The Stress Puzzle – Details, episodes & analysis

Welcome to the first episode of the Stress Puzzle!

For this episode, I was joined by experts in the field of stress, Dr. Elissa Epel and Dr. Wendy Berry Mendes. Dr. Elissa Epel has focused on linking chronic stress to health, and Dr. Wendy Berry Mendes has focused on characterizing acute stress responses. They've been working together for over 10 years and have been co-leading the Stress Measurement Network. In this conversation, we discussed challenges and opportunities in the field of stress science, as well as the goals of this podcast.

Dr. Elissa Epel is a Professor and Vice Chair in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of California San Francisco, where she also leads the Aging, Metabolism and Emotion center. She's one of the most cited researchers across fields for her research examining how psychological stress affects biological aging processes. Learn more about her research: https://www.elissaepel.com/

Dr. Wendy Berry Mendes is the Charles C. and Dorathea S. Dilley Professor in the Department of Psychology at Yale University, where she also leads the Emotion, Health and Psychophysiology lab. She's an international leader in social psychophysiology and has trained generations of students. She's a rigorous experimentalist, which has led to dozens of discoveries about the human social stress response. Her research on stress often goes beyond thinking about the individual to characterize how one person's stress impacts another person's emotions and physiology. Learn more about her research: https://www.wendyberrymendes.com/

Topics Discussed:

• Acute vs. Chronic Stress Responses
• NIH Stress Measurement Network
• Scientific Networks
• Wearables/Wearable Technology
• Stress Interventions
• Mind-Body Practices
• Future of Stress Science

Papers Mentioned:

• Crosswell, A. D., Mayer, S. E., Whitehurst, L. N., Picard, M., Zebarjadian, S., & Epel, E. S. (2024). Deep rest: An integrative model of how contemplative practices combat stress and enhance the body's restorative capacity. Psychological review, 131(1), 247–270. https://doi.org/10.1037/rev0000453
• Lin, J., & Epel, E. (2022). Stress and telomere shortening: Insights from cellular mechanisms. Ageing research reviews, 73, 101507. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arr.2021.101507
• Newman, D. B., Gordon, A. M., Prather, A. A., & Berry Mendes, W. (2023). Examining Daily Associations Among Sleep, Stress, and Blood Pressure Across Adulthood. Annals of behavioral medicine: a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine, 57(6), 453–462. https://doi.org/10.1093/abm/kaac074
• Bobba-Alves, N., Sturm, G., Lin, J., Ware, S. A., Karan, K. R., Monzel, A. S., Bris, C., Procaccio, V., Lenaers, G., Higgins-Chen, A., Levine, M., Horvath, S., Santhanam, B. S., Kaufman, B. A., Hirano, M., Epel, E., & Picard, M. (2023). Cellular allostatic load is linked to increased energy expenditure and accelerated biological aging. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 155, 106322. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2023.106322

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The Stress Puzzle is hosted by Dr. Ryan L. Brown (https://www.ryanlinnbrown.com/) and supported by the UCSF Stress Measurement Network, an NIH/NIA funded network which aims to better understand the relationship between stress and health by improving the measurement of stress in research studies. Learn more about available resources to support stress research at: www.stressmeasurement.org.

Have burning questions about stress? Email us at stresspuzzlepod@gmail.com and we may feature your question in a future episode!

Welcome back to the Stress Puzzle! For our second episode, I was joined by Dr. George Slavich who is an expert on the conceptualization, assessment, and management of life stress. In this conversation, we talked about the history of how stress has been thought of and measured, the limitations of many of these approaches, and the kind of research we need moving forward to really be able to translate the science to be actionable in people's lives. 

Dr. George Slavich is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA where he is the Founding Director of the Laboratory for Stress Assessment and Research. He is an expert with enthusiasm for bettering the conceptualization, assessment, and management of life stress and for identifying psychological and biological mechanisms that link stress to mental and physical health. He has received numerous awards for his research, mentorship, and teaching, and he brings this experience and passion for precision stress science to his role as an Associate Director of the Stress Measurement Network. Learn more about his research: https://www.uclastresslab.org/

Topics Discussed:

• History of Stress Science
• Stress Conceptualization Across Time
• Notable Figures in Stress Science
• Challenges in Measuring Stress
• Theories of Life Stress
• Stressnology
• Muti-omics

Research Mentioned:

Charles Darwin:

• Darwin CR. (1859). On the origin of species. London: John Murray

Sir Clifford Allbutt:

• Allbutt C. (1895). Nervous diseases and modern life. Contemp. Rev. 67:210–217.

