Caregiver Stress and Empathy: Neural and Hormonal Correlates

Providing care to older adults with chronic conditions can be emotionally meaningful and stressful. The tend-and-befriend theory highlights the role of affiliation/empathy in stress reduction, but it has not been established whether this theory extends to caregivers for older adults. Addressing this gap, we assessed caregiver empathy and stress through behavioral, hormone, and neuroimaging measures. In Experiment 1, we compared 19 caregivers (Mage=67.1) to 24 non-caregivers (Mage=72.6), and found that caregivers with a greater reduction in cortisol to an empathic context showed greater prosocial behavior (r2=0.3). In experiment 2 (N=32), we examined differences between caregivers and non-caregivers in whole brain resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) with seed regions of interest (posterior cingulate cortex (PCC); amygdala), and covariation of RSFC with empathy (α=0.05). For emotional empathy, caregivers had stronger connectivity between the PCC seed, medial prefrontal cortex, and right supramarginal gyrus, and between the amygdala seed and the right middle frontal gyrus.

Association Between Accumulation of Child Maltreatment and Salivary Oxytocin Level Among Japanese Adolescents

Background: Child maltreatment is related to oxytocin (OT), which is related to social functioning. It may hamper the OT level to avoid a harmful situation and increase the OT level to adapt to the situation using a tend-and-befriend stress reaction.Objective: This study aims to examine the association between the accumulation of moderate–severe childhood maltreatment and salivary OT levels in Japanese adolescents.Participants: We used convenience samples of adolescents living in an institution (n = 31) and those living with their parents (n = 46).Methods: Child maltreatment experiences were measured with the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. The salivary OT levels were assessed by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay. A multivariate regression analysis was performed to see the association between the accumulation of child maltreatment types and the salivary OT levels adjusted for covariates (i.e., age, sex, and duration of institutionalization).Results: Physical abuse was associated with higher OT, while emotional neglect showed an inverse association with OT. OT was the lowest with one maltreatment type group, which was significantly lower than the non-maltreatment group. As the number of maltreatment types increased from one maltreatment type to 2–3 types and to 4–5 types, OT also increased. This U-shaped association between the number of maltreatment types and OT was confirmed with the significant result of a square term of number of maltreatment type in the model (p = 0.012).Conclusion: We found herein a U-shaped association between the accumulation of child maltreatment and salivary OT levels. Also, different types of maltreatment had varied effects on the salivary OT. Further study is needed to elucidate the non-linear association between child maltreatment and OT levels.

Making players care: The ambivalent cultural politics of care and video games

The relationship between care and video games is fraught. While the medium has the potential to allow players to meaningfully express and receive care, the cultural rhetorics that connect video games to care are often problematic. Even among game designers and scholars committed to social justice, some view care with hope and others with concern. Here, we identify and unpack these tensions, which we refer to as the ambivalent cultural politics of care, and illustrate them through three case studies. First, we discuss “tend-and-befriend games,” coined by Brie Code, which we read through feminist theorists Sarah Sharma and Sara Ahmed. Second, we address “empathy games” and the worrisome implication that games by marginalized people must make privileged players care. Lastly, we turn to issues of care in video game development. We discuss Telltale Games’ The Walking Dead series (2012–18) and strikingly care-less fan responses to recent employee layoffs.

Relationship Between Gender, Stress, and Quality of Social Support

Background Research suggests that gender differences exist in both stress and how social support is utilized and that the relationship between stress and social support may not be linear. Methods An internet survey of n = 1080 participants was conducted evaluating quality and quantity of social support, gender, age, and perceived stress and coping. Results Reported quality of social support, gender, and age significantly predicted perceived stress and that there was a curvilinear interaction between the quality of social support and gender which significantly predicted perceived stress. Conclusion The current findings supported Taylor’s Tend and Befriend theory that females have higher reported stress levels, a larger support network, and report more quality in their social support. Practitioner points: • Males and females may manifest stress differently in their relationships. • When working with males and females in practice it may be important to understand the depth and breadth of their social networks and how they utilize those networks. • Females indicate higher levels of stress and greater social support quality. • It is important to understand that one’s social network can be an important source of support (a coping mechanism) but that it can also serve as a stressor in some cases.

The effects of psychosocial stress on intergroup resource allocation

Stress changes our social behavior. Traditionally, stress has been associated with “fight-or-flight” – the tendency to attack an aggressor, or escape the stressor. But stress may also promote the opposite pattern, i.e., “tend-and-befriend” – increased prosociality toward others. It is currently unclear which situational or physiological factors promote one or the other. Here, we hypothesized that stress stimulates both tendencies, but that fight-or-flight is primarily directed against a potentially hostile outgroup, moderated by rapid-acting catecholamines, while tend-and-befriend is mainly shown towards a supportive ingroup, regulated by cortisol. To test this hypothesis, we measured stress-related neurohormonal modulators and sex hormones in male and female participants who were exposed to a psychosocial stressor, and subsequently played an intergroup social dilemma game in which they could reveal prosocial motives towards an ingroup (ingroup-love) and hostility towards an outgroup (outgroup-hate). We found no significant effects of stress on social preferences, but stress-related heart-rate increases predicted outgroup-hostile behavior. Furthermore, when controlling for testosterone, cortisol was associated with increased ingroup-love. Other-regarding behavior was overall higher in male than female participants. Our mixed results are of interest to scholars of the effects of stress on prosocial and aggressive behavior, but call for refinement in future replications.

The sociodemographic context of observed solitary and social smoking behaviours using a behavioural ecological approach

This study used a behavioural ecological approach by observing whether solitary and social smoking varied as a function of gender and stress. In sample 1 ( N = 414), the result was consistent with the tend-and-befriend hypothesis, in that more female smokers were observed to engage in social smoking during high stress. When the number of smokers observed by stress condition was controlled for in sample 2 ( N = 587), this effect was non-significant. Effect sizes were small for both samples. Discrepancies with previous research suggest that self-reported data might overestimate the interaction of various psychosocial factors on smoking behaviours.