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Poster #23 - The nature and context of social buffering in Emerging Adulthood

Thu, March 21, 2:15 to 3:30pm, Baltimore Convention Center, Floor: Level 1, Exhibit Hall B

Integrative Statement

Social buffering occurs when “the presence (actual or symbolic) of a social partner reduces perceptions, reactions, and physiological responses to a potential threat or, when experienced after the threat, helps to speed the return to baseline stress levels without altering the objective nature of the threat” (Gunnar, 2017 p. 356). In this way, social partners have the ability to help protect an individual from the potential health and mental health risks of HPA axis activation. One common way of assessing physiological response to a potential threat is by assessing cortisol response around a challenge task.
In recent years, we have seen a growing body of evidence emerge suggesting that family members can provide stress buffering for one another (see Gunnar, 2017); when cortisol is assessed around family interaction we see evidence of social buffering of emerging adults making the transition to college (blinded citation). In the present study, we follow-up on these findings to better understand whether the effects of social buffering are specific to family members or whether any social partner may be able to provide stress buffering. By comparing cortisol response to the same triadic interaction challenge among family members and among peers, we test the following hypotheses:
1.) we will see evidence of social buffering in family triads and not in peer triads.
2.) compared to peer interaction, cortisol response to family interaction will be a stronger predictor of EA adjustment
3.) quality of triadic interaction will moderate the relationship between cortisol response and college adjustment in both family and peer interaction contexts
Method and Preliminary Results
The present study follows 200 EA participants (ages 17-19 years) making the transition to college. Participants were assigned to one of 3 conditions: family, peer, individual. All participants were video recorded during a 20-minute task while building a house of cards. Four saliva samples for cortisol immunoassay were collected at 20-minute intervals surrounding the interaction (baseline, pre-challenge, post-challenge, recovery). Student participants completed questionnaires assessing adjustment (ASR, Achenbach & Rescorla, 2003) and interactions were coded using the FSAP system (see Johnson & Gans, 2016). Participants in the family condition were accompanied to the laboratory by two parents who joined them during the interaction. Participants in the peer condition completed the interaction with two peers and participants in the individual condition completed the task alone (control).
Preliminary results indicate a significant timeXcondition interaction for cortisol response (F(3,131) = 5.77, p<0.01). Participants in family and peer conditions displayed evidence of social buffering (decreasing cortisol response) whereas participants completing the challenge alone showed an increasing cortisol response pattern. Whereas social groups (peer or family) appear to be stress buffers, participants in the family condition showed significantly lower cortisol response than participants in the peer or individual condition, indicating that family members may be more potent social buffers. Additional analyses will assess whether cortisol response differentially predicts college adjustment by condition and whether the quality of the triad interaction moderates this relationship.

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