Oxytocin Reactivity during a Wilderness Program without Parents in Adolescents

Ayako Morita, Akiko Shikano, Kazuaki Nakamura, Shingo Noi and Takeo Fujiwara ()
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Ayako Morita: Department of Global Health Promotion, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo 113-8510, Japan
Akiko Shikano: Research Institute for Health and Sport Science, Nippon Sport Science University, Tokyo 158-8508, Japan
Kazuaki Nakamura: Department of Pharmacology, National Research Institute for Child Health and Development, Tokyo 157-0074, Japan
Shingo Noi: Research Institute for Health and Sport Science, Nippon Sport Science University, Tokyo 158-8508, Japan
Takeo Fujiwara: Department of Global Health Promotion, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo 113-8510, Japan

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 23, 1-11

Abstract: While wilderness programs are recognized as a feasible intervention to promote psychological independence in adolescence, little is known about physiological changes. The present study focused on oxytocin, a key hormone for social cognition and behavior, and investigated changes in OT concentrations during a wilderness program among adolescents. Twenty-one 4th–7th graders were separated from parents and immersed with adventures and challenges in the woodlands of Motegi, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan for 31 days, and dataset of 20 boys aged 9–13 years-old were used for analysis. OT concentrations in early morning saliva samples on days 2, 5, 8, 13, 18, 20, 21, 22 and 30 were determined using ELIZA. We performed multi-level regression analyses to compare the OT concentrations before and after solo and team-based survival challenges, and across the nine observational points, adjusting for potential covariates. We found that adolescents increased OT level in a situation where they needed others’ cooperation and support for survival (coefficient: 2.86, SE: 1.34, p = 0.033). Further, we found that adolescents gradually decreased their basal OT level during a long separation from parents (coefficient: −0.083, SE: 0.034, p = 0.016). A combination of these findings suggest the OT level may be a marker for psychological independence.

Keywords: adolescents; child; nature; oxytocin; independence; Japan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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