Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Biocultural Approach to Evaluating Psychosocial Stress Mediators in Vulnerable Communities

生活安排的中断使个人的日常安全受到流离失所的影响。居住在临时定居点会带来一系列困难和脆弱性，可能对健康和复原力产生长期影响。在持续的不确定性和关键资源有限的情况下，流离失所者如何谈判控制和规范他们的日常生活。这个项目，培训人类学的研究生在经验的方法，科学的数据收集和分析，测试的假设，流离失所的个人重新获得控制权，并通过从事日常活动制定弹性。日常生活在帮助人们构建日常生活、赋予控制感和正常感以及应对日常压力源方面的重要性已经在各种研究环境中得到了注意。因此，了解社会实践（RSPs）对福祉的作用对于制定可能改善受流离失所影响的弱势群体长期健康结果的方案至关重要。这项多地点研究将在弱势群体中进行，这些群体包括在不稳定的情况下谈判流离失所的个人。这些人口面临着导致流离失所的不同具体情况，从而有机会辨别限制性战略计划可能影响健康和福祉的具体和一般方式。具体而言，本研究将探讨参与RSPs是否与与应激生理学和免疫功能相关的生物标志物的健康状况相关。研究人员还将调查RSPs如何帮助弱势群体维持宜居生活，并在临时居住在新社区后解决他们的脆弱性。研究人员将进行调查，收集有关RSPs，压力来源和生活经历的信息，并收集有关压力标志物（皮质醇，EB病毒抗体水平和血压）的数据。这项研究的结果将提供深入了解日常行动在健康和压力调解的作用，通过检查在何种程度上RSP使日常生活结构化和规范的过渡住宅contextuals.This奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

Disruptions in living arrangements create vulnerabilities for individuals whose day-to-day security is affected by displacement. Residence in temporary settlements presents a range of difficulties and vulnerabilities that may have long-term implications for health and resilience. How do displaced individuals negotiate control and regularity over their daily lives in the context of persistent uncertainty and limited availability of critical resources. This project, which trains a graduate student in anthropology in the methods of empirical, scientific data collection and analysis, tests the hypothesis that displaced individuals regain control and enact resilience by engaging in routine activities. The importance of routine in helping people structure their daily lives, impart a sense of control and normalcy, and weather day-to-day stressors has been noted across research settings. Therefore, understanding the role of Routinized Social Practices (RSPs) on well-being is critical for developing programs that may improve long-term health outcomes among vulnerable populations affected by displacement. This multi-sited research will be conducted among vulnerable populations consisting of individuals negotiating displacement in the context of precarity. These populations face different specific contexts leading to displacement, opening the opportunity to discern both specific and general ways that RSPs may affect health and well-being. Specifically, this study will explore whether participation in RSPs is associated with healthier profiles for biological markers related to stress physiology and immune function. The researchers will also investigate the ways in which RSPs may help vulnerable individuals to maintain livable lives and negotiate their vulnerability following temporary residence in novel communities. The researchers will conduct surveys, collect information on RSPs, sources of stress, and lived experiences, and gather data on stress markers (cortisol, Epstein-Barr virus antibody levels, and blood pressure). Findings from this research will provide insights into the role of routine action in health and stress mediation by examining the extent to which RSPs make everyday life structured and regulated in transitional residential contexts.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.