Divorce in mid-life: Mechanisms of biopsychosocial adaptation over time

描述（由申请人提供）：本申请寻求资金，以实施和完善两种新的探索性方法，以更好地了解成年人对婚姻解体的生物心理社会适应。离婚一直被认为是生活中最痛苦的经历之一，它会对心理和身体健康造成持久的负面影响。然而，很少有研究试图了解多层次分析的恢复机制。因此，婚姻结束后个人如何走向或远离精神痛苦和身体疾病的综合解释仍有待发展。为了解决这些局限性，将在3个月内的4个时间点（干预前实验室评估、干预后家庭访视随访和两次干预后实验室访视）从90名最近分居的成年人中收集自我报告和生理数据。亲密的朋友也将报告参与者的社会功能。目的1探讨了一种新的为期三天的表达性写作（NEW）干预的效果，旨在促进对离婚经历的认知组织。新的干预，本研究开发，建立在Pennebaker（1997年）的传统表达性写作（TEW）范式。相对于TEW组和对照组，假设随机分配到NEW条件下的个体将在一个月的实验室随访中在离婚相关的精神激活任务期间表现出最大的短期认知-情绪调整以及最低水平的自主生理反应，并且朋友报告的功能状态明显更好。在认知组织的变化（刺激的新的写作条件），预计在统计学上介导的写作组成员和生理反应之间的关联。目的2研究随着时间的推移而变化，并评估新建立的数据分析技术的效用，以研究在一个单一的统计模型中心理和生物反应模式的耦合。将采用潜在差异评分结构方程模型来检查90天研究期间离婚相关精神激活任务期间自我报告的认知组织、主观情绪体验和自主生理反应性的变化。假设包括耦合参数的模型将改进非耦合变化模型，更具体地说，随着时间的推移，心理学的变化将导致生物学的变化。最后，预计干预组成员资格将缓和这些模型中的变化轨迹，这样，新条件下的个体将证明对离婚经历的心理和生理调整速度最快。这项研究的结果将立即转化为帮助离婚的治疗和防止离婚相关的压力加剧的价值。这种性质的机制研究将提供一个更详细的了解离婚如何在皮肤下影响身体健康功能。离婚是一个人可能经历的最有压力的生活事件之一，相当一部分成年人在婚姻解体后出现了可诊断的精神和身体健康问题。使用简短的写作干预和新颖的统计方法，本研究探讨了随着时间的推移，更好或更差的调整的因素，特别关注心理学和生物学之间的相互作用，因为成年人从离婚中恢复。更好地了解离婚、心理组织和身体健康之间的联系，对于制定更好的预防和治疗方案至关重要。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application seeks funding to implement and refine two novel and exploratory approaches for better understanding adults' biopsychosocial adjustment to marital dissolution. Divorce is consistently rated among life's most distressing experiences, one that can exact a lasting negative toll on both psychological and physical well-being. Little research, however, has attempted to understand mechanisms of recovery across multiple levels of analysis. Consequently, an integrative account of how individuals move toward or away from mental distress and physical illness following the end of marriage remains to be developed. To address these limitations, self-report and physiological data will be collected from 90 recently separated adults at four points in time over 3 months (a pre-intervention laboratory assessment, a post-intervention home visit follow-up, and two post-intervention laboratory visits). Close friends also will report on participants' social functioning. Aim 1 examines the effects of a novel three-day expressive writing (NEW) intervention designed to promote cognitive organization about one's divorce experience. The NEW intervention, developed for the present study, builds on Pennebaker's (1997) traditional expressive writing (TEW) paradigm. Relative to the TEW and control groups, it is hypothesized that individuals randomly assigned the NEW condition will evidence the greatest short-term cognitive-emotional adjustment, as well as the lowest levels of autonomic physiological reactivity during a divorce-related mental activation task at the one-month laboratory follow-up and significantly better friend- reported functional status. Changes in cognitive organization (spurred by the NEW writing condition) are expected to statistically mediate the association between writing group membership and physiological reactivity. Aim 2 examines change over time and evaluates the utility of newly established data analytic techniques for examining the coupling of psychological and biological response patterns in a single statistical model. Latent difference score structural equation modeling will be employed to examine changes in self- reported cognitive organization, subjective emotional experience, and autonomic physiological reactivity during the divorce-related mental activation task over the 90 day study period. It is hypothesized that models including coupling parameters will improve upon non-coupled change models, and, more specifically, that changes in psychology will lead changes in biology over time. Finally, it is expected that intervention group membership will moderate trajectories of change within these models, such that individuals in the NEW condition will evidence the quickest rates of psychological and physiological adjustment to the divorce experience. Findings from this study will be of immediate translational value for aiding in the treatment of divorce and preventing the exacerbation of divorce-related stress. Mechanistic studies of this nature will provide a more detailed understanding of how divorce gets under the skin to impact physical health functioning. Divorce is among the most stressful life events a person can experience, and a significant proportion of adults develop diagnosable mental and physical health problems following marital dissolution. Using a brief writing intervention and novel statistical methodologies, this research examines the factors contributing to better or worse adjustment over time with a specific focus on the interaction between psychology and biology as adults recovery from divorce. A better understanding of the associations between divorce, psychological organization, and physical health is critical for developing improved prevention and treatment programs.