• International Journal of Human Ecology
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.1-12
• /
• 2013

This article examines gender differences in stress levels and coping strategies while using mobile phones. We constructed an e-mail survey to collect data from 1,000 adults in South Korea, and used latent means comparison and multi-group structural regression in structural equation modeling. It was determined that as compared to men, women were more vulnerable to stress. Regarding coping, women used all three coping strategies more equally than men, including active coping, expressive support seeking, and avoidance, whereas men mainly chose active coping; however, there were no significant gender differences in coping outcomes, and both women and men coped effectively by choosing their own personal strategies. We suggested how to reduce stress levels for women through enhancing their self-efficacy, as self-efficacy was shown to reduce stress levels specifically for women. Additionally, based on our findings, we proposed how both men and women could cope more effectively.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
• /
• v.17 no.1
• /
• pp.27-34
• /
• 2008

The purpose of this study is to study how college students cope with their stress and how the level of their self-differentiation affects degrees of stress and stress-coping strategies. The questionnaires were handed to 497 college students at Y university in Gyeongbuk Province and the data were analyzed in terms of Cronbach's ${\alpha}$-coefficient, frequency and percentage, t-test, and regression analysis by using the SPSS statistical package. The results of this study were as follows: 1. For stress level, degree of self-differentiation and stress coping strategies of the college students, the average scores were 3.56, 2.53 and 3.49, respectively in 5-point Likert Scale, indicating that the students possess the above-average score for the degree of self-differentiation and stress-coping strategies and the below-average score for stress levels. 2. From examination of difference verification of stress levels based on the degree of self-differentiation and effect of degree of self-differentiation on stress levels, it was found that the higher is the degree of self-differentiation the lower is the stress level. 3. From examination of difference verification of stress-coping strategies according to the degree of self-differentiation and effect of degree of self-differentiation levels on stress coping strategies, we found that the students of higher degree of self-differentiation exercise the more active stress coping strategies. These results show that the degree of students' self-differentiation is a significant variable that influences their stress levels and stress control methods. It is thought that students' self-differentiation functions to minimize their stress and to actively cope with their stressful situation and that a high degree of self-differentiation is a significant mediator variable that is beneficial to students' mental health. It follows from the above observations that while college students in this study seem to possess good degrees of self-differentiation and stress coping capabilities and low stress levels they need to seek for the ways to improve their degree of self-differentiation by seeing into themselves and relationships with others around them. Parents, schools and consultation agencies are required to take an active hand to educate and encourage them to cope with their stress positively.

• BMB Reports
• /
• v.48 no.4
• /
• pp.209-216
• /
• 2015

Stress is now recognized as a universal premorbid factor associated with many risk factors of various chronic diseases. Acute stress may induce an individual's adaptive response to environmental demands. However, chronic, excessive stress causes cumulative negative impacts on health outcomes through "allostatic load". Thus, monitoring the quantified levels of long-term stress mediators would provide a timely opportunity for prevention or earlier intervention of stressrelated chronic illnesses. Although either acute or chronic stress could be quantified through measurement of changes in physiological parameters such as heart rate, blood pressure, and levels of various metabolic hormones, it is still elusive to interpret whether the changes in circulating levels of stress mediators such as cortisol can reflect the acute, chronic, or diurnal variations. Both serum and salivary cortisol levels reveal acute changes at a single point in time, but the overall long-term systemic cortisol exposure is difficult to evaluate due to circadian variations and its protein-binding capacity. Scalp hair has a fairy predictable growth rate of approximately 1 cm/month, and the most 1 cm segment approximates the last month's cortisol production as the mean value. The analysis of cortisol in hair is a highly promising technique for the retrospective assessment of chronic stress. [BMB Reports 2015; 48(4): 209-216]

• The Journal of the Korean dental association
• /
• v.54 no.11
• /
• pp.897-906
• /
• 2016

