NCT04311996

Does Social Buffering Continue to be Effective Over the Peripubertal Period When Friends Share the Stressor Experience?

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 269 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Minnesota · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 11 Years – 14 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The purpose of this experiment is to determine whether social buffering by friends of stress physiology remains effective later in puberty when friends share the load versus when they provide support but are not undergoing the stressor with the target child. There are four conditions: (1) Friend and Target both undergo the stressor, (2) Friend provides support but does not undergo the stressor, (3) Unfamiliar Peer and Target undergo the stressor, and (4) Alone (no partner).

Detailed description

Adolescents experience social evaluation stress frequently. However, it is likely that often they are not alone, but with friends who are also going through the same experience. Thus, it is possible that under these conditions, social buffering by friends does not wane over the peripubertal period. Participants will be assigned to social conditions while engaging in an evaluative stressor task.

Conditions

• Adolescent Behavior
• Social Stress

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Friend and target	random assignment to Friend and Target Both condition
OTHER	Friend support	random assignment to Friend Provides Support condition
OTHER	unfamiliar peer and target	random assignment to Unfamiliar Peer and Target condition
OTHER	alone	random assignment to Alone condition

Timeline

• Start date: 2021-10-25
• Primary completion: 2023-06-24
• Completion: 2023-06-24
• First posted: 2020-03-17
• Last updated: 2025-02-24
• Results posted: 2025-02-24

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States