Shevaun D. Neupert

Socioeconomic Status and Health: A Micro-level Analysis of Exposure and Vulnerability to Daily Stressors*

This study examines the interconnections among education—as a proxy for socioeconomic status—stress, and physical and mental health by specifying differential exposure and vulnerability models using data from The National Study of Daily Experiences (N = 1,031). These daily diary data allowed assessment of the social distribution of a qualitatively different type of stressor than has previously been examined in sociological stress research—daily stressors, or hassles. Moreover, these data allowed a less biased assessment of stress exposure and a more micro-level examination of the connections between stress and health by socioeconomic status. Consistent with the broad literature describing socioeconomic inequalities in physical and mental health, the results of this study indicated that, on any given day, better-educated adults reported fewer physical symptoms and less psychological distress. Although better educated individuals reported more daily stressors, stressors reported by those with less education were more severe. Finally, neither exposure nor vulnerability explained socioeconomic differentials in daily health, but the results clearly indicate that the stressor-health association cannot be considered independent of socioeconomic status.

The relevance of control beliefs for health and aging

Publisher Summary Adults and those in later life with a high sense of control appear better off on many indicators of health and well-being. However, those who have a lower sense of control may be at increased risk for a wide range of negative behavioral, affective, and functional outcomes, including higher levels of depression, anxiety, and stress, use of fewer health protective behaviors and compensatory memory strategies (internal or external memory aids), and have poorer health and memory functioning. The apparent decline of the sense of control associated with aging is of concern especially given the adaptive value of maintaining beliefs in ones control over outcomes. This chapter presents a wealth of information about control beliefs, but there is much to explore before to fully understand the dynamic processes involved in changes and the linkages with outcomes. Sense of control is a promising dimension because it is amenable to change unlike more traditional stable personality traits. This can potentially lead researchers in the direction of new interventions to promote optimal aging.

Use of gaze for real-time mood regulation: effects of age and attentional functioning.

Older adults show positive preferences in their gaze toward emotional faces, and such preferences appear to be activated when older adults are in bad moods. This suggests that age-related gaze preferences serve a mood regulatory role, but whether they actually function to improve mood over time has yet to be tested. We investigated links between fixation and mood change in younger and older adults, as well as the moderating role of attentional functioning. AgexFixationxAttentional Functioning interactions emerged such that older adults with better executive functioning were able to resist mood declines by showing positive gaze preferences. Implications for the function of age-related positive gaze preferences are discussed.

Daily stressors and memory failures in a naturalistic setting: Findings from the VA normative aging study

Laboratory studies of stress and memory have generally found that people with more stress tend to have poorer cognitive performance. The present investigation examined the relationship between stressors and memory failures in a naturalistic setting via a daily diary study of 333 older adults in the VA Normative Aging Study. Multilevel models indicated that on days when people experienced stressors, particularly interpersonal stressors, they were more likely to report memory failures. These stressors were also associated with an increase in memory failures from one day to the next. The findings may be important for preventions to mitigate age-related cognitive decline.

PERCEPTIONS OF CHILDHOOD RELATIONSHIPS WITH MOTHER AND FATHER: DAILY EMOTIONAL AND STRESSOR EXPERIENCES IN ADULTHOOD

Adults who report having had high-quality relationships with their parents during childhood have better overall mental health and are at decreased risk for mental disorders compared with those who report low parental relationship quality. Researchers have predominantly focused on the relationship with the mother, often times excluding the unique role that fathers may play in the long-term development of their offspring. The current study examined the unique associations of recalled childhood experiences of mother-child and father-child relationship quality with daily emotional experiences and stress processes in adulthood. Men and women (N = 912, ages 25-74) retrospectively reported the quality of their childhood relationships with their mother and father. Later, they reported their daily psychological distress and stressor exposure every night over 8 consecutive evenings. Results indicate that mother-child relationship quality was related to lower levels of daily psychological distress. The quality of both mother-child and father-child relationships was related to stressor exposure, but only father-son relationship quality was related to lower levels of emotional reactivity to stressors during adulthood.