Walter Bradford Cannon:

• Bodily Changes in Pain, Hunger, Fear and Rage: An Account of Recent Researches into the Function of Emotional Excitement (1915)
• Cannon WB. (1929). Organization for physiological homeostasis. Physiol. Rev. 9:399–431.
• The Wisdom of the Body (1932)

Hans Selye:

• Selye, H. (1936). A Syndrome produced by Diverse Nocuous Agents. Nature, 138(3479), 32–32. https://doi.org/10.1038/138032a0
• Selye, H. (1973). The Evolution of the Stress Concept: The originator of the concept traces its development from the discovery in 1936 of the alarm reaction to modern therapeutic applications of syntoxic and catatoxic hormones. American Scientist, 61(6), 692–699. 

George Slavich:

• Slavich, G. M. (2019). Stressnology: The primitive (and problematic) study of life stress exposure and pressing need for better measurement. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 75, 3-5. https://www.uclastresslab.org/pubs/Slavich_BBI_2019.pdf
• Slavich, G. M., & Shields, G. S. (2018). Assessing lifetime stress exposure using the Stress and Adversity Inventory for Adults (Adult STRAIN): An overview and initial validation. Psychosomatic Medicine, 80, 17-27. https://www.uclastresslab.org/pubs/Slavich_PsychosomaticMedicine_2018.pdf
• Slavich, G. M., Stewart, J. G., Esposito, E. C., Shields, G. S., & Auerbach, R. P. (2019). The Stress and Adversity Inventory for Adolescents (Adolescent STRAIN): associations with mental and physical health, risky behaviors, and psychiatric diagnoses in youth seeking treatment. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 60, 998-1009. https://www.uclastresslab.org/pubs/Slavich_JCPP_2019.pdf
• Slavich, G. M., & Irwin, M. R. (2014). From stress to inflammation and major depressive disorder: A social signal transduction theory of depression. Psychological Bulletin, 140, 774-815. https://www.uclastresslab.org/pubs/Slavich_Irwin_PsychBull_2014.pdf
• Slavich, G. M. (2020). Social safety theory: A biologically based evolutionary perspective on life stress, health, and behavior. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 16, 265-295. https://www.uclastresslab.org/pubs/Slavich_AnnualReview_2020.pdf
• Slavich, G. M., Roos, L. G., Mengelkoch, S., Webb, C. A., Shattuck, E. C., Moriarity, D. P., & Alley, J. C. (2023). Social Safety Theory: Conceptual foundation, underlying mechanisms, and future directions. Health Psychology Review, 17, 5-59. https://www.uclastresslab.org/pubs/Slavich_HealthPsychReview_2023.pdf

Keely Muscatell: 

• Muscatell KA, Inagaki TK. (2021). Beyond social withdrawal: New perspectives on the effects of inflammation on social behavior. Brain Behav Immun Health, 16:100302. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8474589/pdf/main.pdf
• Feldman MJ, Jolink TA, Alvarez GM, Fendinger NJ, Gaudier-Diaz MM, Lindquist KA, Muscatell KA. The roles of inflammation, affect, and interoception in predicting social perception. Brain Behav Immun. 2023, 112:246-253. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10528976/pdf/nihms-1914636.pdf

Holmes and Rahe:

• Life Change Stress Test: https://www.dartmouth.edu/eap/library/lifechangestresstest.pdf 
• Holmes, T. H., & Rahe, R. H. (1967). The social readjustment rating scale. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 11(2), 213–218. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-3999(67)90010-4

ME Seligman:

• Maier SF, Seligman ME. (2016). Learned helplessness at fifty: insights from neuroscience. Psychol.Rev. 123:34967.

Lazarus and Folkman:

• Lazarus R. S., Folkman S. (1984). Stress, Appraisal and Coping. New York: Springer 

Aaron Beck: 

• Clark DA, Beck AT.1999. Scientific Foundations of Cognitive Theory of Depression. New York: Wiley

George Brown and Tirill Harris:

• Allan O. House, Harry B. Andrews, Life events and difficulties preceding the onset of functional dysphonia, Journal of Psychosomatic Research, Volume 32, Issue 3, 1988, Pages 311-319, ISSN 0022-3999, https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-3999(88)90073-6.
• https://www.amazon.com/Life-Events-Illness-Brown-Harris/dp/0898627230/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1341329487&sr=1-1&keywords=Life+events+and+illness 

Paul Gilbert: 

• Gilbert P. 2005. Social mentalities: a biopsychosocial and evolutionary approach to social relationships. In Interpersonal Cognition, ed. MW Baldwin, pp. 299–333. New York: Guilford Press.
• Gilbert P, Allan S. 1998. The role of defeat and entrapment (arrested flight) in depression: an exploration of an evolutionary view. Psychol. Med. 28:585–98.

