Naslov
STRESSING OUT IN TRANSITION – THE CASE OF UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS FROM ZAGREB, CROATIA

Autori
Martinović Klarić, Irena ; Peternel, Lana ; Malnar, Ana

Vrsta, podvrsta i kategorija rada
Sažeci sa skupova, sažetak, ostalo

Skup
19th Congress of the European Anthropological Association “Anthropology: Unity in Diversity”

Mjesto i datum
Moskva, Ruska Federacija, 25.08.2014. - 29.08.2014

Vrsta sudjelovanja
Predavanje

Vrsta recenzije
Međunarodna recenzija

Ključne riječi
stres, salivarni biomarkeri, mladi, kulturni konsenzus i kulturna konsonanca
(stress, salivary biomarkers, youth, cultural consensus and cultural consonance)

Sažetak
This anthropological account explores manifestations of psychosocial stress in youth as a response to cultural changes in the transitional (post-socialist and post-conflict and now the European Union) context of contemporary Croatia. For youth a successful transition to independent adulthood requires competences in dealing with various age-specific developmental tasks, each of which might represent a specific stressor. Youth maturation and social integration are even more uncertain and stressful in the transitional society that itself is undergoing drastic and multiple transformations of institutions, cultural values and norms. Analytical approaches based on the cultural consensus and cultural consonance theories are used to assess the associations of various cultural domains of everyday life to the stress outcome measurements of salivary biomarkers. Saliva is useful for population studies of psychosocial stress because it allows non-invasive collection of samples in non-clinical settings. Two salivary biomarkers of stress physiology are selected for laboratory testing: cortisol (the central hormone in the physiology of stress, a biomarker of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis) and alpha- amylase (a surrogate marker of the sympathetic nervous system activity that parallels stress-related increase in norepinephrine). The results are presented from a recent pilot study using cultural consensus and cultural consonance analyses on salivary cortisol and alpha amylase levels in the group of the upper secondary school students from Zagreb, Croatia. This pilot study illustrates the usefulness of complementing recent developments in cognitive and cultural anthropology with research in biological anthropology.

Izvorni jezik
Engleski

Znanstvena područja
Etnologija i antropologija

POVEZANOST RADA