Stress and Memory in AdolescenceM&M ProjectNCT06821178
My Life and My Experiences Project
A study testing Acute stress manipulation in people with Stress and Memory in Adolescence, run by University of California, Irvine at 1 site in United States.
Trial summary
Child maltreatment is one of the most formidable public health crises in the United States, affecting millions of youth each year. The adverse consequences of maltreatment for youth, as well as for their families and entire communities, are pervasive, costly, and enduring. Read more about this study
- Who is it for?
- Ages 12 to 18 yearsHealthy volunteers can take part
- Conditions the study is for
- Stress and Memory in Adolescence
- What is being tested?
- Acute stress manipulation
- Type of treatment
- Lifestyle or therapy programme
- Could I receive a placebo?
- No, everyone receives an active treatment
- How many people
- 400 participants
- Where
- 1 siteUnited States
- Study dates
- 28 Jan 2025to 30 Jun 2028
- Phase
- Interventional
- Are there results?
- Not yet: the study is under way
Key requirements
Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.
- Ages 12 to 18 years
- All sexes
- Healthy volunteers accepted
- Child, Adult
Who may be able to join
- Ages 12-18 at start, half self reported or documented prior contact with social services/dependency court; half always lived with at least one biological parent
Who cannot join
- Public speaking or math anxiety, cognitive impairments, head injuries, learning disabilities, steroid/hormonal treatments, or neuroendocrine diseases
Trial locations and contacts
1 site in 1 country. Contact the study team or a site near you to ask about taking part.
United States1 site, 1 recruiting
- Recruiting
University of California, Irvine
Irvine, California, 92697
Jodi A Quas, PhD, 9498247693, jquas@uci.edu
About this study
Official title: Stress, Memory, and Rumination in Maltreated Adolescents
Child maltreatment is one of the most formidable public health crises in the United States, affecting millions of youth each year. The adverse consequences of maltreatment for youth, as well as for their families and entire communities, are pervasive, costly, and enduring. To intervene and reduce these consequences, it is imperative that victims provide clear and accurate accounts of their prior experiences. Currently, considerable skepticism exists regarding maltreated youth's ability to provide such accounts, especially for experiences that were stressful, leading to youths' reports being challenged or not believed. It is possible that this skepticism is unwarranted, and maltreated youth actually demonstrate better memory than their non-maltreated counterparts, but only for stressful salient personal experiences. This project will ethically and rigorously test this possibility via a short-term longitudinal experimental investigation that compares the effects of acute stress on memory between maltreated and demographically matched non-maltreated 12-18-year-olds. In an initial in-person session, youth will be randomly assigned (equal maltreated and non-maltreated youth across age) to complete standardized salient personal activities that are experimentally manipulated to vary in whether they induce higher or lower levels of acute stress. Immediately afterward, youth will complete an encoding task comprised of positive, negative, and neutral images. In subsequent sessions (two remote and one in person) spanning approximately one month, youth's memory will be tested for the images via a recognition task asking them to discriminate previously seen from unseen images and for the personal activities via recall and direct questions that probe for the extent and accuracy of memory. Youth's rumination about the personal activities will also be measured. The project's main hypothesis is that maltreatment will lead to particularly robust memory for the personal activities, but only when the youth complete these under conditions of high stress. By contrast, because the emotional and neutral images are not personally meaningful, maltreatment is expected to constrain youth's memory performance for the images. It is also hypothesized that rumination will serve as an important mediator of the links between stress and memory for the higher stress personal activities, most notably in the maltreated youth. Overall, the project's results will provide much-needed knowledge about the precise ways that maltreatment shapes different facets of youth's memory, knowledge. This knowledge will be enormously valuable in improving trust in maltreated youth's reporting of stressful experiences and hence in directing interventions for victimized youth.
- Conditions
- Stress and Memory in Adolescence
- Being tested
- Acute stress manipulation
What participants receive
What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.
Acute stress manipulationBehavioural
Youth will be randomly assigned to the HS (high stress) or LS (low stress) TSST-M condition. The objective activities will be identical in the HS and LS conditions but the context will vary. The HS condition will be highly evaluative. The researcher will tell youth that they are being videotaped in order to code their behaviors later. The observers will maintain neutral expressions, provide instructions in a neutral tone, and avoid eye contact. In the LS condition, evaluative components are removed [31, 53]. Observers will be introduced as new, and the videotaping will be explained as a check to ensure that the observers follow instructions. The observers will appear disorganized while giving instructions, smile, and maintain an open body posture and eye contact.
| Study group | Role | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| High Stress Condition | Experimental | High stress condition of Trier Social Stress Test - Modified Receives: Behavioral: Acute stress manipulation |
| Low Stress Condition | Experimental | Low stress condition of the Trier Social Stress Test-Modified Receives: Behavioral: Acute stress manipulation |
What is being measured
The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.
