Courtesy umass.eduAfter her talk, Powers was awarded the Chancellor’s Medal, which is ‘the highest honor bestowed on individuals for exemplary and extraordinary service to the University,’ according to the award website.
Powers is a family researcher and the director of the Center for Research on Families at UMass Amherst. In Monday’s lecture, she shared the results of her studies on stress’ effects on depression, for example how, ‘conflicts with the people we love the most translate through the body in the form of stress, especially in adolescent females and women.’
According to Powers, depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide, and the greatest mental health problem in the U.S. Powers shared that 16 percent of people will be affected by depression at some point in their lives, with women being two times more likely to be affected.
One aspect of Powers’ study reviewed the depression rates of adolescents, defined by the study as people in their second decade of life. Powers discovered that depression rates in females in particular skyrocketed around puberty ‘- she revealed this may be due to changing reactions from other people to the female’s appearance, rapidly evolving brain chemistry or increased stressors that come with adolescence.
Powers then delved deeper into the last theory for female depression. She accounted for risk factors such as family and genetic history, early trauma, off-time puberty and environmental factors. She then focused on stress’ effects on depression and its interaction with other factors, because the stress hormone cortisol can damage the dopamine system which ‘plays a critical part in our being able to feel reward and pleasure.’
Powers studied three types of relationships: parent-adolescent, dating couple and newlywed relationships, specifically focusing on individuals’ coping styles and differences related to gender. She videotaped partners in each type of relationship discussing a conflict important to them, then had both impartial observers and the people directly involved in the conflict rate what behaviors they witnessed, according to standardized judgments such as ‘giving in’ or ‘sarcasm.’
Another crucial aspect of her studies was to test the saliva of each partner, before, during and after the conflict to analyze it for hormones that are excreted when a person feels stressed or threatened.
When reviewing the parent-adolescent conflicts, Powers discovered that the males she studied were more likely to exhibit behaviors classified as ‘sarcasm’ when ‘giving in.’ She commented that this allows the males to ‘withdraw from the conflict and protect themselves.’ The females exhibited a behavior she termed ‘engaged submission.’ She said the females would also give in, but they would do so whilst smiling and giggling in order to ‘protect the relationship and de-emphasize their own voices.’
When studying the dating couples, the saliva analysis showed that males were actually more stressed during the anticipatory phase of the conflict rather than during, and that females were slower to recover their stress levels afterwards.
Powers said, ‘I believe parent-adolescent conflict situations are valuable because they provide experience for teenagers to practice voicing their points of view.’ However, she continued, ‘submission doesn’t do a very good job of resolving the conflict that was an issue in the first place.’
She explained that cortisol can remain in the system and lead to chronic stress and depression. These continually elevated cortisol levels have also been linked to ‘down regulation of the HPA system,’ which is responsible for the body’s response to stress.
Several audience members reacted to the presentation, one asking if the researchers considered using same-sex couples. Powers explained that they were trying and that only a small sub-group was used for this particular study.
Another student brought up the point that the researchers should not forget that correlation does not prove causation, and other chemicals could be at play. Powers agreed, concluding that researchers are studying all the bio-psycho-social causes of depression.
Her conclusion is that the way people react to conflicts, often through submission, causes continued stress, and this stress can cause or worsen depression. It is one aspect of a very complicated issue, one that affects a significant part of the national and global population.
Kat Manser can be reached at [email protected].‘