Stress and Adversity Inventory (STRAIN):

• Overview & Articles: https://www.uclastresslab.org/projects/strain-stress-and-adversity-inventory/
• Adolescent STRAIN: Slavich, G. M., Stewart, J. G., Esposito, E. C., Shields, G. S., & Auerbach, R. P. (2019). The Stress and Adversity Inventory for Adolescents (Adolescent STRAIN): associations with mental and physical health, risky behaviors, and psychiatric diagnoses in youth seeking treatment. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 60, 998-1009. https://www.uclastresslab.org/pubs/Slavich_JCPP_2019.pdf
• Adult STRAIN: Slavich, G. M., & Shields, G. S. (2018). Assessing lifetime stress exposure using the Stress and Adversity Inventory for Adults (Adult STRAIN): An overview and initial validation. Psychosomatic Medicine, 80, 17-27. https://www.uclastresslab.org/pubs/Slavich_PsychosomaticMedicine_2018.pdf

Multi-Omics:

• Mengelkoch, S., Miryam Schüssler-Fiorenza Rose, S., Lautman, Z., Alley, J. C., Roos, L. G., Ehlert, B., Moriarity, D. P., Lancaster, S., Snyder, M. P., & Slavich, G. M. (2023). Multi-omics approaches in psychoneuroimmunology and health research: Conceptual considerations and methodological recommendations. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 114, 475-487. https://www.uclastresslab.org/pubs/Mengelkoch_BBI_2023.pdf
• Mengelkoch, S., Gassen, J., Lev-Ari, S., Alley, J. C., Schüssler-Fiorenza Rose, S. M., Snyder, M. P., & Slavich, G. M. (2024). Multi-omics in stress and health research: Study designs that will drive the field forward. Stress, 27, 2321610. https://www.uclastresslab.org/pubs/Mengelkoch_Stress_2024.pdf

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The Stress Puzzle is hosted by Dr. Ryan L. Brown (https://www.ryanlinnbrown.com/) and
supported by the UCSF Stress Measurement Network, an NIH/NIA funded network which
aims to better understand the relationship between stress and health by improving the
measurement of stress in research studies. Learn more about available resources to support
stress research at: www.stressmeasurement.org.

Have burning questions about stress? Email us at stresspuzzlepod@gmail.com and we may
feature your question in a future episode!

Welcome back to the Stress Puzzle! For this episode, I was joined by Dr. Michael Marmot who is an expert on social status and health. We discussed his seminal work on the Whitehall Studies of British Civil Servants, translating research into policy, and how he remains an "evidence-based optimist" through it all. Tune in next month to hear about complementary research conducted by Dr. Jenny Tung on social status and health in nonhuman primates!

Dr. Michael Marmot is a Professor of Epidemiology at University College London, Director of the UCL Institute of Health Equity, and Past President of the World Medical Association. He has led multiple longitudinal cohort studies that have massively impacted our understanding of how social conditions influence health and aging, including the Whitehall Studies of British Civil Servants and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Professor Marmot has also chaired the Commission on Social Determinants of Health for the World Health Organization and conducted a Strategic Review of Health Inequalities in England to produce evidence-based policy recommendations to support population health. He was recognized as a global health hero at the World Health Assembly in 2019.

