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Hair Cortisol, Perceived Stress, and the Effect of Group Dynamics: A Longitudinal Study of Young Men during Compulsory Military Training in Lithuania
General Jonas Zemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania, (LTU); Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, (LTU).
General Jonas Zemaitis Military Academy of Lithuania, (LTU).
Vilnius University, (LTU).
Swedish Defence University, Department of Security, Strategy and Leadership (ISSL), Leadership Division, Karlstad. Vilnius University, (LTU); Inland University College of Applied Sciences, (NOR).
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2022 (English)In: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, ISSN 1661-7827, E-ISSN 1660-4601, Vol. 19, no 3, article id 1663Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]

Previous research shows a nonlinear dependency between hair cortisol concentrations and perceived stress levels. This may be due to stress being targeted at the individual level despite it also being a social phenomenon which is often affected by group dynamics. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the influence of perceived stress on the hair cortisol level, considering the impact of the variables of group dynamics (interpersonal, task, and norm cohesion). Information was collected on 11 groups of, in total, 112 young men in three phases of time during their compulsory military training (covering nine months in total). The classification and regression tree (C&RT) method was used to predict hair cortisol concentrations in groups. The results show that the variability of the hair cortisol level in young men groups can be explained by perceived stress only when the groups were in formation process (47.7% normalised importance in Model 1) and when the groups were working on their final tasks (37.80% normalised importance in Model 3); meanwhile, the importance of perceived stress in explaining hair cortisol concentrations is low when the group is in a routine period of a group life-span (28.9% normalised importance in Model 2). Interpersonal cohesion (normalised importance 100% in Model 1 and 80.0% in Model 3) and task cohesion (normalised importance 78.6% in Model 2) were the most important predictors in the study area. These results point to the importance of the elements of group dynamics when it comes to explaining the nature of hair cortisol as accumulated stress biomarkers in young men.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2022. Vol. 19, no 3, article id 1663
Keywords [en]
hair cortisol, perceived stress, accumulated stress, group dynamics, interpersonal cohesion, norm cohesion, task cohesion, military, decision tree, classification and regression tree (C&RT)
National Category
Public Health, Global Health, Social Medicine and Epidemiology
Research subject
Leadership and Command & Control
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:fhs:diva-10819DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19031663ISI: 000755708900001OAI: oai:DiVA.org:fhs-10819DiVA, id: diva2:1657594
Available from: 2022-05-11 Created: 2022-05-11 Last updated: 2022-07-13Bibliographically approved

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