Search results for "Stressor"

Multi-level responses of Mytilus galloprovincialis to environmental stressors

2019

Latitudinal- and local-scale variations in a rocky intertidal interaction web

2015

Natural assemblages are structured by a complex combination of positive and negative interactions, and the relative importance of each interaction can vary across spatial scales. By using a simple interaction web (barnacles-grazers-microphytobenthos) in a rocky intertidal system, we tested the hypothesis that the relative strength of positive and negative interactions would vary as a function of different environmental stress between 2 latitudinal levels and local environmental conditions. We manipulated the cover of barnacles and the presence of limpets at 2 sites in northern and southern Italy and non-destructively examined the response of microphyto - benthos (MPB) (photosynthetic biomas…

The Interaction Between Physical and Psychosocial Stressors

2020

Do physical and psychosocial stressors interact to increase stress in ways not explainable by the stressors alone? A preliminary study compared participants’ stress response while subjected to a physical stressor (reduced or full physical load) and a predetermined social stressor (confronted by calm or aggressive behavior). Salivary cortisol samples measured endocrine stress. Heart rate variability (HRV) and electrodermal activity (EDA) measured autonomic stress. Perceived stress was measured via discomfort and stress state surveys. Participants with a heavier load reported increased distress and discomfort. Encountering an aggressive individual increased endocrine stress, distress levels, …

The Potential Role of miRNAs in Cognitive Frailty.

2021

Frailty is an aging related condition, which has been defined as a state of enhanced vulnerability to stressors, leading to a limited capacity to meet homeostatic demands. Cognitive impairment is also frequent in older people, often accompanying frailty. Age is the main independent risk factor for both frailty and cognitive impairment, and compelling evidence suggests that similar age-associated mechanisms could underlie both clinical conditions. Accordingly, it has been suggested that frailty and cognitive impairment share common pathways, and some authors proposed “cognitive frailty” as a single complex phenotype. Nevertheless, so far, no clear common underlying pathways have been discove…

Individual Variations and Coping Style

2020

By current definition, animal welfare depends on the subjective experience of cognitive and emotional processes that are engendered as individuals succeed or fail in coping with a dynamically changing environment. A functional and evolutionary approach to emotion holds that adaptive qualities such as duration, severity, controllability, and predictability of stressful stimuli determine whether a particular event or outcome is experienced as rewarding or adverse. For instance, stress-induced behavioral inhibition can be seen as an adaptive strategy during chronic, unpredictable, or uncontrollable conditions that do not merit successful active coping. In teleost fishes, such behavior can be t…

The influence of coping strategies and behavior on the physiological response to social stress in women: The role of age and menstrual cycle phase.

2016

There is information indicating that the variations induced by the menstrual cycle may influence the capacity of young women to respond to stress. The physiological response to stress changes across the stages of the lifespan; however, in spite of the great increase in life expectancy, the way women react after menopause, a period characterized by a dramatic decline in sex hormones, has not been sufficiently studied. The main objective of the study was to examine the capacity to respond to and recover from an acute social stressor in post-menopausal women compared to young women. The second objective was to investigate the consequences of behavior on the self-regulatory systems. We measured…

Lower cortisol response in high-resilient caregivers of people with autism: the role of anger

2016

Caring for an offspring with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been related to high stress levels and health disturbances. However, a protective effect against these negative health outcomes has been described in high-resilient caregivers. In this context, the main aim of the present study was to assess the association between resilient coping and cortisol response to acute stress in caregivers of people with ASD. Furthermore, the study aimed to explore the mediating role of anger in this association. We exposed 40 caregivers of people with ASD to an acute psychosocial stressor in the laboratory. Salivary cortisol samples were obtained before, during, and after the stressor. Resilient c…

Timing in methods for studying psychosocial factors at work

2014

In the present chapter we focus on time lags in panel studies investigating psychosocial factors and stressor-strain relationships. First, a framework of theoretical reasons for choosing specific time lags is provided, which is based on the work by Frese and Zapf (Methodological issues in the study of work stress: objective vs. subjective measurement of work stress and the question of longitudinal studies. In: Cooper CL, Payne R (eds) Causes, coping and consequences of stress at work. Wiley, Chichester, pp 375–411, 1988). Although this theoretical framework provides a clear rationale for time intervals, researchers are frequently mistaken using it to derive appropriate time lags. Second, an…

Differences in Stress and Coping During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Families With and Without Children With Developmental Disorders or Chronic Conditions

2021

Objectives: To compare COVID-19-induced stress and coping in families with and without children diagnosed with developmental disorders or chronic conditions.Methods: In this mixed-method design study, an online survey collected information on parental stress levels before and during COVID-19, sources of stress, and coping strategies using open-ended questions. Qualitative answers were categorized thematically. Multiple linear regression models were built for the association between changes in stress levels (during-before COVID-19) and sources of stress for parents of children of both groups.Results: Answers of 1,827 parents were analyzed; of these, 186 (9.75%) had children with diagnosed pr…

Coping with everyday stress and links to medical and psychosocial adaptation in diabetic adolescents.

2003

Abstract Purpose To study coping with everyday stressors in a longitudinal sample of 98 adolescents with insulin-dependent mellitus (type 1) diabetes. Methods The adolescents with type 1 diabetes were classified into three homogeneous groups of metabolic control by latent class analysis, based on annual tests of hemoglobin A1 values. Questionnaires assessing frequent minor stressors as well as ways of coping with these stressors were given annually over the course of 4 years. Latent class analysis revealed three distinctive groups of metabolic control over time. Adolescents who exhibited continuously poor, satisfactory, and good metabolic control. Eighty percent of the adolescents stayed in…