Jason A. DeCaro

Methodological considerations in the use of salivary α-amylase as a stress marker in field research

Salivary α‐amylase recently has been identified as a stress‐related biomarker for autonomic nervous system activity. This study addresses sample collection and handling considerations for field researchers. Saliva was collected by unstimulated passive drool from 14 adults and pooled. Incubation of pooled saliva at 22 or 37°C for 21 days did not diminish amylase activity. However, sodium azide added at concentrations ≤1.12 mg/ml to pooled saliva artificially inflated activity. After dosing cotton rolls within Salivette saliva collection devices with 0.25 to 1.5 ml of unpooled passive drool saliva from six additional adults, recovery of amylase activity was significantly below 100% at all volumes, with increased variance in recovery when the cotton was incompletely saturated (≤1.0 ml). Hence, collection by passive drool instead of cotton‐containing devices for amylase determinations is recommended, particularly whenever it is impossible to ensure full, uniform cotton saturation, and azide should be avoided as a preservative. Am. J. Hum. Biol., 2008.

Return to school accompanied by changing associations between family ecology and cortisol

This study examines everyday family life as a social regulator of child adrenocortical activity during the normative challenge of return to school. If positive family function facilitates child adaptation, we expected that mother-child relationships following school entry would predict individual differences in evening cortisol, a context-sensitive marker for the response to concurrent demands. Among 28 children followed longitudinally, late in pre-kindergarten those living with single and/or employed mothers had higher evening cortisol. Yet early during the following school year, children with poorer mother-child relationships had higher evening cortisol. Cortisol awakening response, a comparatively stable marker of anticipated demands, was higher with maternal employment, single parents, and busier child schedules before school re-entry, and with maternal employment afterwards. We argue for a layered ecological approach to social regulation, recognizing that family structure, family functioning, and proximal features of everyday life within the family moderate child adrenocortical activity differently across contexts.

Changing family routines at kindergarten entry predict biomarkers of parental stress

This study tested associations among parenting stress prior to a child’s kindergarten entry, the sustainability of family routines, and biomarkers of stress among parents following the kindergarten transition. Parents (N = 51) with higher prekindergarten scores on the Parenting Stress Index Short Form reported lower Family Routines Inventory scores following school entry relative to their baseline. Declining family routines, in turn, were associated following kindergarten entry with greater 5-day mean and variance in evening cortisol, and higher C-reactive protein, an inflammatory mediator. However, only the cortisol findings remained significant controlling for baseline physiology. These findings support a family systems, social-ecological approach to life course development, wherein even mild challenges posed by children’s normative transitions may reveal differences in parents’ biobehavioral functioning.

Sex differences in child nutritional and immunological status 5–9 years post contact in fringe highland Papua New Guinea

This study examines sex differences in vulnerability among children experiencing rapid culture change that may reflect distinct microecologies driven by differential parental investment and/or sex‐specific life history strategies. Apparent female growth canalization may be a life history strategy favoring growth over maintenance but also may reflect sex‐differentiated selection for resilience based on unequal treatment during early life.

Testing hypothesized predictors of immune activation in tanzanian infants and children: Community, household, caretaker, and child effects

There is increasing interest in the epidemiology of immune activation among young children because of the links with mortality and growth. We hypothesized that infant and child inflammation, as measured by elevated C‐reactive protein (CRP), would be associated with household assets, household size, measures of sanitation, and food insecurity. We also hypothesized that children in the poorest households and with elevated CRP would show evidence of growth faltering.

Tattooing to “Toughen up”: Tattoo experience and secretory immunoglobulin A

A costly signaling model suggests tattooing inoculates the immune system to heightened vigilance against stressors associated with soft tissue damage. We sought to investigate this “inoculation hypothesis” of tattooing as a costly honest signal of fitness. We hypothesized that the immune system habituates to the tattooing stressor in repeatedly tattooed individuals and that immune response to the stress of the tattooing process would correlate with lifetime tattoo experience.