Delarative recognition memory
This memory measure reflects how well participants remember images that they encoded in Session 1. Participants are presented with previously seen and unseen images. Their job is to discriminate the two (i.e., say "old" for prior images and "new" for unseen images). Scores computed based on their responses include discriminability and response bias tendencies. These scores will be examined in relation to participants' maltreatment status and whether they encoded the images under high or low stress conditions.
Measured: 10 days from first session
Event Memory
This memory measure reflects how well participants remember the entire first session, during which they had completed either the HS or LS TSST-M. Thus, of interest concerns differences in youth's memory for a stressful versus nonstressful prior salient experiences. Responses to recall and direct questions are coded for completeness and accuracy. These scores will be examined in relation to participants' maltreatment status and whether the original experience was higher versus lower stress.
Measured: 30 days from first session
Secondary outcomes (1)
State Rumination
A measure of state rumination specifically about the first session, when participants completed the HS or LS TSST-M. Rumination is believed to operate as a mediator, influencing the relation between stress at encoding and later memory. Thus, preliminary analyses will evaluate whether youth who experienced the HS TSST-M ruminate more than youth who experienced the LS TSST-M, but also whether maltreated youth ruminate more than comparison youth.
Measured: 10 days, 20 days, and 30 days from first session
Timeline
From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.
- First posted11 Feb 2025
- Study start28 Jan 2025
- Primary completion30 Jun 2027 (estimated)
- Study completion30 Jun 2028 (estimated)
Resources
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govThe registry entry this page is built from, with its full change history.
- Other trials for Stress and Memory in AdolescenceStudies of the same condition, open and under way.
- What the trial phases meanHow a treatment moves from first tests in people to approval.
More details
For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.
Study design
- Study type
- Interventional
- Phase
- Phase N/A
- Primary purpose
- Basic science
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- Single blind
- Who is masked
- Participant
- Enrolment
- 400 participants (estimated)
Sponsor and investigators
- Lead sponsor
- University of California, Irvine
- Sponsor type
- University, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
- Responsible party
- Principal investigator, Jodi Quas, University of California, Irvine
IDs, dates and publications
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT06821178
- Sponsor's protocol ID
- 4715
- Other IDs
- R01HD113752
- Acronym
- M&M Project
- Status last verified
- Mar 2026
- First submitted
- 6 Feb 2025
- Last updated
- 30 Mar 2026
- Results posted
- No
- Data monitoring committee
- Yes
- FDA-regulated drug
- No
- FDA-regulated device
- No
- Individual data sharing
- No
Study at a glance
From the registry record, last updated by the sponsor on 30 Mar 2026. Recruitment status is as the sponsor reported it: confirm with the study team.
- Official title
- Stress, Memory, and Rumination in Maltreated Adolescents
- ClinicalTrials.gov ID
- NCT06821178
- Acronym / sponsor ID
- M&M Project / 4715
- Conditions
- Stress and Memory in Adolescence
- Study type
- Interventional
- Recruitment status
- Recruiting
- Enrolment
- 400 participants (estimated)
- Lead sponsor
- University of California, IrvineUniversity, hospital or other
- Collaborators
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD)
- Study start
- 28 Jan 2025 (actual)
- Primary completion
- 30 Jun 2027 (estimated)
- Study completion
- 30 Jun 2028 (estimated)
- First posted
- 11 Feb 2025 (actual)
- Results
- Not posted in the source record
Clinical summary
The research question as the sponsor registered it. This describes what the study plans to test, not what it found.
Child maltreatment is one of the most formidable public health crises in the United States, affecting millions of youth each year. The adverse consequences of maltreatment for youth, as well as for their families and entire communities, are pervasive, costly, and enduring. To intervene and reduce these consequences, it is imperative that victims provide clear and accurate accounts of their prior experiences. Currently, considerable skepticism exists regarding maltreated youth's ability to provide such accounts, especially for experiences that were stressful, leading to youths' reports being challenged or not believed. It is possible that this skepticism is unwarranted, and maltreated youth actually demonstrate better memory than their non-maltreated counterparts, but only for stressful salient personal experiences. This project will ethically and rigorously test this possibility via a short-term longitudinal experimental investigation that compares the effects of acute stress on memory between maltreated and demographically matched non-maltreated 12-18-year-olds. In an initial in-person session, youth will be randomly assigned (equal maltreated and non-maltreated youth across age) to complete standardized salient personal activities that are experimentally manipulated to vary in whether they induce higher or lower levels of acute stress. Immediately afterward, youth will complete an encoding task comprised of positive, negative, and neutral images. In subsequent sessions (two remote and one in person) spanning approximately one month, youth's memory will be tested for the images via a recognition task asking them to discriminate previously seen from unseen images and for the personal activities via recall and direct questions that probe for the extent and accuracy of memory. Youth's rumination about the personal activities will also be measured. The project's main hypothesis is that maltreatment will lead to particularly robust memory for the personal activities, but only when the youth complete these under conditions of high stress. By contrast, because the emotional and neutral images are not personally meaningful, maltreatment is expected to constrain youth's memory performance for the images. It is also hypothesized that rumination will serve as an important mediator of the links between stress and memory for the higher stress personal activities, most notably in the maltreated youth. Overall, the project's results will provide much-needed knowledge about the precise ways that maltreatment shapes different facets of youth's memory, knowledge. This knowledge will be enormously valuable in improving trust in maltreated youth's reporting of stressful experiences and hence in directing interventions for victimized youth.
