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. 2021 Jun 4;16(6):e0252579.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0252579. eCollection 2021.

A longitudinal study of perceived stress and cortisol responses in an undergraduate student population from India

Anuradha Batabyal  1 , Anindita Bhattacharya  1 , Maria Thaker  2 , Shomen Mukherjee  1
Affiliations

A longitudinal study of perceived stress and cortisol responses in an undergraduate student population from India

Anuradha Batabyal et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Young adults entering college experience immense shifts in personal and professional environments. Such a potentially stressful event may trigger multiple psychological and physiological effects. In a repeated-measures longitudinal survey (N = 6 time-points) of first year cohort of residential undergraduate students in India, this study evaluates multiple psychological parameters: PSS14 (Perceived Stress Scale), K10 (distress scale) and positive mood measures, along with salivary cortisol levels. We find that compared to women, men showed significantly lower levels of salivary cortisol and also a decrease in perceived stress (PSS14) and distress (K10) with time. By contrast, women reported similar perceived stress and distress levels over time but had higher cortisol levels at the end of the academic year. Academic stress was reported by the students to be the most important stressor. This study highlights notable gender-/sex-differences in psychological and physiological stress responses and adds a valuable longitudinal dataset from the Indian undergraduate student cohort which is lacking in literature.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Psychological measures and physiological measures.
(a) K10 Distress scale, (b) PSS14, (c) Positive mood scale and physiological measures of (d) Cortisol levels across six time points in the academic year. Grey and white boxes represent responses of men and women respectively. Boxplots show medians, quartiles, 5th and 95th percentiles and extreme values.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Stacked bar plot for proportion of self-identified responses for types of stressors across time.
(a) In men and (b) women undergraduate student participants.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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