Topics Discussed:

• Social determinants of health / health disparities
• Impact of social policy on health equity
• Challenges of policy implementation
• Prevention science

Research Mentioned:

• Fair Society, Health Lives: The Marmot Review: https://www.instituteofhealthequity.org/resources-reports/fair-society-healthy-lives-the-marmot-review/fair-society-healthy-lives-full-report-pdf.pdf
• Whitehall I: Marmot MG, Rose G, Shipley M, Hamilton PJ. Employment grade and coronary heart disease in British civil servants. J Epidemiol Community Health (1978). 1978 Dec;32(4):244-9. doi: 10.1136/jech.32.4.244. PMID: 744814; PMCID: PMC1060958. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/744814/ 
• Whitehall II: Marmot MG, Smith GD, Stansfeld S, Patel C, North F, Head J, White I, Brunner E, Feeney A. Health inequalities among British civil servants: the Whitehall II study. Lancet. 1991 Jun 8;337(8754):1387-93. doi: 10.1016/0140-6736(91)93068-k. PMID: 1674771. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1674771/
• Destitution in the UK: https://www.jrf.org.uk/deep-poverty-and-destitution/destitution-in-the-uk-2023

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The Stress Puzzle is hosted by Dr. Ryan L. Brown (https://www.ryanlinnbrown.com/) and
supported by the UCSF Stress Measurement Network, an NIH/NIA funded network which
aims to better understand the relationship between stress and health by improving the
measurement of stress in research studies. Learn more about available resources to support
stress research at: www.stressmeasurement.org.

Have burning questions about stress? Email us at stresspuzzlepod@gmail.com and we may
feature your question in a future episode!

For our final episode of Season 1, I spoke with Dr. Andrew Steptoe about social relationships as we age, the need for interdisciplinary research, and emerging biomarkers of interest to stress scientists. Dr. Steptoe is both a prolific and brilliant scientist whose work has identified psychobiological pathways linking low socioeconomic status with cardiovascular disease progression. I especially enjoyed hearing Dr. Steptoe reflect on research surrounding positive well-being and health, as well as the next steps for intervention science that we need to move forward as a field. Stay tuned for Season 2 of the Stress Puzzle this Fall!

Dr. Andrew Steptoe is a Professor of Psychology and Epidemiology at University College London. He was a founding editor of the British Journal of Health Psychology. He also directs the Psychobiology Research Group and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). He is one of the most impactful researchers in the field of health psychology as his work has identified crucial mechanisms through which social and psychological circumstances influence cardiovascular disease and aging. He was recently honored with the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Society for Biopsychosocial Science and Medicine. Outside of the lab, Dr. Steptoe has written on the cultural background of Mozart operas and has contributed to research on Renaissance and 18th century history. Dr. Steptoe also coedited the second edition of A Matter of Life, which is a book about how his father (Patrick Steptoe) and Robert Edwards developed the procedure for in vitro fertilisation (IVF). 

Topics Discussed:

• Psychobiology
• Social Status/Socioeconomic Status
• Population Studies/Cohort Studies
• Biomarkers
• Biological Processes/Biological Aging
• Psychoneuroimmunology
• Stress Measurement
• Social Connection

Papers Mentioned:

• ELSA (English Longitudinal Study of Aging): https://www.elsa-project.ac.uk/ 
• Whitehall II: Marmot MG, Smith GD, Stansfeld S, Patel C, North F, Head J, White I, Brunner E, Feeney A. Health inequalities among British civil servants: the Whitehall II study. Lancet. 1991 Jun 8;337(8754):1387-93. doi: 10.1016/0140-6736(91)93068-k. PMID: 1674771. 
• Hamilton, O. S., Iob, E., Ajnakina, O., Kirkbride, J. B., & Steptoe, A. (2024). Immune-neuroendocrine patterning and response to stress. A latent profile analysis in the English longitudinal study of ageing. Brain, behavior, and immunity, 115, 600–608.

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The Stress Puzzle is hosted by Dr. Ryan L. Brown (https://www.ryanlinnbrown.com/) and supported by the UCSF Stress Measurement Network, an NIH/NIA funded network which aims to better understand the relationship between stress and health by improving the measurement of stress in research studies. Learn more about available resources to support stress research at: www.stressmeasurement.org.

Have burning questions about stress? Email us at stresspuzzlepod@gmail.com and we may feature your question in a future episode!

In today's episode of the Stress Puzzle, I chatted with Dr. David Almeida all about how we experience and respond (emotionally and physiologically) to daily stressors. We talked a fascinating finding of his that ~10% of people report no daily stressors and what he's learned about these folks. We also discussed how everyday stress and emotion processes shift as we age, and what we gain from experiencing minor stressors in our daily lives. Finally, Dr. Almeida shared what he is looking forward to for the future of stress science and offered advice to anyone who may a current trainee or may be interested in stress science in their future.

