Developmental, Contextual, and Psychosocial Predictors of Weathering and Health among Rural African Americans in their Fourth Decade of Life

项目摘要 南方农村的非洲裔美国人是美国生活中最弱势的人群之一 预期，一个结果的发病率从慢性疾病的老龄化（CDAs）。新出现的证据表明 CDA是在整个生命周期中发展的疾病，致病过程始于儿童时期， 临床上表现为老年。从童年开始并持续到现在的长期压力造成的磨损和撕裂 在整个生命过程中，天气多个生理系统，增加CDA的脆弱性。自2001年以来， 强大的非洲裔美国人家庭健康成人项目（SHAPE）跟踪了一组非洲农村的 美国青年参与风险，复原力和发展的调查。当参与者 19岁时，我们扩大了我们的研究，以解决生物风化。我们发现接触家人 童年后期和青春期的经济困难和种族歧视预示着生物风化 在成年初期，如通过非稳态负荷、炎症活动和表观遗传老化所证明的。为 农村非洲裔美国人，生命的第四个十年有显着的潜力，影响生物风化， CDA漏洞是好是坏。贫困、社区弱势和种族歧视的影响 歧视联合收割机使农村非洲裔美国人向生产性青年角色的过渡， 充满挑战和压力尽管条件充满挑战，许多SHAPE参与者仍将保持良好状态 有些人可以改善他们的健康。在未来5年内，SHAPE参与者将接触到 持续的，在某些情况下，放大了上下文压力。一些参与者会表现出他们的升级， 风化轨迹和健康问题的出现，而其他人则不会。拟议研究 旨在通过收集两波附加数据来调查SHAPE时 参加者年龄分别为三十一岁及三十三岁。数据收集将涉及风化的生物标志物、 心脏代谢健康-代谢综合征（MetS）和胰岛素抵抗（IR）， 适当的行为和心理社会风险和保护因素。我们的具体目标是检验假设 关于：（a）南方农村环境特有的环境压力因素对 风化指数和MetS和IR的出现，以及（B）防止应力暴露的机制 影响农村非洲裔美国年轻人的生物风化和健康。年轻的成人 我们关注的保护机制包括健康保护性社会关系和纽带， 应对方式和保护性种族认同

Project Summary African Americans in the rural South are among the most disadvantaged populations in the US in terms of life expectancy, a consequence of morbidity from chronic diseases of aging (CDAs). Emerging evidence suggests that CDAs are conditions that develop over the lifespan, with pathogenic processes starting in childhood but manifesting clinically at older ages. Wear and tear from chronic stress, beginning in childhood and continuing throughout the life course, weathers multiple physiological systems, increasing CDA vulnerability. Since 2001, the Strong African American Families Healthy Adult Project (SHAPE) has followed a cohort of rural African American youth participating in an investigation of risk, resilience, and development. When participants were age 19, we expanded our investigations to address biological weathering. We found that exposure to family economic hardship and racial discrimination in late childhood and adolescence forecast biological weathering during emerging adulthood as evidenced by allostatic load, inflammatory activity, and epigenetic aging. For rural African Americans, the fourth decade of life has significant potential to affect biological weathering and CDA vulnerabilities for better or worse. The influences of poverty, community disadvantage, and racial discrimination combine to render rural African Americans’ transitions to productive young adult roles especially challenging and stressful. Despite challenging conditions, many SHAPE participants will maintain in good health and some may improve their health. During the next 5 years, SHAPE participants will be exposed to continued and, in some cases, amplified contextual stress. Some participants will evince escalation in their weathering trajectories and the emergence of health problems, whereas others will not. The proposed research is designed to investigate the reasons why by collecting two waves of additional data when SHAPE participants are ages 31 and 33. The data collection will involve biological markers of weathering, indicators of cardiometabolic health – metabolic syndrome (MetS) and insulin resistance (IR), and developmentally appropriate behavioral and psychosocial risk and protective factors. Our specific aims are to test hypotheses regarding: (a) the direct and indirect effects of contextual stressors endemic to rural Southern environments on indices of weathering and the emergence of MetS and IR, and (b) mechanisms that prevent stress exposure from affecting rural African American young adults' biological weathering and health. The young adult protective mechanisms on which we focus include health protective social ties and bonds, problem-focused coping styles, and protective racial identity.