Factors predicting the development of psychopathology among first responders: A prospective, longitudinal study.

Objective: Previous research has shown that first responders exhibit elevated rates of psychopathology. Factors predicting the development of this psychopathology, however, remain understudied. This study longitudinally examined predictors of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety symptoms in first responders. Method: Participants included 135 emergency medical service (EMS) providers. Multiple linear regressions were used to model predictors of change in PTSD, depression, and anxiety symptomatology from baseline to 3-month follow-up. Baseline levels of social support, sleep, emotional stability, and perceived stress were examined as potential predictors. Results: Results revealed that (a) increases in PTSD symptoms, (b) increases in depression symptoms, and (c) increases in anxiety symptoms at 3-month follow-up were each predicted by worse sleep and lower social support at baseline. In particular, the sleep subscale of disturbed sleep and the social support subscale of appraisal appeared to be driving these effects. Conclusion: These results highlight the importance of social support and sleep hygiene in protecting against increases in psychopathology symptoms in EMS providers, and set the stage for future interventions to target sleep disturbances and encourage deeper social connections in order to foster resilience in first responders. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Sex differences in cortisol's regulation of affiliative behavior.

A contribution to a special issue on Hormones and Human Competition. A stress perspective is used to illuminate how competitive defeat and victory shape biology and behavior. We report a field study examining how change in cortisol following perceived defeat (vs. victory) in a competition-in this case, a dog agility competition-relates to affiliative behavior. Following competition, we measured cortisol change and the extent to which dog handlers directed affiliative behaviors toward their dogs. We found striking sex differences in affiliation. First, men were more affiliative toward their dogs after victory, whereas women were more affiliative after defeat. Second, the greater a female competitor's increase in cortisol, the more time she spent affiliating with her dog, whereas for men, the pattern was the exact opposite: the greater a male competitor's increase in cortisol, the less time he spent affiliating with his dog. This pattern suggests that, in the wake of competition, men and women's affiliative behavior may serve different functions-shared celebration for men; shared consolation for women. These sex differences show not only that men and women react very differently to victory and defeat, but also that equivalent changes in cortisol across the sexes are associated with strikingly different behavioral consequences for men and women.

Hormones and ethics: Understanding the biological basis of unethical conduct.

Globally, fraud has been rising sharply over the last decade, with current estimates placing financial losses at greater than $3.7 trillion annually. Unfortunately, fraud prevention has been stymied by lack of a clear and comprehensive understanding of its underlying causes and mechanisms. In this paper, we focus on an important but neglected topic--the biological antecedents and consequences of unethical conduct--using salivary collection of hormones (testosterone and cortisol). We hypothesized that preperformance cortisol levels would interact with preperformance levels of testosterone to regulate cheating behavior in 2 studies. Further, based on the previously untested cheating-as-stress-reduction hypothesis, we predicted a dose-response relationship between cheating and reductions in cortisol and negative affect. Taken together, this research marks the first foray into the possibility that endocrine-system activity plays an important role in the regulation of unethical behavior.