Affective and physiological response to a novel parent-adolescent conflict stressor

Abstract

Few laboratory paradigms exist that expose adolescents to conflict that might commonly be experienced in parent-adolescent relationships. Given the continued importance of parent-adolescent relationships on adolescent development, as well as the changing expectations in these relationships, we examined the effect of a novel parent-adolescent conflict paradigm on physiological and affective response in a sample of 52 adolescents. The parent-adolescent conflict stressor (PACS) involved adolescent participants (50% girls; M = 14.75, SD = 0.88) watching a 12-minute scripted video that asked youth to imagine that they were the teenager in the video, which consisted of parent and adolescent actors having discussions about conflict in their relationship and solving this conflict in either a positive, typical, or hostile manner. Cortisol, alpha amylase, and self-report of negative and positive affect were collected at baseline, following the video, and during a recovery period. Heart rate also was taken continuously while adolescents watched the videos. Hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analyses indicated significant linear change in alpha amylase and linear and quadratic change in negative affect to the PACS. There also was a significant linear and quadratic change in heart rate during the portion of the video where teens and parents discussed issues of personal responsibility. The PACS marks a preliminary but important first step in developing a parent-adolescent conflict paradigm that can be used across studies to understand the impact of parent-adolescent conflict on affective and physiological markers associated with stress response.

Keywords: Adolescence; HLM; affective stress response; laboratory stressor; parent–adolescent conflict; physiological stress response.

Figure 1.. Flow of Visit

Note. The figure represents the time points at which different measures of stress response were assessed throughout the laboratory visit. sAA= alpha amylase, NA = negative affect, HR = heart rate.

Figure 2.. The Parent-Adolescent Conflict Stressor (PACS)

Note. The video was shown to participants for 12 minutes and was counterbalanced such that half the participants were randomly assigned to watch Telling a Lie first or Responsibility first and then completed the other video condition afterward. Within the different topics of conflict each participant was exposed to three conditions that were always presented in order of positive, typical, and hostile.

Figure 3. Mean Changes in Physiological and Affective Stress Response to the PACS

Note. In the sAA, cortisol, and affect graphs BL = baseline, P= peak, PT = post-task, and REC= recovery. In the heart rate graph, heart rate was taken during the video across the 12 minutes and averaged every minute such that each condition has two average heart rate measurements. Conditions are represented by P = positive, T = typical, and H = hostile.