Social competence interview for assessing physiological reactivity in adolescents

Area of Science:

• Psychophysiology
• Adolescent Psychology
• Stress Response Research

Background:

• Predicting real-life physiological variation from controlled stress tasks remains challenging.
• There is a need for more ecologically valid laboratory assessments of stress.
• The Social Competence Interview (SCI) was developed to address these limitations.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the Social Competence Interview (SCI) as a measure of physiological stress response.
• To compare the SCI's effectiveness against traditional stress tasks (video game, mirror drawing, mental arithmetic).
• To assess the SCI's reliability, validity, and suitability for large-scale studies in adolescents.

Main Methods:

• A racially balanced sample of 260 adolescents (aged 14-15) underwent the SCI, video game, mirror drawing, and mental arithmetic tasks.
• Physiological changes, specifically blood pressure, were monitored during each task.
• Test-retest reliability was assessed over 6 months in a subsample.

Main Results:

• Blood pressure changes during the SCI were significantly greater than during other tasks, irrespective of race or gender.
• SCI blood pressure reactivity showed correlations with mental arithmetic and mirror drawing tasks, indicating unique social reactivity.
• Reactivity to the SCI and other tasks was reproducible over 6 months, identifying consistent high and low responders.

Conclusions:

• The SCI is an effective, reproducible, and less demanding method for assessing adolescent physiological stress responses.
• It captures a unique domain of social reactivity and identifies subgroups of responders at varying risk levels.
• The SCI shows promise as a valuable tool for large-scale psychophysiological research in younger populations.