Longevity and Stress in African American Families

项目总结/摘要 本应用程序的目标是识别感知压力，积极应对方式， 在非裔美国人家庭中观察到的健康状况和有助于长寿的基因。 我们将通过研究相似性，使用纵向和横向方法来检查这些因素 兄弟姐妹和亲子之间。为此，我们有以下问题： 1)家族效应（基因和共享的环境）是否会导致 在几代人之间和几代人之间感知到的压力和应对？ 2)压力能解释不同家庭之间寿命模式的差异吗？ 3)心理社会因素，如压力，应对和歧视， 家庭之间的健康状况和寿命模式？ 4)基因在压力和长寿模式中扮演什么角色？ 5)在与压力相关的基因之间是否存在基因-环境相互作用， 长寿和环境因素，如家庭经济困难和歧视？ 为了解决这些研究问题，我们计划了五个具体目标： 1)收集750名老年非裔美国人对压力，歧视， 多代同堂家庭（亲子和亲子）的应对方式、健康、人格和遗传 兄弟姐妹）。 2)检查兄弟姐妹之间在压力和应对以及健康状况方面的相似性和差异 在家庭中，两代人和几代人之间。 3)将压力大、应对能力差的同胞的健康状况与 那些压力更小应对能力更强的人 4)在长寿家庭的比较中检查与压力和长寿相关的基因 和短命的家庭以及兄弟姐妹之间。 5)在与压力相关的基因之间是否存在基因-环境相互作用， 长寿和环境因素，如家庭经济困难和歧视？ 该项目是新颖和创新的，它将采用多种方法的方法， 了解长寿。它将使用定量遗传学方法，分子遗传学方法， 方法，以及多代方法。据我们所知，这是第一次所有这些 方法已经在一个样品上使用。

Project Summary/Abstract The goal of this application is to identify patterns of perceived stress, active coping style, health status and genes that contribute to longevity observed within African American families. We will examine these factors using vertical and horizontal approaches by studying similarities between siblings and parent-child pairs. To this end, we have the following questions: 1) Do familial effects (genes and shared environments) create similarity in the patterns of perceived tress and coping within and across generations? 2) Does stress account for differences in patterns of longevity between families? 3) Do psychosocial factors like stress, coping, and discrimination account for differences in patterns of health status and longevity between families? 4) What role do genes play in patterns of stress and longevity? 5) Are there gene-environment interactions between genes associated with stress and longevity and environmental factors such as family financial adversity and discrimination? To address these research questions, we have planned five specific aims: 1) Collect data from 750 older African Americans on perceptions of stress, discrimination, coping style, health, personality and genetics from multi-generation families (parent-child and siblings). 2) Examine similarities and differences in stress and coping, and health status among sibling pairs and across generations within families. 3) Compare the health status of siblings concordant for higher stress and poorer coping to those with lower stress and better coping. 4) Examine genes associated with stress and longevity in comparisons of long lived families and short lived families and among sibling pairs. 5) Are there gene-environment interactions between genes associated with stress and longevity and environmental factors such as family financial adversity and discrimination? This project is novel and innovative in that it will employ a multi method approach to understand longevity. It will use a quantitative genetic approach, a molecular genetic approach, and a multi generation approach. To our knowledge, this is the first time all of these methods have been employed on one sample.