Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Biocultural Approach to Evaluating Psychosocial Stress Mediators in Vulnerable Communities

生活安排的中断给日常安全受到流离失所影响的个人造成了脆弱性。在临时安置点居住存在一系列困难和脆弱性，可能对健康和复原力产生长期影响。在持续的不确定性和关键资源有限的情况下，流离失所者如何协商控制和规范他们的日常生活。这个项目训练了一名人类学研究生的经验、科学数据收集和分析方法，测试了流离失所的个人通过参与日常活动重新获得控制和制定复原力的假设。常规在帮助人们组织日常生活，赋予控制感和常态感以及应对日常压力方面的重要性已经在研究环境中得到了注意。因此，了解常规化社会实践（RSPs）对福祉的作用，对于制定可能改善流离失所弱势群体长期健康结果的计划至关重要。这项多地点研究将在弱势群体中进行，包括在不稳定的背景下谈判流离失所的个人。这些人口面临导致流离失所的不同具体情况，从而有机会辨别出可能影响健康和福祉的特定和一般方式。具体而言，本研究将探讨参与RSPs是否与应激生理学和免疫功能相关的生物标志物的健康状况有关。研究人员还将研究rsp如何帮助脆弱的个体维持宜居的生活，并在新社区临时居住后处理他们的脆弱性。研究人员将进行调查，收集有关rsp、压力来源和生活经历的信息，并收集有关压力标志物（皮质醇、爱泼斯坦-巴尔病毒抗体水平和血压）的数据。这项研究的结果将通过检查RSPs在过渡居住环境中日常生活的结构和调节程度，为日常行动在健康和压力调解中的作用提供见解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Disruptions in living arrangements create vulnerabilities for individuals whose day-to-day security is affected by displacement. Residence in temporary settlements presents a range of difficulties and vulnerabilities that may have long-term implications for health and resilience. How do displaced individuals negotiate control and regularity over their daily lives in the context of persistent uncertainty and limited availability of critical resources. This project, which trains a graduate student in anthropology in the methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, tests the hypothesis that displaced individuals regain control and enact resilience by engaging in routine activities. The importance of routine in helping people structure their daily lives, impart a sense of control and normalcy, and weather day-to-day stressors has been noted across research settings. Therefore, understanding the role of Routinized Social Practices (RSPs) on well-being is critical for developing programs that may improve long-term health outcomes among vulnerable populations affected by displacement. This multi-sited research will be conducted among vulnerable populations consisting of individuals negotiating displacement in the context of precarity. These populations face different specific contexts leading to displacement, opening the opportunity to discern both specific and general ways that RSPs may affect health and well-being. Specifically, this study will explore whether participation in RSPs is associated with healthier profiles for biological markers related to stress physiology and immune function. The researchers will also investigate the ways in which RSPs may help vulnerable individuals to maintain livable lives and negotiate their vulnerability following temporary residence in novel communities. The researchers will conduct surveys, collect information on RSPs, sources of stress, and lived experiences, and gather data on stress markers (cortisol, Epstein-Barr virus antibody levels, and blood pressure). Findings from this research will provide insights into the role of routine action in health and stress mediation by examining the extent to which RSPs make everyday life structured and regulated in transitional residential contexts.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.