Dr. David Almeida is a Professor of Human Development and Family Studies at The Pennsylvania State University. He is a lifespan developmental psychologist who has focused his research on how daily stress experiences and processes relate to healthy aging. Dr. Almeida developed the Daily Instrument of Stressful Experiences to support this research, which has now been used in numerous large scale epidemiologic and intervention studies on stress and health. Dr. Almeida is the Principal Investigator of the National Study of Daily Experiences, which is an in-depth daily study embedded in the MacArthur Foundation National Survey of Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) and the largest longitudinal diary study of daily experiences and health in the US. 

Topics Discussed:

• Lifespan Psychology
• Daily Stressors
• Stress Exposure
• Stress Responses/Stress Reactivity/Stress Recovery
• Social Support
• Stress Physiology/Measurement/Biomarkers (Cortisol/Salivary Amylase)
• Passive Measurement
• Just-In-Time Interventions
• Mistakes and Lessons Learned
• Future Directions in Stress Science

Papers Mentioned:

• Charles, S. T., Mogle, J., Chai, H. W., & Almeida, D. M. (2021). The mixed benefits of a stressor-free life. Emotion (Washington, D.C.), 21(5), 962–971. 
• Rush, J., Ong, A. D., Piazza, J. R., Charles, S. T., & Almeida, D. M. (2024). Too little, too much, and "just right": Exploring the "goldilocks zone" of daily stress reactivity. Emotion, 24(5), 1249–1258. 
• Toledo, M. J. L., Zawadzki, M. J., Scott, S. B., Johnson, J. A., Marcusson-Clavertz, D., Kim, J., Lanza, S., Almeida, D. M., Sliwinski, M. J., & Smyth, J. M. (2024). Exploring the Utility of a Real-Time Approach to Characterising Within-Person Fluctuations in Everyday Stress Responses. Stress and health, 40(6), e3501. 
• Jenkins, A. I. C., Le, Y., Surachman, A., Almeida, D. M., & Fredman, S. J. (2023). Associations among Financial Well-Being, Daily Relationship Tension, and Daily Affect in Two Adult Cohorts Separated by the Great Recession. Journal of social and personal relationships, 40(4), 1103–1125. 
• Almeida, D. M., Rush, J., Mogle, J., Piazza, J. R., Cerino, E., & Charles, S. T. (2023). Longitudinal change in daily stress across 20 years of adulthood: Results from the national study of daily experiences. Developmental psychology, 59(3), 515–523. 
• Vodovotz, Y., Arciero, J., Verschure, P. F. M. J., & Katz, D. L. (2024). A multiscale inflammatory map: Linking individual stress to societal dysfunction. Frontiers in Science, 1. 

Additional Resources Referenced:

• Stress Measurement Network's Toolkit: https://www.stressmeasurement.org/measurement-toolbox 

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The Stress Puzzle is hosted by Dr. Ryan L. Brown (https://www.ryanlinnbrown.com/) and supported by the UCSF Stress Measurement Network, an NIH/NIA funded network which aims to better understand the relationship between stress and health by improving the measurement of stress in research studies. Learn more about available resources to support stress research at: www.stressmeasurement.org.

Have burning questions about stress? Email us at stresspuzzlepod@gmail.com and we may feature your question in a future episode!

In today's episode, I had the privilege of speaking with Dr. Cheryl Woods Giscombé, a health scientist who discusses her research on Superwoman Schema, which is a conceptual framework highlighting stress and coping mechanisms among African American women. The framework identifies five characteristics: obligation to present strength, obligation to suppress emotions, motivation to succeed despite limited resources, resisting feelings of vulnerability and dependence, and prioritization of caregiving over self-care. Dr. Giscombé's research shows that while some characteristics are protective, others can lead to negative health outcomes - we dig into those nuances in this episode! Her critical work aims to develop interventions that balance strength with self-care to improve health disparities among Black women. 

Dr. Cheryl Woods Giscombé is the Melissa and Harry LeVine Family Distinguished Term Professor, Senior Associate Dean, and Chief Wellness Officer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Nursing with a secondary faculty appointment as a Professor in the Department of Social Medicine at the UNC School of Medicine. Dr. Woods-Giscombé's research focuses on biopsychosocial factors that influence health and health disparities through psychological stress and coping pathways. She is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing, the National Academy of Medicine, the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, and the Mind & Life Institute. She recently authored The Black Woman's Guide to Coping with Stress: Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Skills to Create a Life of Joy and Well-Being. Learn more about Dr. Giscombé's research and writing: https://www.drcherylwoodsgiscombe.com/

Topics Discussed:

