i.e., distal) experiences of stigma, discrimination, and violence, which are linked to adverse health, particularly psychological distress. There is limited research, however, examining felt or internal (i.e., proximal) stressors faced by TGNC individuals. This study sought to examine one type of internal stressor, expecting rejection, and aimed to (1) identify how and to what extent rejection expectations operate day-to-day for TGNC individuals and (2) explore how TGNC individuals respond to expectations of rejection. Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted with 30 participants from 2014 to 2015 who identified as TGNC (mean age=30.4; 60% people of color); data were analyzed using a consensual qualitative research method. Results: Four thematic categories emerged about expecting rejection: (1) where to expect rejection; (2) thoughts and feelings associated with expectations of rejecti...

Stress Indicators in Fish

Abstract: 1. Why Do We Measure Stress? 2. Quantifying Stress 3. Specific Measures of Fish Stress 3.1. Cellular and Molecular Indicators 3.2. Primary and Secondary Physiological Indicators 3.3. Whole-Organism Indicators 4. Considerations for Measuring and Interpreting Stress 4.1. Interspecific Differences 4.2. Intraspecific Differences 4.3. Context-Specific Differences 4.4. Stressor Severity 4.5. Field Versus Laboratory 4.6. Temporal Aspects 5. From Individual Indicators to Ecosystem Health 6. Stress Indicators of the Future 7. Conclusion A fish is chased with a net in an aquarium before being captured, scooped out of the water, and placed in a nearby testing arena. Is it stressed? How can we tell? Are our indicators reliable? Quantification of stress in fish has evolved from the initial development of radioimmunoassays to measure cortisol in plasma to the rapidly expanding suite of genome-based assays. Indicators range from the intracellular to whole-animal level. Expression of heat shock proteins (HSPs) and activity of metabolic enzymes can be paired with straightforward observations of reflexes and survival. Both traditional and emerging indicators have advantages and disadvantages, and their use is tissue- and context-specific. Ecological, biological, and methodological factors must be considered when selecting, measuring, and interpreting stress indicators. Inter- and intraspecific, sex, life stage, and temporal differences in physiological responses to stressors can confound confirmation of a stressed state. Despite numerous types of indicators, our understanding of how absolute levels of indicators relate to stressor severity and recovery to date remains limited. How accurately indicators characterize stress in wild populations naturally exposed to stressors is still an evolving discussion. The integration of research disciplines and involvement of stakeholders and user groups will aid in filling these knowledge gaps, as well as the translation of individual-level indicators to population- and ecosystem-level processes.

The assessment and measurement of adult life stress: Basic premises, operational principles, and design requirements.

Abstract: Life stress is a central factor in the onset and course of a wide range of medical and psychiatric conditions. Determining the precise etiological and pathological consequences of stress, though, has been hindered by weaknesses in prevailing definitional and measurement practices. The purpose of the current paper is to evaluate the primary strategies for defining and measuring major and minor acute life events, chronic stressors, and daily hassles as informed by 3 basic scientific premises. The first premise concerns the manner in which stress is conceptualized and operationally defined, and specifically we assert that stress measures must not conflate the stress exposure with the stress response. The second premise concerns how stress exposures are measured, and we provide guidelines for optimizing standardized and sensitive indicators of life stress. The third premise addresses the consequences of variations in the procedures for life event measurement with regard to the validity of the research designs employed. We show that life stress measures are susceptible to several sources of bias, and if these potential sources of bias are not controlled in the design of the research, spurious findings may result. Our goal is to provide a useful guide for researchers who consider life stress to be an important factor in their theoretical models of disease, wish to incorporate measures of life stress in their research, and seek to avoid the common pitfalls of past measurement practices. (PsycINFO Database Record

Psychological and biological responses to race-based social stress as pathways to disparities in educational outcomes.

