The ASU Transition to College Study is a longitudinal study comprised of Arizona State University students who participated in their senior year of high school and again at various time points in college. This study seeks to understand social, emotional, and physiological changes that are associated with the transition to college. These changes are critical as youth transition to college, with other studies demonstrating that the transition to college can be a particularly stressful time for youth in terms of family and peer interpersonal relationships, heightened academic demands, and mental and physical health (e.g., depression, anxiety, sleep habits). In order to examine changes over the transition to college, we measure physiological changes through salivary collection of stress biomarkers (e.g. cortisol, salivary alpha amylase), as well as through objectively measured sleep using actigraphy.

Investigator: Leah Doane

Publications

• Doane, L. D., Gress-Smith, J. L., & Breitenstein, R. S. (in press). Multi-method assessments of sleep over the transition to college and the associations with depression and anxiety symptoms. Journal of Youth and Adolescence.
• Doane, L. D., & Van Lenten, S. A. (in press). Multiple time courses of salivary alpha-amylase and dimensions of affect in adolescence. Psychoneuroendocrinology.
• Taylor, Z.E., Doane, L.D. & Eisenberg, N. (2014). Transitioning from high school to college: Relations of social support, ego-resiliency, and maladjustment during Emerging Adulthood. Emerging Adulthood, 2(2), 105-115.
• Doane, L.D. & Thurston, E. (2014). Associations among sleep, daily experiences, and loneliness in adolescence: Evidence of moderating and bidirectional pathways. Journal of Adolescence, 37(2), 145-154.
• Doane, L.D. & Zeiders, K.H. (2014). Negative affect and cortisol in adolescence: The moderating roles of discrimination and social support. Journal of Adolescent Health, 54(5), 536-542.