The Acute Relationship between Affective States and Stress Biomarkers in Ethnic Minority Youths

Cheng K. Fred Wen, Chih-Ping Chou, Britni R. Belcher, Marc J. Weigensberg, David S. Black and Donna Spruijt-Metz
Additional contact information
Cheng K. Fred Wen: Center for Self-Report Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA
Chih-Ping Chou: Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90032, USA
Britni R. Belcher: Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90032, USA
Marc J. Weigensberg: Department of Pediatrics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90033, USA
David S. Black: Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90032, USA
Donna Spruijt-Metz: Center for Economic and Social Research and Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 23, 1-9

Abstract: Background : Whether affective states acutely predict the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis activities and whether energy balance-related behaviors moderate the affect–HPA axis relationship in obese youths are not well-understood. Methods : 87 mostly obese (94.3% obese) minority adolescents (mean: 16.3 ± 1.2 years old; 56.8% Latino and 43.2% African American) participated in a randomized crossover trial in an observation laboratory, where they received either high-sugar/low-fiber (HSLF) or low-sugar/high-fiber (LSHF) meals first and then crossed over in the next visit 2–4 weeks later. During each visit, they rated five affective states and provided a saliva sample every 30 min for the first 5 h and wore a waist-worn accelerometer. The association between the affect ratings and cortisol levels in the subsequent 30 min and the moderation effect of energy balance-related behavior were examined using multilevel models. Results : Within-person negative affect (β = 0.02, p = 0.0343) and feeling of panic (β = 0.007, p = 0.004) were acutely related to the subsequent cortisol level only during the HSLF condition. The time spent in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity did not moderate the acute relationship between affect and the subsequent cortisol level. Conclusions : Negative affect could be acutely related to heightened HPA axis activities in youths, but only when they were exposed to meals with high sugar and low fiber content. These results suggest that the meals’ sugar and fiber content may modulate HPA axis reactivity to negative affect in youths.

Keywords: youth; emotion; cortisol; dietary behavior; physical activity; hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis; obesity; ethnic minority (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/23/12670/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/23/12670/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:23:p:12670-:d:692685

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().