Abstract: We present the race-based disparities in stress and sleep in context model (RDSSC), which argues that racial/ethnic disparities in educational achievement and attainment are partially explained by the effects of race-based stressors, such as stereotype threat and perceived discrimination, on psychological and biological responses to stress, which, in turn, impact cognitive functioning and academic performance. Whereas the roles of psychological coping responses, such as devaluation and disidentification, have been theorized in previous work, the present model integrates the roles of biological stress responses, such as changes in stress hormones and sleep hours and quality, to this rich literature. We situate our model of the impact of race-based stress in the broader contexts of other stressors [e.g., stressors associated with socioeconomic status (SES)], developmental histories of stress, and individual and group differences in access to resources, opportunity and employment structures. Considering both psychological and biological responses to race-based stressors, in social contexts, will yield a more comprehensive understanding of the emergence of academic disparities between Whites and racial/ethnic minorities. (PsycINFO Database Record

Engaging in Rather than Disengaging from Stress: Effective Coping and Perceived Control

Abstract: Being able to cope effectively with stress can help people to avoid negative consequences for their psychological well-being. The purpose of this study was to find out why some coping strategies are effective in reducing the negative effect of stressors on well-being and some are not. We argue that the degree to which such coping strategies engage or disengage people from stressful incidents is related to their perceived control of the situation that, in turn, is positively associated with their psychological well-being. We thus propose that the relationship between coping and psychological well-being is mediated by the extent of perceived sense of control. We collected cross-sectional data from a large heterogeneous sample (N = 543) in the Netherlands. We assessed seven different coping strategies, perceived control, and psychological well-being. Our results indeed revealed that strategies reflecting more engaged coping such as active confronting and reassuring thoughts, were associated with more sense of control and therefore to psychological well-being. In contrast, strategies reflecting disengagement coping, such as passive reaction pattern, palliative reaction, and avoidance, were associated with less perceived control, which in turn was negatively associated with psychological well-being. Results regarding the coping strategies expressing emotions and seeking social support were less straightforward, with the former being negatively associated with perceived control and psychological well-being, even though this strategy has stress engaging elements, and the latter only showing a positive indirect effect on psychological well-being via perceived control, but no positive main effect on well-being. These findings are discussed from the perspective of stress being an environment-perception-response process.

Effects of Stress on Decisions Under Uncertainty: A Meta-Analysis.

Abstract: [Correction Notice: An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 142(9) of Psychological Bulletin (see record 2016-39486-001). It should have been reported that the inverted u-shaped relationship between cortisol stress responses and decision-making performance was only observed in female, but not in male participants as suggested by the study by van den Bos, Harteveld, and Stoop (2009). Corrected versions of the affected sentences are provided.] The purpose of the present meta-analysis was to quantify the effects that stress has on decisions made under uncertainty. We hypothesized that stress increases reward seeking and risk taking through alterations of dopamine firing rates and reduces executive control by hindering optimal prefrontal cortex functioning. In certain decision situations, increased reward seeking and risk taking is dysfunctional, whereas in others, this is not the case. We also assumed that the type of stressor plays a role. In addition, moderating variables are analyzed, such as the hormonal stress response, the time between stress onset and decisions, and the participants' age and gender. We included studies in the meta-analysis that investigated decision making after a laboratory stress-induction versus a control condition (k = 32 datasets, N = 1829 participants). A random-effects model revealed that overall, stress conditions lead to decisions that can be described as more disadvantageous, more reward seeking, and more risk taking than nonstress conditions (d = .17). In those situations in which increased reward seeking and risk taking is disadvantageous, stress had significant effects (d = .26), whereas in other situations, no effects were observed (d = .01). Effects were observed under processive stressors (d = .19), but not under systemic ones (d = .09). Moderation analyses did not reveal any significant results. We concluded that stress deteriorates overall decision-making performance through the mechanisms proposed. The effects differ, depending on the decision situation and the type of stressor, but not on the characteristics of the individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record

Does Self-Compassion Protect Adolescents from Stress?

Abstract: The aim of this study was to determine whether adolescents who were high in self-compassion self-reported different levels of emotional wellbeing than adolescents who were low in self-compassion, and to determine whether those high in self-compassion responded differently under a lab social stressor than those low in self-compassion. In a lab setting, participants (age 13–18; n = 28) completed the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) and physiological stress was assessed via salivary cortisol, heart rate, blood pressure, and heart rate variability at baseline, during the TSST, and during recovery. After completing the lab protocol, an email was sent to participants that provided a link to an online survey which was composed of emotional wellbeing measures including perceived stress, life satisfaction, positive and negative affect. After conducting repeated measure ANOVAS to determine that the TSST induced a significant stress response, the sample was split at the median of self-compassion. T tests were conducted to determine meaningful differences (Hedges’ g > .20) between the groups. Findings indicated that those in the high self-compassion group (≥the median) self-reported greater emotional wellbeing than those in the low self-compassion group (

Chronic Stress and Suicidal Thinking Among Medical Students.

