Support from parents, teachers, and peers and the moderation of subjective and objective stress of secondary school student.

During adolescence, students increasingly report suffering from stress and school burnout, which poses a risk to students' healthy development. However, social support may counteract perceived stress according to the Buffering Hypothesis and the Conservation of Resources Theory. In search of factors that would support healthy student development, studies have primarily focused on self-report data and neglected biophysiological processes. Addressing this research desideratum, this study examined whether perceived social support buffers the interplay of self-reported stress considering biophysiological markers (i.e., cortisol, alpha-amylase, oxidative stress, and telomere length). 83 secondary school students (Mage = 13.72, SD = 0.67; 48% girls) from Germany participated in a questionnaire study and biophysiological testing. Moderation analyses in R revealed that support from parents moderated the relationships between psychological stress as well as cynicism and inadequacy at school linked to alpha-amylase.

Support From Parents, Peers, and Teachers Is Differently Associated With Middle School Students' Well-Being.

Parents, peers, and teachers provide a powerful context for school students' well-being. However, a detailed and systematic analysis of how parental, peer, and teacher support relate to students' well-being, measured by the dimensions self-worth, psychological and physical well-being, is still missing. To address this research gap, the following study investigates 733 adolescent German students from grades 7 and 8 (M age = 13.97, SD = 0.41, 52% girls) with respect to their perceived supportive relationships at home and within the school context. The study considers gender, socioeconomic status, and school form as potential confounders. The results of the structural equation model, analyzed with the statistical software R, indicate that perceived teacher support was positively related to students' self-worth and physical well-being, while peer support was related to psychological well-being. Students who perceived their parents as supportive reported higher well-being with respect to all three dimensions investigated.

Effects of verbal instructions and physical threat removal prior to extinction training on the return of conditioned fear.

Instructions given prior to extinction training facilitate the extinction of conditioned skin conductance (SCRs) and fear-potentiated startle responses (FPSs) and serve as laboratory models for cognitive interventions implemented in exposure-based treatments of pathological anxiety. Here, we investigated how instructions given prior to extinction training, with or without the additional removal of the electrode used to deliver the unconditioned stimulus (US), affect the return of fear assessed 24 hours later. We replicated previous instruction effects on extinction and added that the additional removal of the US electrode slightly enhanced facilitating effects on the extinction of conditioned FPSs. In contrast, extinction instructions hardly affected the return of conditioned fear responses. These findings suggest that instruction effects observed during extinction training do not extent to tests of return of fear 24 hours later which serve as laboratory models of relapse and improvement stability of exposure-based treatments.

Vagally mediated heart rate variability and safety learning: Effects of instructions and number of extinction trials.

Extinction of conditioned fear serves as a laboratory model for the mechanism of action underlying exposure treatment with patients suffering from anxiety disorders. Thus, an enhanced understanding of individual differences in extinction learning may help to improve exposure procedures by tailoring treatment plans to the specific needs of the patient. Vagally mediated heart rate variability (vmHRV) is a promising candidate to investigate individual differences in extinction learning because vmHRV is influenced by an inhibitory prefrontal-amygdala network that is similarly implied in extinction learning. Moreover, low levels of vmHRV were previously associated with a higher prevalence of anxiety disorders and a deficit in safety learning. Here, we report on two studies (Study 1: N = 48; Study 2: N = 120) in which we investigated the boundary conditions of the observed association between vmHRV and safety learning as indexed by startle potentiation during instructed or uninstructed extinction training. In Study 1 (conditional discrimination task), we found that low vmHRV levels are associated with higher CS+ potentiation during instructed extinction. In Study 2 (differential cue conditional task), we observed an association between individual vmHRV levels and defensive responding during CS- presentations and, in later instructed extinction trials, during intertrial intervals. These findings indicate an overactive defensive system in individuals with low levels of vmHRV that interferes with their ability to recognize safety and thus is associated with a general perception of unsafety.