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A Modified Trier Social Stress Test for Vulnerable Mexican American Adolescents
Published on: July 10, 2017
Hormones, behavior, and social network analysis: exploring associations between cortisol, testosterone, and network
Olga Kornienko1, Katherine H Clemans2, Dorothée Out3
1Institute for Interdisciplinary Salivary Bioscience Research, Arizona State University, USA; Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, USA.
Abstract:
We used a new interdisciplinary paradigm of social network analysis (SNA) to investigate associations between hormones and social network structures. We examine these biobehavioral processes and test hypotheses about how hormones are associated with social network structures using exponential random graph modeling (ERGM) in a cohort of first-year students (n=74; 93% female; M age=27 years) from a highly competitive, accelerated nursing program. Participants completed friendship nominations and as a group simultaneously donated saliva (later assayed for cortisol and testosterone). ERGM analyses revealed that salivary cortisol levels were inversely associated with the number of outgoing ties (i.e., network activity). By contrast, testosterone was not related to friendship network structure. Integration of SNA and salivary bioscience creates a novel approach to understanding hormone-behavior relationships within the context of human social ecologies.
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