Abstract: Introduction: The subject of chronic stress and ways of dealing with it are very broad. The aim of this study was to analyze stress and anxiety and their influence on suicidal thinking among medical students. Materials and Methods: The study was conducted in the years 2014 to 2015 in Poland, at the Medical University—Nicolaus Copernicus University, Collegium Medicum. The objective of this study was to assess chronic stress and suicidal thinking among students and how students cope with this huge problem. Descriptive statistics and chi-square analyses were conducted to detect differences. Results: Analyses showed that students’ life is full of stressors. Students toward the end of their education cope better with stress than students starting their university studies. Chronic stress has a strong impact on mental health and suicidal thinking among students. Conclusions: The results of the study confirmed that chronic stress and anxiety have a negative influence on mental health and also confirm a relation to suicidal thinking in medical students. Students cope with stress by listening to music, talking to relatives or people close to them, resting or engaging in sports, with cycling, running and swimming being the most common methods used to affect suicidal thinking.

How to Improve Adolescent Stress Responses: Insights From Integrating Implicit Theories of Personality and Biopsychosocial Models

Abstract: This research integrated implicit theories of personality and the biopsychosocial model of challenge and threat, hypothesizing that adolescents would be more likely to conclude that they can meet the demands of an evaluative social situation when they were taught that people have the potential to change their socially relevant traits. In Study 1 (N = 60), high school students were assigned to an incremental-theory-of-personality or a control condition and then given a social-stress task. Relative to control participants, incremental-theory participants exhibited improved stress appraisals, more adaptive neuroendocrine and cardiovascular responses, and better performance outcomes. In Study 2 (N = 205), we used a daily-diary intervention to test high school students' stress reactivity outside the laboratory. Threat appraisals (Days 5-9 after intervention) and neuroendocrine responses (Days 8 and 9 after intervention only) were unrelated to the intensity of daily stressors when adolescents received the incremental-theory intervention. Students who received the intervention also had better grades over freshman year than those who did not. These findings offer new avenues for improving theories of adolescent stress and coping.

Emotional Stress and Cardiovascular Complications in Animal Models: A Review of the Influence of Stress Type

Abstract: Emotional stress has been recognized as a modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. The impact of stress on physiological and psychological processes is determined by characteristics of the stress stimulus. For example, distinct responses are induced by acute versus chronic aversive stimuli. Additionally, the magnitude of stress responses has been reported to be inversely related to the degree of predictability of the aversive stimulus. Therefore, the purpose of the present review was to discuss experimental research in animal models describing the influence of stressor stimulus characteristics, such as chronicity and predictability, in cardiovascular dysfunctions induced by emotional stress. Regarding chronicity, the importance of cardiovascular and autonomic adjustments during acute stress sessions and cardiovascular consequences of frequent stress response activation during repeated exposure to aversive threats (i.e., chronic stress) is discussed. Evidence of the cardiovascular and autonomic changes induced by chronic stressors involving daily exposure to the same stressor (predictable) versus different stressors (unpredictable) is reviewed and discussed in terms of the impact of predictability in cardiovascular dysfunctions induced by stress.

The Psychosocial Context of Financial Stress: Implications for Inflammation and Psychological Health.

Abstract: OBJECTIVE Psychological distress may contribute to chronic activation of acute-phase inflammation. The current study investigated how financial stressors influence psychosocial functioning and inflammation. This study examined a) the direct relations between financial stress and inflammation; b) whether the relationships between financial stress and inflammation are mediated in part by negative interpersonal events, psychological distress, and psychological well-being; and c) whether social standing in one's community moderates the relations between financial stress and psychological distress, psychological well-being, and markers of inflammation (interleukin-6 [IL-6] and C-reactive protein). METHODS Stressful financial and interpersonal events over the previous year, perceived social status, indices of psychological well-being and distress, and levels of IL-6 and C-reactive protein were assessed in a community sample of 680 middle-aged adults (ages 40-65 years). RESULTS Structural equation modeling analyses revealed significant relations among financial stress, interpersonal stress, and psychological distress and well-being, and complex relationships between these variables and inflammatory markers. Psychological well-being mediated the association between financial stress and IL-6 ([mediation] ab = 0.012, standard error [SE] = 0.006, p = .048). Furthermore, individuals with higher perceived social standing within their communities exhibited a stronger relation between negative financial events and both interpersonal stressors (interaction B = 0.067, SE = 0.017, p < .001) and C-reactive protein (interaction B = 0.051, SE = 0.026, p = .050). CONCLUSIONS Financial stress demonstrates complex relations with inflammation, due partly to psychological well-being and social perceptions. Findings are discussed with regard to the social context of stress and physiological factors pertinent to stress adaptation and inflammation.

