Not All Stress is Equivalent: Different Stressors Impact on the Physiological Responses of the Heart

Youth who experience maltreatment can develop HPA axis dysregulation, impacting one’s biological and cognitive stress response. Stress paradigms relevant to maltreated youth are limited, but evidence suggests vocal hostility may be effective. We seek to validate a vocal hostility paradigm to provide a tool for future research to better investigate the role of HPA axis dysregulation on stress response. We compared the vocal hostility (audio stress task) to other validated paradigms (Stroop Task as a cognitive stressor, dynamometer squeezing as a physical stressor, preparing to sing to an audience as a social stressor, and watching a heart surgery video followed by a math challenge as an orienting/reactivity (O-R) stressor. A total of 111 participants (Age M = 20.29, SD = 5.36; 77.5% female, 17% male, 4.5% other gender; 41.5% black, 34.2% white, 24.3% other race) were assigned to 1 of the stress conditions. Analyses revealed a stress main effect (F(2,194) = 8.46, p < 0.001), as measured by heart rate: stress was higher during the task (M = 89.26, SE = 1.33) than either prior to the task (M = 84.26, SE = 1.44; p < 0.001) or after the task (M = 83.97, SE = 1.15; p < 0.001). However, interaction results indicated (F(8,194) = 8.64, p < 0.001), this was only true for the physical stress task (prior M = 84.53, SE = 3.29; during M = 100.57, SE = 3.05; after M = 84.08, SE = 2.65) and the O-R stress task (prior M = 81.05, SE = 3.27; during M = 87.77, SE = 3.03; after M = 83.49, SE = 2.63). Although the social stress heart rate was higher during the task (M = 87.99, SE = 2.97), compared to after (M = 83.46, SE = 2.58; p = 0.012), neither was significantly different from the heart rate prior to the task (M = 85.99, SE = 3.21; p > 0.05). Similarly, self-reported stress varied by task (F(4,102) = 5.86, p < 0.001): the physical task (M = 2.85, SE = 0.23), SST2 (M = 2.36, SE = 0.22), and social stress task (M = 2.66, SE = 0.23) were all rated as significantly more stressful than the cognitive task (M = 1.82, SE = 0.23) and audio stress task (M = 1.57, SE = 0.23). Future studies will need to refine the audio paradigm if it is going to be used to induce stress.