We want to know why. The study will look specifically at hormonal response indicated by an elevation of cortisol in the bloodstream. Powers is especially interested in how such hormonal levels vary according to gender, stress, and the methods a person uses to resolve conflict. In earlier studies, we examined how young people resolved conflicts with their parents during middle adolescence, and found that gender made a difference. Building on a pilot study conducted at UMass that established a direct relationship between depression and a person's hormonal reaction to interpersonal stress, Powers and graduate assistants Cheryl Bonica, Meredith Gunlicks, Eliza McArdle, Elizabeth Seeley, and Anne Smith will study 800 young-adult volunteers ranging in age from 18 to 20.
Participants represent a broad range of education, career, and lifestyle variables.
Through a series of experimental conflict tasks, interviews, and physical tests, the researchers will try to link the volunteers' behavior to their hormonal and physiological reactions. Powers says stress comes not only from conflict itself, but also from the way a person handles it. If we're not handling conflict successfully, we have more reactivity of our stress hormones to conflict, and more vulnerability to depression. Powers says adolescent depression predicts adult depression. Depression during adolescence is destructive to a youth's future as well as current well-being, predicting future problems in the areas of marriage, school achievement, employment, substance use, delinquency, and general health.