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

描述（由申请人提供）：本申请寻求资金来实施和完善两种新颖的探索性方法，以更好地了解成年人对婚姻破裂的生物心理社会适应。离婚一直被认为是人生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，很少有研究试图理解跨多个分析层次的恢复机制。因此，关于个人如何在婚姻结束后走向或远离精神痛苦和身体疾病的综合解释仍有待开发。为了解决这些局限性，将在三个月内的四个时间点收集90名最近分离的成年人的自我报告和生理数据（干预前实验室评估，干预后家访随访和两次干预后实验室访问）。亲密的朋友也会报告参与者的社会功能。目的1研究了一种新颖的为期三天的表达性写作（NEW）干预的效果，该干预旨在促进对离婚经历的认知组织。为本研究开发的新干预是建立在Pennebaker（1997）的传统表达性写作（TEW）范式之上的。与TEW组和对照组相比，假设随机分配到新条件组的个体在一个月的实验室随访中表现出最大的短期认知情绪调整，在离婚相关的心理激活任务中表现出最低水平的自主生理反应，并且明显更好的朋友报告的功能状态。认知组织的变化（由新的写作条件刺激）有望在统计上调解写作群体成员和生理反应之间的联系。目标2检查随时间的变化，并评估新建立的数据分析技术在单个统计模型中检查心理和生物反应模式耦合的效用。在90天的研究期间，研究对象在离婚相关心理激活任务中自我报告的认知组织、主观情绪体验和自主生理反应的变化。据推测，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，预计干预小组成员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。这项研究的发现将对帮助离婚治疗和防止离婚相关压力的加剧具有直接的转化价值。这种性质的机械研究将提供更详细的了解离婚是如何影响身体健康功能的。离婚是一个人所经历的压力最大的生活事件之一，很大一部分成年人在婚姻破裂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，本研究考察了随着时间的推移，心理学和生物学之间的相互作用对成年人从离婚中恢复的影响。更好地了解离婚、心理组织和身体健康之间的关系，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.