Giving support to others reduces sympathetic nervous system-related responses to stress

Abstract: Social support is a major contributor to the link between social ties and beneficial health outcomes. Research to date has focused on how receiving support from others might be good for us; however, we know less about the health effects of giving support to others. Based on prior work in animals showing that stimulating neural circuitry important for caregiving behavior can reduce sympathetic-related responses to stressors, it is possible that, in humans, giving to others can reduce stressor-evoked sympathetic nervous system responding, which has implications for health outcomes. To test the effect of giving support on the physiological stress response, participants either wrote a supportive note to a friend (support-giving condition) or wrote about their route to school/work (control condition) before undergoing a standard laboratory-based stress task. Physiological responses (heart rate, blood pressure, salivary alpha-amylase, salivary cortisol), and self-reported stress were collected throughout the protocol. In line with hypotheses, support giving (vs. control) reduced sympathetic-related responses (systolic blood pressure and alpha-amylase) to the stressor. No effects of support giving were found on self-reported psychological stress or cortisol levels. Results add to existing knowledge of the pathways by which support giving may lead to health benefits and highlight the contribution of giving to others in the broader social support-health link.

A family stress-proximal process model for understanding the effects of parental incarceration on children and their families.

Abstract: A Family Stress-Proximal Process (FSPP) model is advanced for examining the effects of parental incarceration on children, which situates parental incarceration as a stressor that influences psychological and proximal relational processes in the family. Proximal processes encompass person–environmen

Exploring resilience and mindfulness as preventative factors for psychological distress burnout and secondary traumatic stress among human service professionals

Abstract: Background Human service professionals are concerned with the intervention and empowerment of vulnerable social populations. The human service industry is laden with employment-related stressors and emotionally demanding interactions, which can lead to deleterious effects, such as burnout and secondary traumatic stress. Little attention has been given to developing knowledge of what might enable human service workers to persist and thrive. Cultivating and sustaining resilience can buffer the impact of occupational stressors on human service professionals. One of the psychological factors associated with cultivating resilience is mindfulness. Objective The aim of this current research is to improve our understanding of the relationship between resilience, mindfulness, burnout, secondary traumatic stress, and psychological distress among human service professionals. Methods The current study surveyed 133 human service professionals working in the fields of psychology, social work, counseling, youth and foster care work to explore the predictive relationship between resilience, mindfulness, and psychological distress. Results The results showed that higher levels of resilience were a significant predictor of lower levels of psychological distress, burnout and secondary traumatic stress. In addition, higher levels of mindfulness were a significant predictor of lower levels of psychological distress and burnout. Conclusions The findings suggest that cultivating resilience and mindfulness in human service professionals may assist in preventing psychological distress burnout and secondary traumatic stress. Limitations of this study are discussed together with implications for future research.

Learning about stress: neural, endocrine and behavioral adaptations

Abstract: In this review, nonassociative learning is advanced as an organizing principle to draw together findings from both sympathetic-adrenal medullary and hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenocortical (HPA) axis responses to chronic intermittent exposure to a variety of stressors. Studies of habituation, facilitation and sensitization of stress effector systems are reviewed and linked to an animal’s prior experience with a given stressor, the intensity of the stressor and the appraisal by the animal of its ability to mobilize physiological systems to adapt to the stressor. Brain pathways that regulate physiological and behavioral responses to stress are discussed, especially in light of their regulation of nonassociative processes in chronic intermittent stress. These findings may have special relevance to various psychiatric diseases, including depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Organizational constraints: a meta-analysis of a major stressor

Abstract: The stressor organizational constraints, reflecting aspects of the work environment that inhibit or interfere with an individual's performance of job tasks, is prevalent in the workplace. This meta-analysis summarizes findings concerning the relationships of organizational constraints with other variables. Using five search methods, we located 84 research reports that provided data from 119 independent samples that contained 33,998 employed individuals. Fitting a stressor–strain framework, constraints had significant relationships with behavioural (counterproductive work behaviour), physical (somatic symptoms), and psychological (e.g. emotions and job dissatisfaction) strains and with well-being variables. Relationships were also found with all other work environment variables, and most personal characteristics (demographics and personality) except for gender. Moreover, a series of regression and relative weights analyses based on meta-analytic correlations showed that constraints had a unique con...