• Stressors, Gender-Related Stressors, Race-Related Stressors
• Resilience
• Self-Care
• Superwoman Schema
• Cost of Caring
• Emotional Suppression
• Health Disparities
• Maternal Health Disparities
• Adverse Birth Outcomes
• Coping Strategies: Mindfulness, Present Moment Awareness, Self-Compassion
• Interventions

Papers Mentioned:

• Woods-Giscombé CL, Lobel M, Zimmer C, Wiley Cené C, Corbie-Smith G. Whose stress is making me sick? Network-stress and emotional distress in African-American women. Issues Ment Health Nurs. 2015;36(9):710-7. doi: 10.3109/01612840.2015.1011759.
• Giscombé, C. L., & Lobel, M. (2005). Explaining Disproportionately High Rates of Adverse Birth Outcomes Among African Americans: The Impact of Stress, Racism, and Related Factors in Pregnancy. Psychological Bulletin, 131(5), 662–683. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.131.5.662
• Woods-Giscombé C. L. (2010). Superwoman schema: African American women's views on stress, strength, and health. Qualitative health research, 20(5), 668–683. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732310361892
• Allen, A. M., Wang, Y., Chae, D. H., Price, M. M., Powell, W., Steed, T. C., Rose Black, A., Dhabhar, F. S., Marquez-Magaña, L., & Woods-Giscombe, C. L. (2019). Racial discrimination, the superwoman schema, and allostatic load: exploring an integrative stress-coping model among African American women. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1457(1), 104–127. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.14188
• Kyalwazi, A. N., Woods-Giscombe, C. L., Johnson, M. P., Jones, C., Hayes, S. N., Cooper, L. A., Patten, C. A., & Brewer, L. C. (2024). Associations Between the Superwoman Schema, Stress, and Cardiovascular Health Among African-American Women. Annals of behavioral medicine, 58(12), 863–868. https://doi.org/10.1093/abm/kaae047
• Woods-Giscombe CL, Allen AM, Black AR, Steed TC, Li Y, Lackey C. The Giscombe Superwoman Schema Questionnaire: Psychometric Properties and Associations with Mental Health and Health Behaviors in African American Women. Issues Ment Health Nurs. 2019 Aug;40(8):672-681. doi: 10.1080/01612840.2019.1584654.
• Woods-Giscombe, C. L., Gaylord, S. A., Li, Y., Brintz, C. E., Bangdiwala, S. I., Buse, J. B., Mann, J. D., Lynch, C., Phillips, P., Smith, S., Leniek, K., Young, L., Al-Barwani, S., Yoo, J., & Faurot, K. (2019). A Mixed-Methods, Randomized Clinical Trial to Examine Feasibility of a Mindfulness-Based Stress Management and Diabetes Risk Reduction Intervention for African Americans with Prediabetes. Evidence-based complementary and alternative medicine, 2019, 3962623. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/3962623
• Woods-Giscombe, C. L., Gaylord, S., Bradford, A., Vines, S., Eason, K., Smith, R., Addo-Mensah, D., Lackey, C., Dsouza, V., Sheffield-Abdullah, K., Day, T., Green-Scott, K., Chilcoat, A., Peace-Coard, A., Chalmers, L., Evenson, K. R., Samuel-Hodge, C., Lewis, T. T., Crandell, J., Corbie, G., … Faurot, K. (2024). Protocol of the HARMONY study: A culturally relevant, randomized-controlled, stress management intervention to reduce cardiometabolic risk in African American women. Contemporary clinical trials, 146, 107604. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cct.2024.107604
• Woods-Giscombé, C. L., & Gaylord, S. A. (2014). The Cultural Relevance of Mindfulness Meditation as a Health Intervention for African Americans: Implications for Reducing Stress-Related Health Disparities. Journal of holistic nursing, 32(3), 147–160. https://doi.org/10.1177/0898010113519010

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The Stress Puzzle is hosted by Dr. Ryan L. Brown (https://www.ryanlinnbrown.com/) and supported by the UCSF Stress Measurement Network, an NIH/NIA funded network which aims to better understand the relationship between stress and health by improving the measurement of stress in research studies. Learn more about available resources to support stress research at: www.stressmeasurement.org.

Have burning questions about stress? Email us at stresspuzzlepod@gmail.com and we may feature your question in a future episode!

