Abstract
Background
In the field of educational psychology in Japan, a model of “over-adaptation” has
been applied to conceptualize the personality of students who are vulnerable to external
stressors and prone to developing psychiatric problems. However, the influence of
over-adaptation on physiological functions in adolescents is still largely unknown.
Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the association between an over-adapted
tendency and autonomic nervous system activities in high school girls.
Methods
Circadian profiles of cardiac autonomic nervous system activities in 47 normal high
school girls were evaluated using time-domain measures of heart rate variability (HRV)
taken from 24-h ambulatory electrocardiogram recordings, and their relation to an
over-adaptation scale composed of 5 subscales was evaluated.
Results
A significant increase in RMSSD (root mean square of successive difference of normal-to-normal
beat intervals) during daytime (09:00–14:00) was observed in students who scored high
on the sum of the over-adaptation subscales (n = 6). Two of the over-adaptation subscales, namely, “self-restraint” and “self-insufficiency”,
were positively correlated with time-domain measures.
Conclusions
Parasympathetic activity in over-adapted students was elevated during school, and
this autonomic response was suggested to be linked to over-adaptation subscales related
to repressed emotions in over-adapted students. Thus, in over-adapted students, repressing
emotions appears to be a style of coping, and may lead to a quiet, emotionally stable
life in school, which in turn may result in parasympathetic activation.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: March 18, 2013
Accepted:
February 20,
2013
Received in revised form:
November 28,
2012
Received:
September 10,
2012
Identification
Copyright
© 2013 Elsevier B.V. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
