Elizabeth A. Shirtcliff

University of Oregon

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Co-Authors

Kristine Marceau

Purdue University West Lafayette

Jenny Phan

Center for Autism and Related Disorders

Shannin N. Moody

Iowa State University

Stacy S. Drury

Tulane University

Andrew R. Dismukes

Pennsylvania State University

Megan Johnson

Translational Genomics Research Institute

Carolyn Zahn‐Waxler

University of Wisconsin–Madison

Katherine P. Theall

Tulane University

Jennifer H. Pfeifer

University of Oregon

Paula L. Ruttle

University of Oregon

Cooperative Institutions

Ibero American University

Harvard University

Iowa State University

University of Wisconsin–Madison

University of Pittsburgh

University of Oregon

University of California, Berkeley

University of California, San Francisco

University of California, Davis

Stanford University

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A Modified Trier Social Stress Test for Vulnerable Mexican American Adolescents

Journal of Visualized Experiments (2017)

Megan Johnson Julianna Deardorff Kimberly Parra Abbey Alkon Brenda Eskenazi

The Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) is a well validated and widely used social stressor that has been shown to induce a 2-4 fold increase in cortisol, the biological output produced by the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis in humans. While studies have explored how modifications to the TSST influence stress responsivity, few studies have created a modified TSST appropriate for vulnerable youth that elicits a significant cortisol stress response. Thus, the current study sought to modify or adjust the TSST in a culturally sensitive way for a vulnerable sample of 14 year-old adolescents. The present study took place within the context of a longitudinal birth cohort study of Mexican American families in California called the Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas (CHAMACOS). The CHAMACOS sample was optimal to test the effectiveness of a modified culturally appropriate TSST, as it is comprised of Mexican American youth, who are often excluded from research. These youths also have experienced significant early life adversity. Example modifications included timed prompts, alternative math tasks, use of same-ethnicity peers as confederates, debriefing immediately after the conclusion of the TSST, and using an unknown youth examiner to administer the debrief. Saliva samples were collected at baseline (after a resting phase), and then again at 15, 30, and 45 min post-TSST onset to assess cortisol concentration. A pilot study of 50 participants (50% female) have been analyzed for cortisol reaction to the TSST. Results confirmed that this modified version of the TSST was successful at eliciting a significant cortisol reaction, with a wide range of variability likely due to individual differences. Goals for modifications and ethnicity considerations are discussed. This study provides the foundation for future research to utilize a modified TSST with vulnerable youth.

Stressor

Debriefing

10.3791/55393-v

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Citations (3)

Study Protocol: Transitions in Adolescent Girls (TAG)

Frontiers in Psychiatry (2020)

Marjolein E.A. Barendse Nandita Vijayakumar Michelle L. Byrne Jessica Flannery Theresa W Cheng

Background: Despite recent studies linking pubertal processes to brain development, as well as research demonstrating the importance of both pubertal and neurodevelopmental processes for adolescent mental health, there is limited knowledge of the full pathways and mechanisms behind the emergence of mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety disorders in adolescence. The Transitions in Adolescent Girls (TAG)1 study aims to understand the complex relationships between pubertal development, brain structure and connectivity, the behavioral and neural correlates of social and self-perception processes, and adolescent mental health in female adolescents. Methods: The TAG study includes 174 female adolescents aged 10.0 to 13.0 years, recruited from the local community in Lane County, Oregon, USA. The participants, along with a parent/guardian, will complete three waves of assessment over the course of three years; the third wave is currently underway. Each wave includes collection of four saliva samples (one per week) and one hair sample for the assessment of hormone levels and immune factors; an MRI session including structural, diffusion, resting-state functional and task-based functional scans; the Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia (K-SADS), a diagnostic interview on current and lifetime mental health; production of a short self-narrative video; and measurement of height, weight, and waist circumference. The functional MRI tasks include a self-evaluation paradigm and a self-disclosure paradigm. In addition, adolescents and their parents/guardians complete a number of surveys to report on the adolescent's pubertal development, mental health, social environment and life events; adolescents also report on various indices of self-perception and social-emotional functioning. Discussion: The knowledge gained from this study will include developmental trajectories of pubertal, neurological, and social processes and their roles as mechanisms in predicting emergence of mental illness in female adolescents. This knowledge will help identify modifiable, developmentally specific risk factors as targets for early intervention and prevention efforts. 1Although the study was advertised using the name Transitions in Adolescent Girls, during the first wave of data collection 1.7% of participants reported a non-binary gender identity. Thus while title and abstract refer to 'girls' and 'female', we realize that not all participants identify as such. See methods for details.