Objectives: Periodontitis is multifactorial disease mainly caused by microbial community. Recently, some research has been conducted to find other possible risk factors including stress hormones related to periodontitis. Psychological stress can affect the periodontal health by a variety of biological mechanisms. This study compared the stress hormone levels in healthy subjects and patients with periodontal disease using saliva in order to investigate the association between periodontitis and stress. Methods: The human saliva was collected from 38 periodontally healthy individuals and 34 patients with chronic periodontitis under Institutional Review Board. Their age was 20-60 years ($40.3{\pm}10.45$). From these samples, determination of salivary levels of cortisol and Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) performed by enzyme immunoassay kit (Salimetrics Europe, Suffolk, UK). The independent t-test and Mann-Whitney test for trend was applied using IBM SPSS statistics version 12.0 Program to analyze statistically significant differences. Results: Salivary cortisol levels of periodontitis patients were higher than those levels of healthy subjects (P < 0.001), while salivary DHEA levels of periodontitis patients were not significantly different (P = 0.431). Salivary cortisol/DHEA ratio of periodontitis patients was higher than those levels of healthy subjects (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Our study demonstrates the high levels of cortisol concentrations and cortisol/DHEA ratio in saliva of periodontitis patients than those of healthy subjects. Since cortisol levels and cortisol/DHEA ratio can be significant factors related to the severity of periodontal disease, our study would be helpful for early diagnosis and treatment of periodontal disease.

• Korean Journal of Human Ecology
• /
• v.21 no.1
• /
• pp.59-70
• /
• 2012

The purposes of this study was to investigate the relationship and interaction between infant temperament, development, mother's parenting stress and social support on mother's self-efficacy. Participants in this study included 1610 infants (825 boys, 785 girls) and their mothers. The major findings of this study were as follows: First, infant temperament demonstrated a direct relationship to mother's self-efficacy. Lower levels of infant temperament indicated lower levels of self-efficacy, and higher levels of infant temperament indicated higher levels of self-efficacy. Second, infant development demonstrated a direct relationship to mother's self-efficacy. Greater communicative and social interaction between mother and child demonstrated a higher level of maternal self-efficacy. Third, mothers' parenting stress demonstrated a direct relationship to mother's self-efficacy. Higher levels of parenting stress demonstrated lower levels of maternal self-efficacy. Forth, Social support demonstrated a direct relationship to mother's self-efficacy. Greater levels of social support demonstrated lower level of maternal self-efficacy. Fifth, the greatest single relationship effecting mother's self-efficacy was mother's parenting stress. This research suggests the need for development of diverse social policies and programs to help mothers reduce maternal parenting stress and support the development of positive parenting skills with the goal of boosting mother's self-efficacy.

• Journal of Korean Biological Nursing Science
• /
• v.18 no.1
• /
• pp.9-16
• /
• 2016

Purpose: The purpose of this exploratory study was to find a specific time of day with a stable cortisol level and to investigate the relationship between salivary cortisol and sleep. Methods: A total of 36 Korean female college students participated in the study. Salivary specimens were collected 6 times a day for 2 days in different stressful situations. Sleep characteristics were measured using an actigraph while salivary specimens were collected. Perceived stress was evaluated using the Global Assessment of Recent Stress. Results: Depending on whether there were morning peak and/or afternoon elevations in the cortisol levels, the type of diurnal cortisol pattern was classified into 4 types. None of the cortisol levels in different times of the day showed significant relationships to perceived stress levels. Cortisol levels in the morning, levels of peak cortisol and diurnal differences of cortisol were significantly correlated with sleep duration. The time with most stable cortisol level was 9-10 pm. Conclusion: It is recommended that measurements of salivary cortisol are taken from 9-10 pm since it showed a stable value regardless of diurnal cortisol rhythm and sleep. Sleep duration should be considered as an important confounding factor in measuring cortisol levels in the morning and the diurnal differences of cortisol.

