Effects of an incremental theory of the personality intervention on psychophysiological responses to social stress during the transition to college

This randomized controlled trial (NCT04786496) examined the effects of a preventive intervention based on Incremental Theory of the Personality (ITP) on psychophysiological responses to social stress and evaluated whether levels of depression moderate the intervention effects. The participants, 107 first-year university students, were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: ITP intervention, ITP + a self-affirmation intervention (SA), and a control condition (CC). Indicators of the Hypothalamic–Pituitary–Adrenal axis, autonomic nervous system, and subjective mood were assessed with the Trier Social Stress Task. Participants in the ITP condition displayed a lower decline in respiratory sinus arrythmia (RSA) compared to those in the CC during the first phases of the task [Slopes: -0.08 (0.09) vs -0.21 (0.09), z = 2.86, p = .004] and a higher decrease in cortisol at recovery [β = -0.18 (0.08), z = -2.37, p = .018]. Depressive symptoms moderated the effect of ITP [β = -0.10 (0.05), z = -2.15, p =.032] and ITP+SA [β = -0.09 (0.04), z = -2.06, p =.039] in the decline during stress and recovery in RSA. In participants with low/medium levels of depressive symptoms, both interventions predicted a lower decline during stress [Slopes: -0.06 (0.09) for ITP, -0.17 (.09) for ITP+SA, and -0.26 (0.09) for CC] and higher recovery in RSA [Slopes: 0.18 (0.01) for ITP, 0.24 (0.01) for ITP+SA, and 0.30 (0.01) for CC]. The findings suggest that the ITP intervention has the potential to be an effective preventive intervention to reduce the stress response.

Cues of Social Status: Associations Between Attractiveness, Dominance, and Status

Hierarchies naturally emerge in social species, and judgments of status in these hierarchies have consequences for social relationships and health. Although judgments of social status are shaped by appearance, the physical cues that inform judgments of status remain unclear. The transition to college presents an opportunity to examine judgments of social status in a newly developing social hierarchy. We examined whether appearances—as measured by raters’ judgments of photographs and videos—provide information about undergraduate students’ social status at their university and in society in Study 1. Exploratory analyses investigated whether associations differed by participants’ sex. Eighty-one first-year undergraduate students ( Mage = 18.20, SD = 0.50; 64.2% female) provided photographs and videos and reported their social status relative to university peers and relative to other people in society. As hypothesized, when participants were judged to be more attractive and dominant they were also judged to have higher status. These associations were replicated in two additional samples of raters who evaluated smiling and neutral photographs from the Chicago Faces Database in Study 2. Multilevel models also revealed that college students with higher self-reported university social status were judged to have higher status, attractiveness, and dominance, although judgments were not related to self-reported society social status. Findings highlight that there is agreement between self-reports of university status and observer-perceptions of status based solely on photographs and videos, and suggest that appearance may shape newly developing social hierarchies, such as those that emerge during the transition to college.

Direct and indirect associations among self-disclosure skills, social support, and psychosocial outcomes during the transition to college

The goal of current study was to explore direct and indirect associations between self-disclosure skills, social support, and psychosocial outcomes during the transition to college. Incoming college students in the U.S. completed online surveys throughout their first academic year. Multilevel mediation analyses revealed different associations among these variables (1) when considering different relational sources of support (family, friend, significant other) and (2) when specifying interindividual (i.e., between-person) versus intraindividual (i.e., within-person) effects across time. Most notably, results indicated that more friend support was associated with better psychosocial outcomes both between and within participants; in comparison, family support was beneficial to both positive and negative psychosocial outcomes when individuals generally had better self-disclosure skills (i.e., between-person effects), and perceived significant other support as a mediator explained positive psychosocial outcomes. These results highlight the importance of considering both intraindividual and interindividual changes, as well as relational context, when exploring how social skills are associated with well-being.

Understanding the Undergraduate Student's Transition Into Higher Education: An OT Perspective

Date Presented Accepted for AOTA INSPIRE 2021 but unable to be presented due to online event limitations. This study explored undergraduate students' transition to college from a holistic perspective of the person, environment, occupation, and performance. Results indicated resources to promote organization, time management, friendship and community development, and effective communication for engagement in occupation support a successful transition experience. OTs can aid students during the transition by facilitating communication management between the university and students. Primary Author and Speaker: Megan Nicole Hutson Additional Authors and Speakers: Kendall Horan Contributing Authors: Suzanne Holm