10.3389/fpsyt.2019.01018

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Citations (16)

Quantitative Lateral Flow Assays for Salivary Biomarker Assessment: A Review

Frontiers in Public Health (2017)

Olga Miočević Craig R. Cole Mary J. Laughlin Robert L. Buck Paul D. Slowey

Saliva is an emerging biofluid with a significant number of applications in use across research and clinical settings. The present paper explores the reasons why saliva has grown in popularity in recent years, balancing both the potential strengths and weaknesses of this biofluid. Focusing on reasons why saliva is different from other common biological fluids such as blood, urine, or tears, we review how saliva is easily obtained, with minimal risk to the donor, and reduced costs for collection, transportation, and analysis. We then move on to a brief review of the history and progress in rapid salivary testing, again reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of rapid immunoassays (e.g., lateral flow immunoassay) compared to more traditional immunoassays. We consider the potential for saliva as an alternative biofluid in a setting where rapid results are important. We focus the review on salivary tests for small molecule biomarkers using cortisol as an example. Such salivary tests can be applied readily in a variety of settings and for specific measurement purposes, providing researchers and clinicians with opportunities to assess biomarkers in real time with lower transportation, collection, and analysis costs, faster turnaround time, and minimal training requirements. We conclude with a note of cautious optimism that the field will soon gain the ability to collect and analyze salivary specimens at any location and return viable results within minutes.

Strengths and weaknesses

Turnaround time

10.3389/fpubh.2017.00133

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Citations (73)

Virtual stressors with real impact: what virtual reality-based biobehavioral research can teach us about typical and atypical stress responsivity

Translational Psychiatry (2024)

Elizabeth A. Shirtcliff Tor Finseth Eliot Winer David C. Glahn Roselynn A. Conrady

Stress contributes to transdiagnostic morbidity and mortality across a wide range of physical and mental health problems. VR tasks have been validated as stressors with robust effect sizes for VR-based stressors to evoke stress across the most common autonomic and adrenocortical stress biomarkers. However, meta-analytic validation of VR stressors have resulted in inconsistent logic: why should something that isn't real evoke a very real suite of stress responses? This review posits that conceptually addressing this question requires differentiating a cause, "stressor", from effects, "stress". Stress comprises a series of well-delineated perturbations in biological systems, such as autonomic and adrenocortical biomarkers in response to stressors. Despite their ubiquity, decades of literature have back-calculated stressor intensity based on the magnitude of a stress response. This causal directionality is not logical, yet remains pervasive because seemingly objective stress indices have generated a wealth of findings showing how stress gets under the skin and skull. This has created challenges for providing clear guidance and strategies to measure acute stressor intensity. Binary thinking about whether something is (not) real has stifled advances in understanding how to measure the dosage of a stressful environment. As a function of being programmed, individualizable, and titrated, virtual reality (VR) based stressors offer the field a platform for quantifying the dose of a stressor and generating reliable dose-response curves. This also raises the possibility to safely and ethically integrate psychosocial stressor administration into clinical and therapeutic settings. For example, Social Evaluative Threat experiments effectively trigger a stress response both in a laboratory setting and in built environments, while also upholding hard-fought trust and rapport with care providers. By focusing attention on the measurement of the stressor, VR paradigms can advance tangible understanding of stressors themselves and the pathways to the stress response.

Stressor

10.1038/s41398-024-03129-x

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Influence of early life stress on later hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis functioning and its covariation with mental health symptoms: A study of the allostatic process from childhood into adolescence

Development and Psychopathology (2011)

Marilyn J. Essex Elizabeth A. Shirtcliff Linnea R. Burk Paula L. Ruttle Marjorie H. Klein

