Personality and Health in Later Life: Psychosocial and Biological Mechanisms

晚年的人格与健康：心理社会和生物机制

• 批准号: 9064701
• 负责人: Thomas Oltmanns
• 金额: $ 58.79万
• 依托单位: WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-05-01 至 2019-04-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9064701
• 关键词: Adopted; Affect; African American; Age; Age of Onset; Aging; Alcohols; Biological; Biological Factors; Biological Markers; Biological Process; Blood specimen; Cell Aging; Childhood; Chromosomal Stability; Chronic Disease; Communities; Couples; Data; Data Collection; Development; Diagnosis; Disease; Elderly; Event; Exercise; Exposure to; Frequencies; Generations; Habits; Health; Health Status; Health behavior; Hydrocortisone; Immune system; Impulsivity; Individual; Inflammation; Inflammatory; Interleukin-6; Interview; Knowledge; Lead; Length; Life; Link; Longevity; Longitudinal Studies; Measures; Mediating; Mediator of activation protein; Medical; Methods; Modeling; Monitor; Neurosecretory Systems; Neurotic Disorders; Outcome; Participant; Pathway interactions; Patient Self-Report; Pattern; Perception; Personality; Personality Assessment; Personality Character; Personality Traits; Persons; Phase; Play; Process; Psychosocial Factor; Psychosocial Influences; Race; Religion and Spirituality; Reporting; Resources; Risk; Role; Sampling; Smoking; Social Adjustment; Social Functioning; Social Network; Social isolation; Social support; Stress; Telomere Shortening; Testing; Time; Tobacco use; Trauma; Variant; base; drinking; early onset; ethnic diversity; family support; follow-up; health care service utilization; health disparity; improved; informant; mortality; neglect; psychologic; psychosocial; racial health disparity; resilience; social integration; stress reactivity; telomere; trait

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This longitudinal study will identify specific pathways that are responsible for the link between personality and health in later life. It will employ enhanced assessment methods, including informant reports, interviews, and self-report measures of adaptive as well as maladaptive variants of personality traits. We will investigate psychosocial factors, biological pathways, and personality changes in relation to subjective health, diagnosis and treatment for specific medical disorders, and mortality. Personality traits will be considered both in terms of their protective (e.g., conscientiousness and health behaviors) and harmful functions (e.g., neuroticism and stressful life events). At the psychosocial level of analysis, three mechanisms will be examined as important mediators and moderators: health behaviors (e.g., use of tobacco and alcohol); exposure to environmental adversity (e.g., trauma, neglect, and on-going stressful life events); and social integration (e.g. intimate relationships, social networks, and community involvement). At the biological level of analysis, three additional mechanisms will be considered: neuroendocrine functioning (cortisol); immune system functioning (inflammation); and chromosomal stability (telomere length). Pathways between personality and health will be considered in terms of stable trait levels as well as personality change. Our data will allow us to examine health disparities, testing a variety of hypotheses concerned with both risk and resilience. For example, we will study the role that personality characteristics (e.g., mistrust and impulsivity) play in moderating the relation between environmental adversity and chronic illness. The study will extend data collection with a sample of participants that has already been studied for six years, beginning in 2007. The participants form a representative, ethnically diverse (33 percent African-American), community-based sample of 1,630 persons between the ages of 55 and 64 (when entering the study) ---those approaching the challenges of later life. All participants completed comprehensive assessments of personality, health, and social adjustment at baseline. Stressful life events, social adjustment, and changes in health were then monitored at regular six-month follow-up assessments, leading up to a second assessment of personality, which was conducted 2.5 years after baseline. During Phase II (the next project period), we will conduct two more personality assessments: the third will occur three years after the second, and the fourth will occur two years after the third. We will also collect blood samples to be used for measuring biomarkers at the time personality assessments three and four. Regular follow-up assessments of health, health behaviors, stressful life events, and social functioning will continue to be completed at four regular 6-month intervals following the third assessment. This project fills an important gap in knowledge regarding mechanisms that explain the connection between personality and health.

描述(由申请者提供)：这项纵向研究将确定在以后的生活中人格与健康之间的联系的具体途径。它将采用改进的评估方法，包括举报人报告、访谈和自我报告人格特征的适应性和非适应性变体的措施。我们将调查心理社会因素、生物途径和人格变化与主观健康、特定医学疾病的诊断和治疗以及死亡率的关系。人格特征将从其保护性(例如，责任心和健康行为)和有害功能(例如，神经质和应激性生活事件)两个方面进行考虑。在心理社会分析层面，三种机制将被视为重要的中介和调节因素：健康行为(例如，吸烟和酗酒)；暴露在环境逆境中(例如，创伤、忽视和持续的应激性生活事件)；以及社会融合(例如，亲密关系、社会网络和社区参与)。在生物学分析层面，将考虑三种额外的机制：神经内分泌功能(皮质醇)；免疫系统功能(炎症)；以及染色体稳定性(端粒长度)。人格和健康之间的路径将从稳定的特征水平和人格变化的角度来考虑。我们的数据将使我们能够检查健康差异，测试各种 既涉及风险又涉及韧性的假设。例如，我们将研究人格特征(如不信任和冲动)在调节环境逆境和慢性病之间的关系中所起的作用。这项研究将扩大数据收集的范围，从2007年开始，参与者的样本已经研究了六年。参与者形成了一个具有代表性的、不同种族的(33%是非洲裔美国人)、以社区为基础的样本，包括1,630名年龄在55岁到(进入研究时)之间的人-那些接近晚年生活挑战的人。所有参与者都在基线水平上完成了人格、健康和社会适应的全面评估。紧张性生活事件、社会适应和健康变化在六个月的定期跟踪评估中被监测，导致第二次个性评估，这是在基线后2.5年进行的。在第二阶段(下一个项目期)，我们将再进行两次个性评估：第三次将在第二次三年后进行，第四次将在第三次两年后进行。我们还将收集血液样本，用于在第三次和第四次个性评估时测量生物标记物。在第三次评估之后，将继续定期完成对健康、健康行为、压力生活事件和社会功能的定期跟踪评估，每隔6个月进行四次定期评估。这个项目填补了关于解释人格和健康之间联系的机制的知识的一个重要空白。