Study design
- Primary purpose
- Basic science
- Allocation
- Randomised
- Intervention model
- Parallel groups
- Masking
- Single blind (participant)
- Number of arms
- 2
| Arm | Type | Receives |
|---|---|---|
| High Stress Condition | Experimental | Behavioral: Acute stress manipulationHigh stress condition of Trier Social Stress Test - Modified |
| Low Stress Condition | Experimental | Behavioral: Acute stress manipulationLow stress condition of the Trier Social Stress Test-Modified |
Who may qualify
- Ages
- 12 to 18 years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Accepted
- Age groups
- Child, Adult
Key inclusion criteria (1 listed)
- Ages 12-18 at start, half self reported or documented prior contact with social services/dependency court; half always lived with at least one biological parent
Key exclusion criteria (1 listed)
- Public speaking or math anxiety, cognitive impairments, head injuries, learning disabilities, steroid/hormonal treatments, or neuroendocrine diseases
Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening; this overview does not establish that a patient qualifies. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Interventions
| Intervention | Type | Arms |
|---|---|---|
| Acute stress manipulationYouth will be randomly assigned to the HS (high stress) or LS (low stress) TSST-M condition. The objective activities will be identical in the HS and LS conditions but the context will vary. The HS condition will be highly evaluative. The researcher will tell youth that they are being videotaped in order to code their behaviors later. The observers will maintain neutral expressions, provide instructions in a neutral tone, and avoid eye contact. In the LS condition, evaluative components are removed [31, 53]. Observers will be introduced as new, and the videotaping will be explained as a check to ensure that the observers follow instructions. The observers will appear disorganized while giving instructions, smile, and maintain an open body posture and eye contact. | Behavioural | High Stress Condition, Low Stress Condition |
Primary outcome
Delarative recognition memory
Time frame: 10 days from first session
This memory measure reflects how well participants remember images that they encoded in Session 1. Participants are presented with previously seen and unseen images. Their job is to discriminate the two (i.e., say "old" for prior images and "new" for unseen images). Scores computed based on their responses include discriminability and response bias tendencies. These scores will be examined in relation to participants' maltreatment status and whether they encoded the images under high or low stress conditions.
Event Memory
Time frame: 30 days from first session
This memory measure reflects how well participants remember the entire first session, during which they had completed either the HS or LS TSST-M. Thus, of interest concerns differences in youth's memory for a stressful versus nonstressful prior salient experiences. Responses to recall and direct questions are coded for completeness and accuracy. These scores will be examined in relation to participants' maltreatment status and whether the original experience was higher versus lower stress.
1 secondary outcome
State Rumination
Time frame: 10 days, 20 days, and 30 days from first session
Results and safety
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
Research links
- Official record on ClinicalTrials.govLast updated by the sponsor 30 Mar 2026.
- Individual participant dataSharing planned: No
Referral and contact
AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals. Contact the study team or a site listed below; they decide who can take part.
1 site in 1 country: see every site and its status.
Questions about this trial
What is this clinical trial studying?
A study testing Acute stress manipulation in people with Stress and Memory in Adolescence, run by University of California, Irvine at 1 site in United States.
The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.
Who may be eligible to take part?
The sponsor lists 1 inclusion and 1 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.
Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?
The record says: looking for participants now, as of the sponsor's last update on 30 Mar 2026. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.
Where is the study taking place?
The record lists 1 site in United States. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.
What are the possible benefits and risks?
They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.
Are results available for this study?
This study is still under way. Results are not available in the source record yet.
How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?
Contact Jodi A Quas, Ph.D. (9498247693, jquas@uci.edu), or a site near the patient. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.
What does the primary outcome measure?
Delarative recognition memory (time frame: 10 days from first session). The study lists 2 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.
Where can I read the original study information?
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?
No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.
How often is this information updated?
AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 30 Mar 2026; AzTrials last refreshed its copy on 1 Nov 2026.