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

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议的五年计划将培训候选人并促进她进入独立的跨学科研究生涯。候选人的总体研究目标是确定压力的生物指标、应对行为和日常心理健康之间的联系。重要的是首先确定最有效的应对行为，以便以后可以有针对性地进行干预。该计划包括三个步骤：1）增强对涉及压力反应的生物系统和压力生物指标的了解，2）收集每日日记数据，以检查压力生物指标、应对人际关系紧张和日常心理健康之间的联系，3）利用获得的知识编写R01，以检查压力生物指标、应对策略以及对以后精神和身体疾病的影响。人际紧张是最常见也是最有害的压力来源。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。拟议的研究将评估人们如何应对日常紧张局势，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关联。每日日记项目将包括来自底特律三县地区 108 名 40 至 80 岁成年人的区域代表性样本。参与者将完成有关社会关系、人口统计和性格的基线访谈，然后在 14 天的时间内每晚进行有关紧张局势的电话访谈。在第 6 天到第 9 天，参与者将每天提供四次唾液样本（醒来、醒来后 30 分钟、午餐前和就寝时间）以及经历人际关系紧张后的唾液样本，所有这些样本都将进行皮质醇、DHEA-S 和 α-淀粉酶分析。据预测，老年人会表现出更大的回避行为，并且回避行为与老年人的幸福感（较低的皮质醇、较高的 DHEA-S、较低的 α-淀粉酶、较高的自我报告幸福感）的相关性更高。人们还假设，某些类型的回避（例如，接受这种情况）比其他类型的回避（例如，走开）更有利于幸福。这项研究将首次确定对幸福有益/有害的日常人际应对策略类型。这些目标与国家老龄化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物和心理途径。该项目与公共卫生相关，因为负面关系和慢性压力与心血管疾病、糖尿病和抑郁症等健康问题有关。因此，确定最有益的应对策略将有助于改善成年人随着年龄增长的健康和福祉。

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.