Does Social Buffering Continue to be Effective Over the Peripubertal Period When Friends Share the Stressor Experience?

University of Minnesota (UMN)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Social Stress; Adolescent Behavior

Treatments: Other: Friend and target; Other: Friend support; Other: unfamiliar peer and target; Other: alone

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04311996

STUDY00006378-3

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this experiment is to determine whether social buffering by friends of stress physiology remains effective later in puberty when friends share the load versus when they provide support but are not undergoing the stressor with the target child. There are four conditions: (1) Friend and Target both undergo the stressor, (2) Friend provides support but does not undergo the stressor, (3) Unfamiliar Peer and Target undergo the stressor, and (4) Alone (no partner).

Full description

Adolescents experience social evaluation stress frequently. However, it is likely that often they are not alone, but with friends who are also going through the same experience. Thus, it is possible that under these conditions, social buffering by friends does not wane over the peripubertal period. Participants will be assigned to social conditions while engaging in an evaluative stressor task.

Enrollment: 269 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 11 to 14 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• sufficient vision, hearing, and language skills to provide verbal and written assent
• ability to see and read stimuli presented on the computer screen
• ability to hear verbal instructions provided by the experimenter and judges

Exclusion criteria

• premature birth (less than 37 weeks)
• congenital and/or chromosomal disorders (e.g. cerebral palsy, FAS, mental retardation, Turner Syndrome, Down Syndrome, Fragile X)
• Autism Spectrum Disorders
• history of serious medical illness (e.g., cancer, organ transplant)
• serious psychiatric illness
• systemic glucocorticoids or beta-adrenergic medication use

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

---

269 participants in 4 patient groups

Experimental: Friend and Target Both

Experimental group

Description:

There are four conditions: (1) Friend and Target both undergo the stressor, (2) Friend provides support but does not undergo the stressor, (3) Unfamiliar Peer and Target undergo the stressor, and (4) Alone (no partner).

Treatment:

Other: Friend and target

Experimental: Friend Provides Support

Experimental group

Description:

There are four conditions: (1) Friend and Target both undergo the stressor, (2) Friend provides support but does not undergo the stressor, (3) Unfamiliar Peer and Target undergo the stressor, and (4) Alone (no partner).

Treatment:

Other: Friend support

Experimental: Unfamiliar Peer and Target

Experimental group

Description:

There are four conditions: (1) Friend and Target both undergo the stressor, (2) Friend provides support but does not undergo the stressor, (3) Unfamiliar Peer and Target undergo the stressor, and (4) Alone (no partner).

Treatment:

Other: unfamiliar peer and target

Experimental: Alone

Experimental group

Description:

There are four conditions: (1) Friend and Target both undergo the stressor, (2) Friend provides support but does not undergo the stressor, (3) Unfamiliar Peer and Target undergo the stressor, and (4) Alone (no partner).

Treatment:

Other: alone