• The Korean Journal of Food And Nutrition
• /
• v.27 no.5
• /
• pp.771-784
• /
• 2014

The purpose of this study was to estimate the relationships between dietary factors and the stress perception levels of College students. A survey was conducted in June, 2010, targeting 332 college students in Gwangju. General environmental factors, stress perception levels, dietary behaviors, and dietary action guide performance of the subjects were evaluated by questionnaire, and food intakes was determined by the 24-hour recall method. The results are summarized as follows.: The score of frequency experiencing was $45.1{\pm}16.9$ for male students, and $47.0{\pm}16.7$ for female students. The importance scores were $50.8{\pm}18.5$ for males, and $53.3{\pm}18.7$ for females. The total score for dietary action guide performance was $39.6{\pm}7.2$ for males and $40.6{\pm}6.5$ for females. Nutrient intake levels were evaluated based on dietary reference intake (DRI), revealing energy intakes to be 68.5% EER in males and 73.9% in females. The mean intakes of nutrient were 54.2% RI for calcium, 73.6% RI for riboflavin, and 51.2% RI for vitamin C but 203.6% AI for sodium, which indicates an imbalance in nutrient intake. Analysis of the correlations between stress perception levels and dietary factors, scholarship achievements, financial problems, future problems, value senses, and family relationships revealed significant correlations with general environment factors, dietary behaviors, Dietary action guide performance, and nutrient intakes (p<0.05). The higher the stress perception levels of the students, the higher the energy, coffee and alcohol intake, which predicts that appropriate stress control in college students will lead to better dietary habits. It is expected that the results above will be used as basic data for the development of proper nutrition education programs and stress control strategies.

• Animal cells and systems
• /
• v.4 no.1
• /
• pp.71-76
• /
• 2000

The aim of this study was to investigate expression patterns of the prolactin (PRL) and c-fos genes by 17$\beta$-estradiol (17$\beta$-E) and stress in the mouse pituitary. In the pituitary, the levels of PRL mRNA were found high with some fluctuation at 30, 50, and 90 min whereas the levels of PRL mRNA were low at 120 min when ovariectomized female mice were injected with 17$\beta$-E or vehicle. PRL mRNA levels began to increase again at 4 h and remained high up to 24 h only in the 17$\beta$-E- treated mice. The overall changes in c-fos mRNA by 17$\beta$-E were very similar to those in PRL mRNA in the pituitary. Subsequent study revealed that these high initial levels of PRL and c-fos mRNAs were caused by stress during Injection, not by 17$\beta$-E, since vehicle injection alone into the ovariectomized mice could increase the levels of PRL and c-fos mRNAs. The stress-induced elevations of PRL and c-fos mRNAs were inhibited by bromocriptin, a dopamine agonist, suggesting that the dopaminergic system is involved in the action route of injection stress. In addition, the induced levels of c-fos mRNA by 17$\beta$-E and stress in the pituitary were very low compared with those in the uterus. The time course changes in c-fos mRNA level were different between the pituitary and uterus. Taken together, these data indicate that PRL and c-tos gene expression in the pituitary are regulated by 17$\beta$-E and stress in a parallel manner, supporting the notion that c-Fos plays a role in regulation of PRL gene expression.

• Journal of the Korean Society of School Health
• /
• v.20 no.2
• /
• pp.81-89
• /
• 2007

Purpose: The Purpose of this study was to compare stress level and stress coping behavior of elementary students in southern and northern area of Han river. Methods: This was a descriptive comparative survey using a convenience sample of 403 5^th-and 6^th-grade students. The data were analyzed by X²-test, t-test, ANOVA and multiple regression using SPSS 11.5 statistical program. Results: The level of stress and stress coping behavior according to northern and southern elementary students of seoul, Stress levels tended to increase more significantly with less satisfied life, more study time, in female students than male students. in northern students, and with more individual factors. With regard to stress coping behaviors. students with higher life-satisfaction tended to use active coping, and female students used more positive and mystic coping than negative coping. Conclusion: Students living in northern area, and more female students than male students showed a high level of stress, and students with a higher stress level were better able to cope with stress. Thus, it could be concluded that programs to lower stress levels are needed more than stress intervention programs.

• Korean Journal of Child Studies
• /
• v.34 no.3
• /
• pp.179-190
• /
• 2013

This study investigated the influences of ego-resilience, positive affects, and negative affects on stress levels in children. The subjects were 245 5th-graders. The results indicated that : (1) Ego-resiliency and positive affects were significantly positively related to each other, and these variables were significantly negatively related to negative affects and stress. (2) Ego-resiliency had a direct effect on children's stress. Additionally, positive affects and negative affects mediated between ego-resiliency and stress; this means children who had high ego-resiliency experienced more positive affects, which led to lesser negative affects and reduced levels of stress.