Emotional Reactivity and Mortality: Longitudinal Findings From the VA Normative Aging Study

OBJECTIVES Evidence suggests a predictive association between emotion and mortality risk. However, no study has examined dynamic aspects of emotion in relation to mortality. This study used an index of emotional reactivity, defined as changes in positive or negative affect in response to daily stressors, to predict 10-year survival. METHODS An 8-day daily diary study was conducted in 2002 on 181 men aged 58-88. Multilevel models were employed to estimate emotional reactivity coefficients, which were subsequently entered into a Cox proportional hazards model to predict mortality. RESULTS Results indicated that positive emotional reactivity, that is, greater decreases in positive affect in response to daily stressors, increased mortality risk. Negative emotional reactivity did not predict mortality. DISCUSSION Findings highlight the potential importance of dynamic aspects of positive affect in prediction of physical health outcomes such as mortality.

Neuroticism Moderates the Daily Relation Between Stressors and Memory Failures

The present investigation extends previous work on the relationship between daily stressors and memory failures in a naturalistic setting by examining whether this relationship varies across levels of neuroticism. A daily diary study of 333 older adults (mean age = 73.27 years, SD = 7.17) in the Veterans Affairs Normative Aging Study (see A. Spiro & R. Bossé, 2001, for additional information) was used to examine whether there were neuroticism differences in cognitive reactivity to daily stressors. Multilevel models indicated that on days when people high in neuroticism experienced stressors, particularly interpersonal stressors, they were more likely to report memory failures compared to those who were lower in neuroticism. The findings may have important implications for age-related cognitive decline.

Physiological Reactivity to Cognitive Stressors: Variations by Age and Socioeconomic Status

The present study focused on age and SES differences in stress reactivity in response to cognitively challenging tasks. Specifically, we assessed within-person trajectories of cortisol, a steroid hormone released by the adrenal gland in response to stressors, before, during, and after exposure to cognitively challenging tasks. We extend the current literature by simultaneously examining age and SES differences in physiological reactivity. Findings suggest that age and SES both play an important role in reactivity, such that it was the older adults with higher SES who were the most physiologically reactive to cognitive stressors. Implications of these findings for cognitive aging research are discussed.

Daily Physical Activity: Relation to Everyday Memory in Adulthood.

This article examines the relationship between daily physical activity and everyday memory using an 8-day diary design with young, middle-aged, and older adults. Contrary to expectations, age differences were not reported in the frequency of memory failures and daily physical activity at the between-person level. Multilevel modeling, however, indicated that on days when adults engaged in leisure exercise (physical activity performed during leisure or free time), they reported fewer memory failures, and this was most apparent for older adults. Lagged analyses indicated that when leisure activity was reported on one day, fewer memory failures were reported the next day, and this was especially true for older adults. Thus, findings demonstrate that the benefits of physical activity for memory in later life are observable on a short-term daily basis.

Longitudinal Relationships Between Resources, Motivation, and Functioning

OBJECTIVES We investigated how fluctuations and linear changes in health and cognitive resources influence the motivation to engage in complex cognitive activity and the extent to which motivation mediated the relationship between changing resources and cognitively demanding activities. METHOD Longitudinal data from 332 adults aged 20-85 years were examined. Motivation was assessed using a composite of Need for Cognition and Personal Need for Structure and additional measures of health, sensory functioning, cognitive ability, and self-reported activity engagement. RESULTS Multilevel modeling revealed that age-typical changes in health, sensory functions, and ability were associated with changes in motivation, with the impact of declining health on motivation being particularly strong in older adulthood. Changes in motivation, in turn, predicted involvement in cognitive and social activities as well as changes in cognitive ability. Finally, motivation was observed to partially mediate the relationship between changes in resources and cognitively demanding activities. DISCUSSION Our results suggest that motivation may play an important role in determining the course of cognitive change and involvement in cognitively demanding everyday activities in adulthood.