Abstract The hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis is a primary mechanism in the allostatic process through which early life stress (ELS) contributes to disease. Studies of the influence of ELS on children's HPA axis functioning have yielded inconsistent findings. To address this issue, the present study considers multiple types of ELS (maternal depression, paternal depression, and family expressed anger), mental health symptoms, and two components of HPA functioning (traitlike and epoch-specific activity) in a long-term prospective community study of 357 children. ELS was assessed during the infancy and preschool periods; mental health symptoms and cortisol were assessed at child ages 9, 11, 13, and 15 years. A three-level hierarchical linear model addressed questions regarding the influences of ELS on HPA functioning and its covariation with mental health symptoms. ELS influenced traitlike cortisol level and slope, with both hyper- and hypoarousal evident depending on type of ELS. Further, type(s) of ELS influenced covariation of epoch-specific HPA functioning and mental health symptoms, with a tighter coupling of HPA alterations with symptom severity among children exposed previously to ELS. Results highlight the importance of examining multiple types of ELS and dynamic HPA functioning in order to capture the allostatic process unfolding across the transition into adolescence.

Allostatic load

Hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis

Allostasis

Maternal deprivation

10.1017/s0954579411000484

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Citations (193)

Stability of parental care across siblings from undisturbed and challenged pregnancies: Intrinsic maternal dispositions of female rhesus monkeys.

Developmental Psychology (2013)

Elizabeth A. Shirtcliff Jenny Phan Gabriele R. Lubach Heather R. Crispen Christopher L. Coe

The concept of fetal programming is based on the idea that the developmental trajectory of infants is adjusted in response to in utero conditions. In species with extended parental care, these prenatally derived tendencies are further substantiated by behavioral attributes of the mother during the postnatal period. We investigated the stability of maternal behavioral interactions with infant monkeys and carefully varied prenatal conditions across siblings reared by the same mother. We hypothesized that effects of prenatal disturbance and the infant's susceptibility would be differentially affected by maternal attributes. Using hierarchical linear modeling, we analyzed observational data on 121 rhesus macaques reared by a total of 35 multiparous mothers. A portion of the variance in 5 dyadic behaviors was statistically driven by the infant (or was unique to a particular mother-infant pair), but stable maternal propensities and a consistent style of care across siblings also substantially influenced behavioral interactions. Moreover, the magnitude and direction of the prenatal effects were contingent on a female's intrinsic dispositions. When mothers typically exhibited high levels of a corresponding behavior, responsiveness to infants was enhanced as a consequence of prenatal disturbance. The opposite was true for less expressive females. Challenges to the well-being of pregnancy thus served to accentuate maternal predispositions and served to magnify the range of variation in mother-infant behavior across the whole population.

Rhesus macaque

Paternal care

10.1037/a0032050

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Citations (2)

Patterns of neuroendocrine coupling in 9-year-old children: Effects of sex, body-mass index, and life stress

Biological Psychology (2017)

Sarah R. Black Matthew D. Lerner Elizabeth A. Shirtcliff Daniel N. Klein

Stressor

10.1016/j.biopsycho.2017.11.004

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Citations (14)

Salivary dehydroepiandrosterone responsiveness to social challenge in adolescents with internalizing problems

Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (2007)

Elizabeth A. Shirtcliff Carolyn Zahn‐Waxler Bonnie Klimes‐Dougan Marcia J. Slattery

Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) is an adrenal androgen which is stress responsive and a trigger for pubertal maturation. Studies on basal DHEA suggest protective benefits against anxiety and depression, yet it is unknown whether DHEA responsivity is protective.Structural equation modeling examined salivary DHEA responses to a public speaking task (PST) and parent-child conflict discussion paradigm (CDP) in adolescents.DHEA levels were higher in girls than boys, and in older and more physically developed adolescents, indicative of DHEA's function during pubertal maturation. DHEA levels increased during the PST, indicating responsiveness of DHEA to acute stressors. Across both tasks, girls with internalizing problems showed sharper rises in DHEA by 40 minutes post-task, ending with the highest DHEA. In internalizing adolescent girls, DHEA may serve as a marker of responsivity in stressful or conflictual contexts. A failure of these girls with internalizing problems to show a normal diurnal decline in the afternoon extended this conclusion to naturalistic environments. DHEA may be one possible mechanism linking stress responsivity and physical maturation that helps to explain adolescents' risk for psychopathology within a biobehavioral framework.

Stressor

10.1111/j.1469-7610.2006.01723.x

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Citations (67)

Utility of virtual reality for physiological stress responsivity

Psychoneuroendocrinology (2019)

Logan Scott Stiens Neil Barnett Andrea Tountas Tor Finseth Nir Keren

Stressor

Reactivity

Moderation

Chronic Stress

Stress measures