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Panel information
Panel 23. Social, Emotional, Personality

Abstract

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Introduction: Adolescence is a time of rapid cognitive and emotional development, creating opportunities for psychological vulnerability (Yurgelun-Todd, 2007). Personality factors play an important role in emotional reactivity, especially in shaping responses to acute stressors. Neuroticism, a general tendency toward negative affectivity, has been linked to risk for later psychopathology and may be an indication of underlying mood and anxiety disorders (Pine et al., 2014). Despite this risk, some adolescents maintain good mental health, and prior literature highlights the important role of supportive parents in buffering stress through close, contingent social relationships (Allen et al., 2003; Li et al., 2020). The associations between adolescent personality, stress reactivity, and parent-adolescent relationship quality have rarely been examined jointly.
Methods: Adolescents (N = 166, ages 11-15 years old) participated in a recorded reunion activity with their parent following completion of the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST-M, Yim et al., 2010). Independent raters coded the recordings for adolescent and parent positive and negative affect using 0-3 Likert scales. They also coded parent-adolescent social interactions, focusing on behaviors indicative of secure attachment, parent-adolescent synchrony, and parental comforting behaviors. Personality factors were measured using the Big Five Inventory 2 (BFI-2), and differences in salivary cortisol from baseline to peak were computed to index stress reactivity.
Results: Linear regression models revealed that neuroticism was negatively associated with cortisol reactivity, controlling for sex, β = -.23, p = .007. Females exhibited higher levels of neuroticism compared to males, t(147) = 5.8, p < .001. Although none of the parent-adolescent relationship qualities we coded for were associated with lower adolescent stress responses, we found significant correlations between parent-adolescent relationship quality and adolescent characteristics. Specifically, dyads that spoke about the TSST during their reunion were more likely to be rated as synchronous, r(132) = .32, p < .001, higher in secure base attachment, r(132) = .30, p < .001, and were more likely to involve comforting behaviors from the parent, r(132) = .29, p < .001. Interactions that were synchronous were also correlated with higher adolescent positive affect, r(132) = .24. Higher parent positive affect was positively associated with adolescent positive affect, r(132) = .70, p < .001. Neuroticism was also inversely associated with adolescent positive affect during the video (β = -.25, p = .01), controlling for adolescent age and sex.
Discussion: We found that adolescents who exhibit higher levels of neuroticism display blunted cortisol reactivity in response to stress, particularly if they are female. This is in line with prior research revealing similar patterns in adult populations (LeBlanc & Ducharme, 2005; Oswald et al., 2006; Phillips et al., 2005). We also found that the parent-adolescent relationship was an important predictor of the adolescent’s affect and behaviors exhibited during the interaction with their parent following a stressful event. This suggests that parents play a significant role in their adolescent’s appraisal of stressors and affective response to stressful events.

Author information

Author	Role
Kelsey Sennett, University of California, Davis	Presenting author
Anna Parenteau, M.A., University of California, Davis	Non-presenting author
Camelia E. Hostinar, Ph.D., University of California, Davis	Non-presenting author

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