Affective and neuroendocrine stress reactivity to an academic examination: Influence of the 5-HTTLPR genotype and trait neuroticism

Individual Differences in Environmental Sensitivity

“…In contrast, the perspective of immediate reactivity refers to environmental sensitivity as a relatively stable trait, and implies continuity of environmental sensitivity across life and across different contexts. For example, in a study in which young adults rated perceived stress during examination and nonexamination days, those with the short version of the serotonin transporter gene (5‐HTTLPR), a gene variant consistently associated with heightened developmental plasticity , reported both higher and lower stress, respectively, than those carrying other versions of the same gene , suggesting that the gene version associated with developmental plasticity in early childhood may also predict immediate reactivity in early adulthood. However, we need more research on the potential overlap between developmental plasticity and immediate reactivity to clarify the relationship between these different aspects of environmental sensitivity (for a detailed review and discussion of the various forms of behavioral plasticity, see ).…”

Interaction between the 5-HTTLPR genotype, impact of stressful life events, and trait neuroticism on depressive symptoms in healthy volunteers

“…Genomic DNA was isolated using QIamp DNA Mini Kits from Qiagen (Westburg, Leusden, the Netherlands) and 5-HTTLPR genotyping was performed using the PCR protocol according to Glatz et al (2003). In compliance with previous work (Neumeister et al, 2006;Walderhaug et al, 2007;Zalsman et al, 2006;Verschoor and Markus, 2011), triallelic variants were reclassified into a biallelic model as follows: S/S, S/L G , and L G /L G were classified as S 0 /S 0 , S/L A , and Lg/L A as L 0 /S 0 , and L A /L A as L 0 /L 0 . As indicated, analyses were carried out for the traditional L/S classification (without controlling for Lg and La differences) versus the L 0 S 0 classification (including La and Lg differences).…”

Perceived stress, coping, and cortisol reactivity in daily life: A study of adolescents during the first year of college

“…Past research has found situational elevations in cortisol from adolescents’ typical diurnal rhythms in relation to more worry/stress than usual (Adam, 2006), more loneliness than usual (Doane & Adam, 2010), and more negative affect than usual (Doane & Zeiders, 2014). College students’ cortisol levels increased in anticipation of a real-life multiple-choice exam (Nicolson, 1992), were higher the day of an exam compared to a control day (Verschoor & Markus, 2011), and were higher when students were alone compared to when they were not (Matias, Nicolson, & Freire, 2011). Thus, characteristic college stressors have been linked to changes in cortisol.…”