Stress, Locus of Control, and Achievement of High School Seniors

Cole, Tony; Sapp, Gary L.

doi:10.2466/pr0.1988.63.2.355

Cited by 15 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 9 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…In our own studies, we have found girls to be more stressed than boys both as high school freshmen (Thomas, Shoffner, and Groer, 1988) and as seniors (Gro~r, Thomas, and Shoffner, in press). Similar findings have been reported by Cole and Sapp (1988). Adolescent girls also report more health problems than do boys (cf.…”

Section: Ability To Manage Angersupporting

confidence: 78%

Physical health of today's school children

1993

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Ability To Manage Angersupporting

confidence: 78%

Physical health of today's school children

1993

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…These include the influence of maternal behavior on affective reactions, which can differ for male and female offspring (Burnham & Harris, 1992;Reid, 1994). Sex difference in anxiety and in coping strategies may also underlie the present findings (Cole & Sapp, 1988;Mak, Blewitt, & Heaven, 2004). Women tend to have higher levels of anxiety sensitivity than men (Peterson & Reiss, 1992;Stewart, Conrod, Gignac, & Pihl, 1998).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Greater sustained anxiety but not phasic fear in women compared to men.

Grillon

2008

Emotion

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Startle reflex studies in rodents indicate that female are more reactive than rats in experimental models of sustained anxiety but not in models of phasic fear (Toufexis, 2007). This study examined evidence for a similar effect in humans. Participants were exposed to three conditions, (1) predictable aversive shocks signaled by a cue, (2) unpredictable shocks, and (3) no shocks. Acoustic startle stimuli were delivered regularly across conditions. Phasic startle potential to the threat cue in the predictable condition was not affected by sex. In contrast, and consistent with basic research, the sustained increase in startle in the predictable and unpredictable conditions was greater in women compared to men. Animal studies suggest that such an effect may be mediated by the effects of sexual dimorphism in limbic structures, including the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis. However, psychosocial factors may also contribute to this effect. Keywords fear; anxiety; sex difference; startle; unpredictability The greater prevalence of mood and anxiety disorders among women compared to men (Kessler et al., 1994) points to a potential sex difference in reactivity to threat. Preclinical studies may provide clues as to the nature of this difference. A recent review focusing on animal models, using the startle reflex as an operational measure of aversive states, compared sex differences in two types of aversive responses, anxiety, a sustained state of distress to uncertain threat, and fear, a phasic defensive response to certain danger (Toufexis, 2007). Contrasting phasic and sustained aversive states was motivated by evidence of a neural differentiation between them, the former relying on the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) and the latter on the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST; Davis, 1998), as well as by an indication of strong sexual dimorphism in the BNST (Allen & Gorski, 1990). Toufexis concluded that BNST-mediated sustained potentiated startle (anxiety), but not cued specific fear-potentiated startle (fear), was increased in female rats compared to males.The present study examined evidence for a similar sex difference in humans, also using startle as a measure of aversive states. We have distinguished phasic fear to a predictable threat signaled by a cue from the more sustained contextual anxiety state during administration of predictable (certain) and unpredictable (uncertain) shocks (Grillon et al., 2006; Grillon, Baas, Lissek, Smith, & Milstein, 2004a). Based on Toufexis's review (Toufexis, 2007), we hypothesized that relative to men, women would show enhanced contextual-potentiated startle but not increased fear-potentiated startle to a threat cue.

show abstract

“…The mean norm-weighted stress scores of females were higher regardless of geographic location; urban females reported highest stress levels. Other researchers using life change event scales have reported similar findings (Burke & Weir, 1978;Cole & Sapp, 1988;Dise-Lewis, 1988). Reasons for these findings remain unclear.…”

mentioning

confidence: 73%

Adolescent stress and coping: A longitudinal study

Groer

Thomas

Shoffner

1992

Research in Nursing & Health

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The purpose of this longitudinal panel study was to investigate developmental and gender influences on stress and coping in adolescents attending a suburban high school in Tennessee. Data were collected from the same 167 subjects during the freshman year and again during the senior year. Life events stress was measured through the Adolescent Life Change Event Scale (ALCES) and ways of coping were categorized from data gathered from an open-ended questionnaire. Girls reported more life events stress at both testings than boys. Life events stress was greater at senior testing for both girls and boys, but girls' scores increased more. The "gender intensification" phenomenon may account for the greater disparity in types of stress reported by boys and girls as seniors. Girls generally reported more life events associated with interpersonal and family relationships. Both girls and boys reported coping with stress mostly through active distraction techniques such as exercise. However, girls' use of active distraction decreased over time, while passive distraction increased. Self-destructive and aggressive coping behaviors increased for boys. There were no relationships between amounts or types of life events stress and ways of coping for subjects at either time.

show abstract

Stress, Locus of Control, and Achievement of High School Seniors

Cited by 15 publications

References 9 publications

Physical health of today's school children

Physical health of today's school children

Greater sustained anxiety but not phasic fear in women compared to men.

Adolescent stress and coping: A longitudinal study

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About