Today's episode builds on the discussion of puberty as a sensitive period from the previous episode with Dr. Megan Gunnar. Featuring developmental scientist Dr. Ronald Dahl, this conversation explores early adolescence as a pivotal transition, highlighting the unique vulnerabilities and opportunities for positive growth during this formative window. Dr. Dahl emphasizes the importance of supporting prosocial learning, cultivating positive emotions, and addressing inequities through integrative, interdisciplinary approaches to improve the lives of children and adolescents. Tune in next month for an episode on Superwoman Schema with Dr. Cheryl Woods Giscombé!

Dr. Ronald Dahl is a pediatrician and developmental scientist whose research focuses on early adolescence as a developmental period with unique opportunities for early intervention to support behavioral and emotional health. He is the Director of the Institute of Human Development at the University of California, Berkeley, where he also serves as a Professor in the School of Public Health and the Joint Medical Program. He is also the Founding Director of the Center for the Developing Adolescent. His research is interdisciplinary and bridges between basic developmental research (emphasizing social and affective neuroscience) and the translation of this work into clinical and social policy relevance. He has published extensively on child and adolescent development, sleep disorders, behavioral/emotional health in children, adolescent brain development and on the policy implications of this work. He has been elected as a Fellow of organizations including: Association for Psychological Science, American Academy of Pediatrics, New York Academy of Sciences and American Academy of Sleep Medicine. He is a Founding Editor of the journal Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience and is a Past President of the Society for Research in Child Development. We especially appreciate his focus on integrative developmental science and translating this area of research into clinical and social policy that can improve the lives of children and adolescents.

Topics Discussed:

• Adolescent Development
• Integrative Developmental Science
• Social Transitions
• Fitting In vs. Standing Out
• Self-Other Concept
• Prosociality
• Population Health
• Sleep and Digital Technology
• Youth Involvement/Co-Creation

Papers Mentioned:

• Dahl, R. E., Armstrong-Carter, E., & Van Den Bos, W. (2024). Wanting to matter and learning to care: A neurodevelopmental window of opportunity for (Pro) social learning? Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 69, 101430. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2024.101430
• Shoib S, Siddiqui MF, Saleem SM, Chandradasa M. Sir Michael Rutter (2022). Pioneer, legend, and father of modern child psychiatry. Ind Psychiatry J. 2022 Jul-Dec;31(2):384-386. doi: 10.4103/ipj.ipj_244_21. 
• Schleider, J. L., Zapata, J. P., Rapoport, A., Wescott, A., Ghosh, A., Kaveladze, B., Szkody, E., & Ahuvia, I. L. (2025). Single-Session Interventions for Mental Health Problems and Service Engagement: Umbrella Review of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses. Annual review of clinical psychology, 10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-081423-025033. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-081423-025033 
• Sotomayor, I., *Chang, Y., *Szkody, E., Fox, K., & Schleider, J. L. (under review). A digital, minority stress-focused single-session intervention benefits multiply-marginalized sexual minority adolescents. Preprint
• CERES Project (Sleep in Ukrainian Teens)

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The Stress Puzzle is hosted by Dr. Ryan L. Brown (https://www.ryanlinnbrown.com/) and supported by the UCSF Stress Measurement Network, an NIH/NIA funded network which aims to better understand the relationship between stress and health by improving the measurement of stress in research studies. Learn more about available resources to support stress research at: www.stressmeasurement.org.

Have burning questions about stress? Email us at stresspuzzlepod@gmail.com and we may feature your question in a future episode!

For today's episode, I had the honor of speaking with Dr. Megan Gunnar, a developmental psychologist who discusses her research on early life adversity and stress biology showing the importance of puberty as a window of biological flexibility. Dr. Gunnar discussed work from earlier in her career that led her to pursue these questions through an interdisciplinary lens. Tune in next month to hear more on the importance of adolescence from Dr. Ronald Dahl. 

