Promoting Well-Being Across Adulthood: The Role of Conflict Avoidance

描述（由申请人提供）：拟建的五年计划将培养候选人，使其进入独立的跨学科研究生涯。该候选人的总体研究目标是确定压力、应对行为和日常心理健康的生物指标之间的联系。首先确定最有效的应对行为是很重要的，这样他们就可以在以后的干预中成为目标。该计划包括三个步骤：1)加强对压力反应的生物系统和压力的生物指标的了解；2)收集日常日记数据，以检查压力的生物指标、应对人际关系紧张和日常心理健康之间的联系；3)利用所获得的知识编写R01，以检查压力的生物指标、应对策略和对后来精神和身体疾病的影响。人际关系紧张是影响幸福感的最常见和最有害的压力来源。研究表明，人们最有可能使用回避（例如，什么都不做）来处理人际关系问题，并且回避的使用随着年龄的增长而增加，但缺乏对日常回避的影响的研究。拟议中的研究将评估人们如何应对日常紧张，成年后的反应是否有所不同，以及应对策略、压力的生物指标和幸福感之间的联系。每日日记项目将包括来自底特律三县地区的108名40至80岁以上的成年人的区域代表性样本。参与者将完成一项关于社会关系、人口统计和个性的基线访谈，随后是为期14天的每天晚上关于紧张局势的电话访谈。在第6天至第9天，参与者将每天提供四次唾液样本（醒着，醒后30分钟，午餐前和睡觉时间），以及在他们经历人际关系紧张后的唾液样本，所有这些样本都将被分析为皮质醇，DHEA-S和α -淀粉酶。据预测，老年人会报告更多的逃避，而逃避与老年人的幸福感（较低的皮质醇，较高的DHEA-S，较低的α -淀粉酶，较高的自我报告的幸福感）的相关性更强。还有一种假设是，某些类型的回避（例如，接受现状）比其他类型的回避（例如，走开）对健康更有益。这项研究将首次确定对健康有益/有害的日常人际应对策略类型。这些目标与国家老龄研究所的使命相一致：1)改善老年人的健康和生活质量；2)了解社会关系可能影响健康的生理和心理途径。这个项目与公共卫生有关，因为消极关系和慢性压力与健康问题有关，包括心血管疾病、糖尿病和抑郁症。因此，确定最有益的应对策略将有助于改善成年人的健康和福祉，因为他们的年龄。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed five-year plan will train the candidate and foster her launch into an independent interdisciplinary research career. The candidate's overall research goal is to identify links between biological indicators of stress, coping behaviors and daily psychological well-being. It is important to first identify the most effective coping behaviors so that they can be later targeted in interventions. The plan includes three steps: 1) enhance knowledge of biological systems involved in stress response and biological indicators of stress, 2) collect daily diary data to examine links between biological indicators of stress, coping with interpersonal tensions, and daily psychological well-being, 3) use the knowledge gained to write an R01 to examine biological indicators of stress, coping strategies and implications for later mental and physical illness. Interpersonal tensions are the most common and detrimental source of stress for well-being. Research indicates that people are most likely to use avoidance (e.g., do nothing) to deal with interpersonal problems and the use of avoidance increases with age, but there is a lack of research on the implications of daily avoidance. The proposed research will assess how people respond to daily tensions, whether responses vary across adulthood, and associations between coping strategies, biological indicators of stress, and well-being. The daily diary project will include a regionally representative sample of 108 adults ages 40 to 80+ from the Detroit Tri-County area. Participants will complete a baseline interview regarding social relationships, demographics, and personality followed by daily phone interviews regarding tensions each night for 14 days. On days 6 through 9, participants will provide salivary samples four times a day (waking, 30 minutes after waking, before lunch, and bed time) as well as salivary samples after they experience interpersonal tensions all of which will be analyzed for cortisol, DHEA-S, and alpha-amylase. It is predicted that older people will report greater avoidance and that avoidance will be more highly associated with well-being (lower cortisol, higher DHEA-S, lower alpha-amylase, higher self-reported well-being) among older adults. It is also hypothesized that certain types of avoidance are more beneficial (e.g., accepting the situation) than others (e.g., walking away) for well-being. This study will be the first to identify the types of daily interpersonal coping strategies that are beneficial/harmful for well-being. These goals parallel the National Institutes on Aging missions to: 1) improve the health and quality of life of older people; and 2) understand the biological and psychological pathways through which social relationships may influence health. This project is relevant for public health because negative relations and chronic stress are associated with health problems including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and depression. Thus, identifying the most beneficial coping strategies will help to improve the health and well-being of adults as they age.