1101 Daytime Interactions Of Anxiousness, Stressfulness, Sleepiness, And Fatigue In College Students: A Longitudinal Cluster Analysis

Introduction Reports of anxiety and stress are increasing among college-age students. Previous findings show bi-directional relationships with nighttime sleep loss and elevated anxiety and stress. Less is known about changes across the day (profiles) in anxiousness and stress, and their relationship to daytime sleepiness and fatigue profiles. The primary objective of this study was to examine these potential interactions. Methods Using an ecological momentary assessment design, university undergraduates (N=102, female= 77.5%) made smart phone ratings (0-9 Scale) of anxiousness, stressfulness, fatigue, sleepiness from Monday-Friday, six times per day. Participant were either Low-Anxious (0-1 score: n=34) or High-Anxious (>7 score; n=68) on the GAD-Q-IV Scale, had > 7h sleep per weeknight, and bed- and wake times between 06:30-09:30 and 22:30-02:00, respectively. Mean daytime profile interactions were examined using joint-trajectory longitudinal clustering. Results Clustering identified two subtypes, Lo (n=46) and Hi (n=56), which differed primarily in their quadratic curve levels, and in times of highest and lowest ratings. Subtypes differed (p<.001) in overall mean ratings of anxiousness (Lo=1.6±0.9, Hi=3.6±1.1), stressfulness (Lo=2.0±0.9, Hi=4.3±1.1), fatigue (Lo=2.4±1.0, Hi=4.4±1.0), and sleepiness (Lo=2.9±1.0, Hi=4.3±1.1). Subtypes were similar in age (Lo=18.6±0.9, Hi=18.9±1.3), morningness-eveningness BALM (Lo=33.2±4.1, Hi=32.1±5.1) and MEQ (Lo=47.5±6.2, Hi=47.7±6.8) scores, and hours sleep (Lo=8.5±0.8, Hi=8.4±0.9). Notably, more females were Hi subtype (83.9%) than Lo subtype (69.6%). Also, GAD-Q-IV scores differed within subtypes: Hi (80.4% High-Anxiety, 19.6% Low-Anxiety) versus Lo (50.0% for both High- and Low-Anxiety). Conclusion Despite apparent adequate nightly sleep, elevated anxiousness and stressfulness may be accompanied by increased daytime fatigue and sleepiness in college students. Furthermore, standardized clinical tests designed to identify levels of anxiety and stress may not align with daily experiences of those states. Better understanding of concomitant daytime profiles of anxiousness, stress, sleepiness, and fatigue could facilitate treatment development and reduce the burden on student counseling centers. Support None

Effects of An Acute Physical Activity Break on Test Anxiety and Math Test Performance

(1) Background: Test anxiety has been found to negatively affect students’ mental health and academic performance. A primary explanation for this is that anxiety-related thoughts occupy working memory resources during testing that cannot be used for test-related processes (such as information retrieval and problem-solving). The present intervention study investigated whether physical activity could decrease anxiety levels and improve maths test performance in sixth-grade children. (2) Methods: Sixty-eight children of 11–12 years from two primary schools in New South Wales, Australia were categorised as low or high anxious from their scores on a trait-anxiety questionnaire. After this assessment, they were randomly assigned to the activity break condition, in which they had to do several physical activities of moderate intensity (e.g., star jumps) for 10 min, or the control condition, in which they played a vocabulary game for 10 min. The outcome measures were children’s anxiety levels at the beginning, during, and at the end of the test, invested mental effort, perceived task difficulty and maths test performance. (3) Results: Results showed that regardless of the condition, low anxious students performed better on the maths test than high anxious children. No differences were found for any of the variables between the activity break condition and the control condition. (4) Conclusions: Although test anxiety was not reduced as expected, this study showed that short physical activity breaks can be used before examinations without impeding academic performance.

The glucocorticoid receptor in the nucleus accumbens plays a crucial role in social rank attainment in rodents

Social hierarchy in social species is usually established through competitive encounters with conspecifics. It determines the access to limited resources and, thus, leads to reduced fights among individuals within a group. Despite the known importance of social rank for health and well-being, the knowledge about the processes underlying rank attainment remains limited. Previous studies have highlighted the nucleus accumbens (NAc) as a key brain region in the attainment of social hierarchies in rodents. In addition, glucocorticoids and the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) have been implicated in the establishment of social hierarchies and social aversion. However, whether GR in the NAc is involved in social dominance is not yet known. To address this question, we first established that expression levels of GR in the NAc of high anxious, submissive-prone rats are lower than that of their low anxious, dominant-prone counterparts. Furthermore, virally-induced downregulation of GR expression in the NAc in rats led to an improvement of social dominance rank. We found a similar result in a cell-specific mouse model lacking GR in dopaminoceptive neurons (i.e., neurons containing dopamine receptors). Indeed, when cohabitating in dyads of mixed genotypes, mice deficient for GR in dopaminoceptive neurons had a higher probability to become dominant than wild-type mice. Overall, our results highlight GR in the NAc and in dopaminoceptive neurons as an important regulator of social rank attainment.