Dr. Megan Gunnar is a Regents Professor and Distinguished McKnight University Professor at the University of Minnesota. Her doctoral training was in Developmental Psychology at Stanford University. She then completed her post-doctoral fellowship in Psychoneuroendocrinology at Stanford Medical School. Since then, she has built a remarkable career studying how stress biology affects neurobehavioral development and the processes that help children regulate stress hormones. Dr. Gunnar is a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences and has numerous lifetime achievement awards across many societies and disciplines including the Association for Psychological Science and the International Society for Psychoneuroendocrinology. Learn more about Dr. Gunnar's research: https://innovation.umn.edu/gunnar-lab/

Topics Discussed:

• Developmental Psychoneuroendocrinology
• Stress System Calibration and Recalibration
• Stress Reactivity
• Puberty
• Chronic Stress
• HPA Axis
• Early Life Adversity

Papers Mentioned:

• Gunnar, M. R., DePasquale, C. E., Reid, B. M., Donzella, B., & Miller, B. S. (2019). Pubertal stress recalibration reverses the effects of early life stress in postinstitutionalized children. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(48), 23984–23988. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1909699116
• Gunnar, M. R., & Vazquez, D. M. (2001). Low cortisol and a flattening of expected daytime rhythm: Potential indices of risk in human development. Development and Psychopathology, 13(3), 515–538. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954579401003066
• Engel, M. L., & Gunnar, M. R. (2020). The development of stress reactivity and regulation during human development. International review of neurobiology, 150, 41–76. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.irn.2019.11.003
• Gunnar, M. R. (2017). Social Buffering of Stress in Development: A Career Perspective. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 12(3), 355–373. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691616680612

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The Stress Puzzle is hosted by Dr. Ryan L. Brown (https://www.ryanlinnbrown.com/) and supported by the UCSF Stress Measurement Network, an NIH/NIA funded network which aims to better understand the relationship between stress and health by improving the measurement of stress in research studies. Learn more about available resources to support stress research at: www.stressmeasurement.org.

Have burning questions about stress? Email us at stresspuzzlepod@gmail.com and we may feature your question in a future episode!

Can you believe it's almost the end of 2024?! Join me for a conversation with Dr. Aric Prather about stress, sleep, and social experiences at the holidays + what we know about links between those and our susceptibility to infections and severity of illness. We chatted about foundational knowledge drawn from studies where people are experimentally exposed to rhinovirus (aka the common cold) before moving to a conversation about health behaviors through the holidays. We hope this episode encourages you to indulge in social support and lean into the joy of this holiday season!

Dr. Aric Prather is a Professor and Pritzker Family Fund Endowed Chair in Health and Community in the Department of Psychiatry and Behaviroal Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. He co-directs the UCSF Aging, Metabolism, and Emotions Center, is the Director of the UCSF Center for Health and Community, and Associate Director of the Stress Measurement Network. His research focuses primarily on links between sleep and health, particularly immune health, and his work is regularly featured in the New York TImes, NPR, and the Today Show.

Topics Discussed:

• Psychoneuroimmunology
• Susceptibility to Illness
• Severity of Illness
• Health Behaviors
• Sleep and Health
• Glucocorticoid Resistance
• Common Cold/Rhinovirus
• Social Support
• Resilience and Self-Care

Research Mentioned: 

• Cohen S. Keynote Presentation at the Eight International Congress of Behavioral Medicine: the Pittsburgh common cold studies: psychosocial predictors of susceptibility to respiratory infectious illness. Int J Behav Med. 2005;12(3):123-31.
• Prather, AA, Janicki-Deverts, D, Hall, MH, & Cohen, S. Behaviorally Assessed Sleep and Susceptibility to the Common Cold. Sleep. 2015;38(9):1353–1359.
• Cohen S, Janicki-Deverts D, Turner RB, Doyle WJ. Does hugging provide stress-buffering social support? A study of susceptibility to upper respiratory infection and illness. Psychol Sci. 2015 Feb;26(2):135-47.
• Access the Pittsburgh Common Cold Study data for yourself!
• Spiegel K, Rey AE, Cheylus A, Ayling K, Benedict C, Lange T, Prather AA, Taylor DJ, Irwin MR, Van Cauter E. A meta-analysis of the associations between insufficient sleep duration and antibody response to vaccination. Curr Biol. 2023 Mar 13;33(5):998-1005.e2. 
• Newman DB, Gordon AM, Prather AA, Berry Mendes W. Examining Daily Associations Among Sleep, Stress, and Blood Pressure Across Adulthood. Ann Behav Med. 2023 May 23;57(6):453-462. 

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The Stress Puzzle is hosted by Dr. Ryan L. Brown (https://www.ryanlinnbrown.com/) and
supported by the UCSF Stress Measurement Network, an NIH/NIA funded network which
aims to better understand the relationship between stress and health by improving the
measurement of stress in research studies. Learn more about available resources to support
stress research at: www.stressmeasurement.org.

Have burning questions about stress? Email us at stresspuzzlepod@gmail.com and we may
feature your question in a future episode!