Racial/ethnic differences in sleep quality among older adults with osteoarthritis

Objective: To examine racial/ethnic differences in sleep quality and the pain‐sleep association among older adults with osteoarthritis of the knee. Design: Baseline interview followed by a 7‐day microlongitudinal study using accelerometry and self‐reports. Setting: Participants were community residents in western Alabama and Long Island, NY. Participants: Ninety‐six African Americans (AAs) and 128 non‐Hispanic whites (NHWs) with physician‐diagnosed knee osteoarthritis, recruited from a variety of clinical and community settings. Measurements: Self‐reports yielded demographics, body mass index, physical health problems, and depressive symptoms. Sleep quality was measured for 3 to 7 nights using wrist‐worn accelerometers; pain was self‐reported daily over the same period. Results: With demographics and health controlled, AAs displayed poorer sleep efficiency, greater time awake after sleep onset and sleep fragmentation, and marginally more awakenings during the night, but no differences in total sleep time. AAs also showed greater night‐to‐night variability in number of awakenings and sleep fragmentation, and marginally greater variability in total sleep time and sleep efficiency. Sleep quality was not associated with pain either the day before sleep or the day after. Average daily pain interacted with race, whereas AAs displayed no effect of pain on sleep efficiency, NHWs exhibited better sleep efficiency at higher levels of average pain. Conclusions: These data corroborate previous studies documenting poorer sleep among AAs vs NHWs. The findings of greater night‐to‐night variability in sleep among AAs, as well as a negative association of pain with sleep quality among NHWs, are unique. Further study is needed to elucidate these findings.

Guadalupan Devotion as a Moderator of Psychosocial Stress among Mexican Immigrants in the Rural Southern United States

This study considers how shared devotion to the Virgin of Guadalupe among Mexican immigrants in rural Mississippi buffers the effects of immigration stress. Rural destinations lacking social services can quickly compound the already stressful experience of immigration. Guadalupe devotion provides a way of coping with the daily life stressors of immigration. We test the hypothesis that high consonance in the cultural model of Guadalupan devotion will moderate the adverse health effects of immigration stress. Results indicate that as exposure to immigration stressors increased, well-being decreased among those with low consonance, while the effect was eliminated in those with high consonance. Findings demonstrate the advantage of expanding research on coping to incorporate complex models that consider religious and secular elements and also illustrate how a master symbol, characterized as a cultural model of coping with limited local distribution, yields health effects dissimilar to the mediation normally associated with consonance.

Household-level predictors of maternal mental health and systemic inflammation among infants in Mwanza, Tanzania.

Household conditions and culturally/socially variable childcare practices influence priming of the inflammatory response during infancy. Maternal mental health may partially mediate that effect. Among mother–infant dyads in Mwanza, Tanzania, we hypothesized that poorer maternal mental health would be associated with adverse household ecology, lower social capital, and greater inflammation among infants under the age of one; and that mental health would mediate any effects of household ecology/social capital on inflammation.

Body Image Models among Low-income African American Mothers and Daughters in the Southeast United States

Obesity among low-income African American women has been studied using the concepts of both satisfaction and acceptance. The satisfaction frame suggests greater satisfaction with their bodies than their white counterparts, irrespective of size. The acceptance frame suggests that alternative aesthetics serve as resistance against intersectional marginalization. Yet, while these women accept their body size in defiance of thinness ideals, they may not be satisfied. We describe cultural models of body image among mothers and daughters in Alabama. We found that respectability, material consumption, and parental support were important factors determining positive body image, exceeding descriptions of physical features. We further found that those expressing greater body dissatisfaction emphasized respectability, whereas those with less dissatisfaction assigned importance to consumerism and physical form. These findings suggest divergences between biomedical messaging and lived experience. They also challenge uncritical or universalist applications of these frames when interpreting African American womens perceptions of their own bodies.