Relationship between early factors life stress and college students’ risk-taking behaviors: gender difference and situational influence / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective:To explore the differences in risk-taking behaviors of individuals with early life stress between different genders under the control of social situation.Methods:A total of 160 college students including 78 males and 82 females were selected by the child psychological abuse and neglect scale.Then the subjects were divided into the early life stress group ( n=80) and the non-early life stress group ( n=80) according to the scores of the above scales.According to the presence or absence of peers, the subjects in the two groups were randomly assigned to peer presence group ( n=80) or no peer presence group ( n=80). The study adopted an experimental design of 2 (early life stress, non-early life stress) ×2 (peer presence, no peer presence) ×2 (male, female) among the subjects.All subjects performed the task of simulating risky behavior, and the number of times they chose "forward" and did not crash in the task was used as the measurement index of risky behavior.Three-factor ANOVA and Bonferroni simple effect test were carried out using SPSS 22.0 software under various conditions. Results:There were significant differences in the main effects of early life stress ( F(1, 152)=162.06, P<0.01, η2=0.52). In the simulated risk behavior task, the risk behavior of the early life stressed individuals was higher than that of the non-early life stressed individuals (no peer presence: (59.11±11.48) vs (34.91±7.42), P<0.01); peer presence: (59.24±8.59) vs (55.08±10.32), P<0.01). The interaction between early life stress and the presence of peers was statistically significant ( F(1, 152)=65.35, P<0.01, η2=0.30), for non-early life stressed individuals, the risk-taking behaviors in the peer presence group was significantly higher than that in the no peer presence group ((55.08±10.32) vs (34.91±7.42), P<0.01, but the difference was not significant for early life stressed individuals ((59.24±8.59) vs (59.11±11.48), P>0.05). The interaction of early life stress, peer presence and gender was statistically significant ( F(1, 152) =5.92, P=0.016, η2=0.04). In the presence of companions, female early-life stressed individuals exhibited higher risk behaviors than non-early life stressed individuals ((53.91±5.12) vs (46.30±4.57), P<0.01), while the difference between male early life stressed individuals and non-early life stressed individuals was not statistically significant ((65.75±7.42) vs (62.27±7.78), P>0.05). Conclusion:The influence of early life stress on individual risk-taking behavior is related with presence and gender.