title: Psychosocial stress but not exercise increases cortisol and reduces state anxiety levels in school classes - results from a stressor applicable in large group settings.
abstract: Both, psychosocial stress and exercise in the past have been used as stressors to elevate saliva cortisol and change state anxiety levels. In the present study, high-school students at the age of 14 were randomly assigned to three experimental groups: (1) an exercise group (n = 18), that was running 15 minutes at a medium intensity level of 65-75% HRmax, (2) a psychosocial stress group (n = 19), and (3) a control group (n = 18). The psychosocial stress was induced to the students by completing a standardized intelligence test under the assumption that their IQ scores would be made public in class. Results display that only psychosocial stress but not exercise was able to significantly increase cortisol levels but decreased cognitive state anxiety in adolescents. The psychosocial stress protocol applied here is proposed for use in future stress studies with children or adolescents in group settings, e.g., in school.
authors.forename: Mirko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wegner
authors.forename: Anett
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Müller-Alcazar
authors.forename: Anika
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Jäger
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Machado
authors.forename: Oscar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Arias-Carrión
authors.affiliation: (Henning Budde) MSH Medical School Hamburg, Am Kaiserkai 1, 20457 Hamburg, Germany. henning.budde@medicalschool-hamburg.de.
authors.forename: Henning
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Budde
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001007:Anxiety / Q000378:metabolism*; D015444:Exercise; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D006854:Hydrocortisone / Q000378:metabolism*; D008297:Male; D012463:Saliva / Q000378:metabolism; D012574:Schools; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000209:etiology / Q000378:metabolism*; D013334:Students
chemical_list: D006854:Hydrocortisone