Translation and Adaptation of the Trier Social Stress Test for Children into Portuguese Language

Since the 1990s there have only been a few studies with human subjects that focused on the underlying mechanisms associated with acute psychological stress exposure and even less have been conducted with children. Based on the idea that it is possible to elicit and measure behavioral and physiological patterns in response to stressors in a short period of time, the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), an experiment that consists of public speaking exposure and a mental arithmetic task, was developed. However, there is no Brazilian version of the TSST for children. The current study sought to translate and adapt the TSST protocol for children to the Brazilian Portuguese language. The fi nal version of the adapted protocol consists of a story regarding the public speaking phase, as well as instructions about each phase of the protocol, including the rapports and information concerning the preand the post-stages of the TSST for children. This work is building toward innovation in the Brazilian stress research fi eld. In addition, whereas research on stress also involves physiological and biological markers measurements, the TSST is also an innovative tool for multidisciplinary research.