TY - JOUR
T1 - Parents' communication skills and adolescents' salivary α-amylase and cortisol response patterns
AU - Afifi, Tamara D.
AU - Granger, Douglas A.
AU - Denes, Amanda
AU - Joseph, Andrea
AU - Aldeis, Desiree
N1 - Funding Information:
Tamara D. Afifi (PhD) is Professor in the Department of Communication, University of California, Santa Barbara. Douglas A. Granger is a Professor of Nursing and Public Health and Director of the Center for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research, The Johns Hopkins University. Amanda Denes, Andrea Joseph, and Desiree Aldeis are also graduate students in the Department of Communication, University of California, Santa Barbara. This research was supported by internal funding from the Institute for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research, the Faculty Senate, and the Chicano Studies Department at UCSB. Correspondence to: Tamara D. Afifi, Department of Communication, 4119 SS&MS Building, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara CA 93106-4020, USA. Tel: 805-893-4860; E-mail: tafifi@comm.ucsb.edu
PY - 2011/9
Y1 - 2011/9
N2 - The primary goal of this study was to examine patterns or groupings of adolescents' hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) (measured through cortisol) and sympathetic nervous system (SNS) (measured through salivary alpha amylase or sAA) responses as a function of their parents' communication skills. A related goal was to decipher whether adolescents who demonstrate different patterns of physiological reactivity vary in their personal and relational health. The sample consisted of 118 parent-adolescent dyads who were asked to talk about something stressful related to the parents' relationship. The results revealed that adolescents' perceptions of their parent's communication skills predicted the likelihood that the adolescents would overreact, show no reaction, or down regulate in response to such a discussion, but only for sAA. All of the communication skills in question-social support, communication competence, feeling caught between the parents' conflict, and inappropriate disclosures-supported the hypothesis that adolescents with parents who they think are more communicatively skilled are better able to recover from a stressful interaction than adolescents whose parents are less skilled. Adolescents who were considered "overreactors" in sAA also had more negative health indices, somewhat lower psychological well-being, and poorer quality relationships with their parents.
AB - The primary goal of this study was to examine patterns or groupings of adolescents' hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA) (measured through cortisol) and sympathetic nervous system (SNS) (measured through salivary alpha amylase or sAA) responses as a function of their parents' communication skills. A related goal was to decipher whether adolescents who demonstrate different patterns of physiological reactivity vary in their personal and relational health. The sample consisted of 118 parent-adolescent dyads who were asked to talk about something stressful related to the parents' relationship. The results revealed that adolescents' perceptions of their parent's communication skills predicted the likelihood that the adolescents would overreact, show no reaction, or down regulate in response to such a discussion, but only for sAA. All of the communication skills in question-social support, communication competence, feeling caught between the parents' conflict, and inappropriate disclosures-supported the hypothesis that adolescents with parents who they think are more communicatively skilled are better able to recover from a stressful interaction than adolescents whose parents are less skilled. Adolescents who were considered "overreactors" in sAA also had more negative health indices, somewhat lower psychological well-being, and poorer quality relationships with their parents.
KW - Communication Competence
KW - Cortisol
KW - Disclosure
KW - Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis
KW - Interparental Conflict
KW - Physiology
KW - Salivary Alpha-Amylase
KW - Social Support
KW - Sympathetic Nervous System
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U2 - 10.1080/03637751.2011.589460
DO - 10.1080/03637751.2011.589460
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:79960754170
SN - 0363-7751
VL - 78
SP - 273
EP - 295
JO - Communication Monographs
JF - Communication Monographs
IS - 3
ER -