ArticlePsychoneuroendocrinology2025
Share-the-load vs bring-your-own-judge: The effects of friends on social evaluative stress in early adolescence.
Article in Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Social buffering of the cortisol stress response during the Minnesota Imaging Stress Test in Children.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2026Trial
- Social buffering by siblings in childhood and adolescence.Psychoneuroendocrinology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveParental attachment figures effectively buffer their children's cortisol responses to a socially evaluative stressor, the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), by providing instrumental and emotional support during the preparation period. The effectiveness of parents as stress buffers wanes in adolescence as youth increase their reliance on peers for support. Yet, in a previous study, when peers played the same supportive role as parents, the cortisol response to the TSST was amplified. Here we asked if the role the friend plays matters. We hypothesized that the support of a friend would reduce the cortisol response to the TSST if they were also undergoing the stressor; while friend support would increase the cortisol response if they were only there for support and were not also undergoing the stressor.
method235 youth ages 11.2-15.1 years were tested in the TSST-OL, an on-line version of the TSST task. Saliva samples were obtained for cortisol determination at multiple timepoints. In this pre-registered study, youth were randomly assigned, stratified by age, sex assigned at birth and pubertal status (early/later), to one of the following conditions: 1) Alone, 2) Unfamiliar Peer - Both Tested, 3) Friend as Supporter, 4) Friend - Both Tested.
resultsArea under the curve from intercept (AUCi) for the initial reactivity phase was significantly different by group, matching our pre-registered prediction that friend support would reduce reactivity if both friends were undergoing the stressor, but increase it if the friend providing support did not also undergo the stressor. Recovery did not differ by condition.
conclusionsThe effect of friends as stress buffers varies by the role the friend plays. In the case of the TSST, a social evaluative stressor, support from a friend buffers cortisol reactivity if the friend is also experiencing the stressor; but increases cortisol reactivity if they are just there as a support. Simply being with a supportive friend does not shield the adolescent from reacting with a neuroendocrine stress response to the stress of social evaluation.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.