The Stress-Buffering Role of Mindfulness in the Relationship Between Perceived Stress and Psychological Adjustment

Abstract: This study examined the potential stress-buffering role of mindfulness (including dimensions of observing, describing, acting with awareness, non-judging, and non-reactivity) in the relationship between perceived stress and psychological adjustment (i.e., depression, anxiety, life satisfaction, and dimensions of psychological well-being) in university students. A total of 481 Australian law students completed an online questionnaire. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses indicated that higher levels of mindfulness were related to improved adjustment on all outcomes. In support of predictions, dispositional mindfulness buffered the effects of perceived stress on depression and anxiety. Further analyses indicated that the ability to describe experience was particularly important in mitigating the effects of stress on depression and anxiety, as was the ability to observe internal and external experiences in mitigating the effects of stress on depression and reduced life satisfaction. Interventions to increase mindfulness, including specific facets of mindfulness, are proposed as a method of protecting the psychological well-being of students confronted with university stressors.

Does a 20-week aerobic exercise training programme increase our capabilities to buffer real-life stressors? A randomized, controlled trial using ambulatory assessment

Abstract: The cross-stressor adaptation hypothesis suggests that regular exercise leads to adaptations in the stress response systems that induce decreased physiological responses to psychological stressors. Even though an exercise intervention to buffer the detrimental effects of psychological stressors on health might be of utmost importance, empirical evidence is mixed. This may be explained by the use of cross-sectional designs and non-personally relevant stressors. Using a randomized controlled trial, we hypothesized that a 20-week aerobic exercise training does reduce physiological stress responses to psychological real-life stressors in sedentary students. Sixty-one students were randomized to either a control group or an exercise training group. The academic examination period (end of the semester) served as a real-life stressor. We used ambulatory assessment methods to assess physiological stress reactivity of the autonomic nervous system (heart rate variability: LF/HF, RMSSD), physical activity and perceived stress during 2 days of everyday life and multilevel models for data analyses. Aerobic capacity (VO2max) was assessed pre- and post-intervention via cardiopulmonary exercise testing to analyze the effectiveness of the intervention. During real-life stressors, the exercise training group showed significantly reduced LF/HF (β = −0.15, t = −2.59, p = .01) and increased RMSSD (β = 0.15, t = 2.34, p = .02) compared to the control group. Using a randomized controlled trial and a real-life stressor, we could show that exercise appears to be a useful preventive strategy to buffer the effects of stress on the autonomic nervous system, which might result into detrimental health outcomes.

Can we predict the effects of multiple stressors on insects in a changing climate

Abstract: The responses of insects to climate change will depend on their responses to abiotic and biotic stressors in combination. We surveyed the literature, and although synergistic stressor interactions appear common among insects, the thin taxonomic spread of existing data means that more multi-stressor studies and new approaches are needed. We need to move beyond descriptions of the effects of multiple stressors to a mechanistic, predictive understanding. Further, we must identify which stressor interactions, and species' responses to them, are sufficiently generalizable (i.e. most or all species respond similarly to the same stressor combination), and thus predictable (for new combinations of stressors, or stressors acting via known mechanisms). We discuss experimental approaches that could facilitate this shift toward predictive understanding.

Negative Aging Attitudes Predict Greater Reactivity to Daily Stressors in Older Adults

Abstract: Objectives In order to understand conflicting findings regarding the emotional reactions of older adults to daily stressors, we examined the possibility that negative aging attitudes could function as an important individual differences factor related to stressor reactivity. Method Using a daily dairy design, we examined the aging attitudes of 43 older adults reporting on 380 total days. Participants reported their aging attitudes on Day 1, followed by their stressor exposure and negative affect on Days 2-9. Covariates included age, gender, education, and personality. Results Using multilevel modeling, our results suggest that individuals with more positive aging attitudes report consistent levels of affect across study days regardless of stressors, whereas those with more negative aging attitudes reported increased emotional reactivity to daily stressors. Discussion Positive aging attitudes may serve as a resource that helps buffer reactions to daily stressors.