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Psychological Resources and Biomarkers of Health in the Context of Chronic Parenting Stress

BACKGROUND: Epidemiological studies link psychological resources to better physical health. One reason may be that psychological resources are protective in stressful contexts. This study tested whether indeed psychological resources are protective against biological degradation for healthy mid-life...

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Autores principales: Crosswell, Alexandra D., Sagui-Henson, Sara, Prather, Aric A., Coccia, Michael, Irwin, Michael R., Epel, Elissa S.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer US 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8343363/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34357581
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12529-021-10007-z
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author Crosswell, Alexandra D.
Sagui-Henson, Sara
Prather, Aric A.
Coccia, Michael
Irwin, Michael R.
Epel, Elissa S.
author_facet Crosswell, Alexandra D.
Sagui-Henson, Sara
Prather, Aric A.
Coccia, Michael
Irwin, Michael R.
Epel, Elissa S.
author_sort Crosswell, Alexandra D.
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Epidemiological studies link psychological resources to better physical health. One reason may be that psychological resources are protective in stressful contexts. This study tested whether indeed psychological resources are protective against biological degradation for healthy mid-life women under the chronic stress of caring for a child with an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis (“caregivers”). METHODS: We tested whether five types of psychosocial resources (i.e., eudaimonic well-being, autonomy, purpose in life, self-acceptance, and mastery) were associated with biological indices of aging in a sample of mid-life women stratified by chronic stress; half were caregivers (n = 92) and half were mothers of neurotypical children (n = 91; controls). Selected stress and age related biological outcomes were insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), systemic inflammation (IL-6, CRP), and cellular aging (leukocyte telomere length). We tested whether each resource was associated with these biomarkers, and whether caregiving status and high parenting stress moderated that relationship. RESULTS: All the psychological resources except mastery were significantly negatively associated with insulin resistance, while none were related to systemic inflammation or telomere length. The relationships between eudaimonic well-being and HOMA-IR, and self-acceptance and HOMA-IR, were moderated by parental stress; lower resources were associated with higher insulin resistance, but only for women reporting high parental stress. The well-known predictors of age and BMI accounted for 46% of variance in insulin resistance, and psychological resources accounted for an additional 13% of variance.  CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that higher eudaimonic well-being and greater self-acceptance may be protective for the metabolic health of mid-life women, and particularly in the context of high parenting stress. This has important implications given the rising rates of both parental stress and metabolic disease, and because psychological interventions can increase eudaimonic well-being and self-acceptance. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12529-021-10007-z.
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spelling pubmed-83433632021-08-06 Psychological Resources and Biomarkers of Health in the Context of Chronic Parenting Stress Crosswell, Alexandra D. Sagui-Henson, Sara Prather, Aric A. Coccia, Michael Irwin, Michael R. Epel, Elissa S. Int J Behav Med Full Length Manuscript BACKGROUND: Epidemiological studies link psychological resources to better physical health. One reason may be that psychological resources are protective in stressful contexts. This study tested whether indeed psychological resources are protective against biological degradation for healthy mid-life women under the chronic stress of caring for a child with an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis (“caregivers”). METHODS: We tested whether five types of psychosocial resources (i.e., eudaimonic well-being, autonomy, purpose in life, self-acceptance, and mastery) were associated with biological indices of aging in a sample of mid-life women stratified by chronic stress; half were caregivers (n = 92) and half were mothers of neurotypical children (n = 91; controls). Selected stress and age related biological outcomes were insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), systemic inflammation (IL-6, CRP), and cellular aging (leukocyte telomere length). We tested whether each resource was associated with these biomarkers, and whether caregiving status and high parenting stress moderated that relationship. RESULTS: All the psychological resources except mastery were significantly negatively associated with insulin resistance, while none were related to systemic inflammation or telomere length. The relationships between eudaimonic well-being and HOMA-IR, and self-acceptance and HOMA-IR, were moderated by parental stress; lower resources were associated with higher insulin resistance, but only for women reporting high parental stress. The well-known predictors of age and BMI accounted for 46% of variance in insulin resistance, and psychological resources accounted for an additional 13% of variance.  CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that higher eudaimonic well-being and greater self-acceptance may be protective for the metabolic health of mid-life women, and particularly in the context of high parenting stress. This has important implications given the rising rates of both parental stress and metabolic disease, and because psychological interventions can increase eudaimonic well-being and self-acceptance. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12529-021-10007-z. Springer US 2021-08-06 2022 /pmc/articles/PMC8343363/ /pubmed/34357581 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12529-021-10007-z Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Full Length Manuscript
Crosswell, Alexandra D.
Sagui-Henson, Sara
Prather, Aric A.
Coccia, Michael
Irwin, Michael R.
Epel, Elissa S.
Psychological Resources and Biomarkers of Health in the Context of Chronic Parenting Stress
title Psychological Resources and Biomarkers of Health in the Context of Chronic Parenting Stress
title_full Psychological Resources and Biomarkers of Health in the Context of Chronic Parenting Stress
title_fullStr Psychological Resources and Biomarkers of Health in the Context of Chronic Parenting Stress
title_full_unstemmed Psychological Resources and Biomarkers of Health in the Context of Chronic Parenting Stress
title_short Psychological Resources and Biomarkers of Health in the Context of Chronic Parenting Stress
title_sort psychological resources and biomarkers of health in the context of chronic parenting stress
topic Full Length Manuscript
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8343363/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34357581
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12529-021-10007-z
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