Relationships Between Sex‐Related Psychological Characteristics During Adolescence and Catecholamine Excretion During Achievement Stress

Abstract

ABSTRACT The study is concerned with stress and coping patterns in 18‐yr‐old male and female students who participated in a longitudinal developmental study. Measures of the urinary excretion of adrenaline and noradrenaline obtained during a 6‐hr matriculation examination (stress condition) and 2–3 hrs of routine school work (control condition) were related to relatively enduring psychological characteristics of the subjects assessed at the age of 18 and, for some of the variables, also at age 15. In the control condition, correlations between adrenaline excretion and psychological variables were low and sex differences slight. In the stress condition, the pattern of correlations between catecholamine excretion and psychological variables was much higher and markedly different for the two sexes. In males, adrenaline excretion was positively related to achievement‐orientation and negatively related to anxiety. In females, adrenaline excretion was negatively related to self‐esteem and sense of fulfilling social expectations. An interpretation emphasizing sex differences in strategies for coping with achievement demands is discussed.