Interaction Effects Of Individual Traits And Environmental Factors On Internalization Problems

How individual physiopsychological traits regulate environmental impacts on adolescents’ internalization problems is awalys a hot concern for developmental psychologists and educational practitioners.In the past,most studies focused on the moderation mechanism of adolescents’ psychological traits,but less on that of their physiological traits.Moreover,there are a few studies on the interaction manner between individual traits and environmental factors.Previous theories and empirical research believed that the interaction manner between individual traits and environmental factors may include the differential susceptibility model,the diathesis-stress model and the vantage sensitivity model.Additionally,under the framework of psychobiological theory,the basal activity of the HPA axis as one of the central nervous system is suggested to be closely related to the psychological traits including shyness,sensation seeking and self-control.Therefore,the present study focused on how psychological traits and the basal activity of the HPA axis regulate the environmental impacts on adolescents’ internalization problems and on the interaction manner between the traits and environmental factors.This study selected the proximal factors,such as parental rearing styles,school climate and life events as the typical environmental factors under the framework of ecosystem theory,and perceived stress,anxiety and depression symptoms as adolescents’ internalization problems because they are common psychological problems among adolescents.Shyness,sensation seeking and self-control were adopted as the indicators of individual psychological trait,and hair cortisol as the indicator of the physiological trait because it is a novel reliable biomarker to assess the long-term activity of the HPA axis.Using a cross-sectional design in combination with a longitudinal design,this study at first screened the envirmental factors with the stronger prediction on adolescents’ internalization problems among parental rearing styles,school climate and life events.Then it examined the moderating mechanism of the individual traits on the relation between as-screened factors and adolescents’ internalization problems and further explored the interaction manners between the traits and as-screened environmental factors.In this study,particiopants were 431 students recruited at the firt semester from a senior high school.They self-reported their psychological traits and internalization problems with questionnaires and provided their 1-cm hair strands closest to the scalp.Hair cortisol was determined with liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry.Through hierarchical regression,simple slope analysis,and the test on regions of significance,the results were expressed as follows:1.At the first year in senior high school,mothers’ control and punishment could significantly and positively predict adolescent perceived stress and anxiety symptoms.Fathers’encouragement could significantly and negatively predict perceived stress and anxiety symptoms.Teachers’ support could significantly and negatively predict perceived stress,anxiety and depression symptoms and classmates’ support could predict adolescent anxiety and depression symptoms.The learning events could significantly and positively predict adolescent perceived stress,anixiety and depression symptoms,and interpersonal events could predict depression symptoms.At the second year,teachers’ support and classmates’ support could significantly and negatively predict anxiety and depression symptoms.Both the learning events and interpersonal events could significantly and positively predict adolescent perceived stress and depression symptoms.These results indicated life events had stronger negative influences on adolescent internalization problems compared with other environmental factors.2.Shyness,sensation seeking and self-control could moderate the relation between interpersonal events and adolescent depression symptoms.The interaction manner between shyness and interpersonal events was in line with the vantage sensitivity model where individuals with lower shyness were less depressed than individuals with higher shyness when there were less negative interpersonal events.The interaction manner between sensation seeking and interpersonal events was consistent with the differential susceptibility model where individuals with lower shyness were less depressed under less interpersonal events and were higher depressed when there were more interpersonal events.The interaction manner between self-control and interpersonal events was in agreement with the diathesis-stress model where the more negative interpersonal events,the more likely individuals with lower self-control were depressed than individuals with higher self-control,but there was no significant difference in depression symptoms between them when there were fewer negative interpersonal events.3.Hair cortisol could moderate the influence of the learning events on adolescent perceive stress and anxiety symptoms.The interaction manners between hair cortisol and the learning events were consistent with the differential susceptibility model where individuals with high hair cortisol level perceived lower stress and showed less anxiety symptoms than individuals with lower hair cortisol level under fewer learning events,and perceived higher stress and showed more anxiety symptoms under more negative learning events.4.Hair cortisol could moderate the influence of interpersonal events on adolescent anxiety.The interaction manners between hair cortisol and interpersonal events accorded with the differential susceptibility model where individuals with lower hair cortisol level showed less anxiety symptoms than individuals with higher hair cortisol level under fewer interpersonal events,and showed more anxiety symptoms under more interpersonal events.5.Hair cortisol could moderate the influence of the learning events on adolescent depression symptoms.The interaction manner between hair cortisol and the learning events was consistent with the diathesis-stress model where individuals with higher hair cortisol level felt more depressed than individuals with lower hair cortisol level under more learning events,but there was no significant difference between them under less learning events.In summary,the interaction manner between psychological traits and life events varies with the psychological traits,and the interaction manner between hair cortisol and life events varies with life events and adolescent psychological adaptable outcomes.Because the HPA axis is a comprehensive stress-sensitive system,hair cortisol level as the biomarker of the HPA axis could regulate the psychological outcomes adaptable to both the learning events and interpersonal events.Its moderation was more universal than those of the psychological traits which could regulate the psychological outcomes only adaptable to interpersonal events.These results gave an implication that it is necessary to incorporate neruo indices with the universality and sensitive psychological indices in order to make more valuable and effective methods in improving the adolescents’ internalization problems.