Life-stress and reactivity by gender in a longitudinal birth cohort at 30 and 35 years

McLeod, Geraldine F. H.; Horwood, L. John; Fergusson, David M.; Boden, Joseph M.

doi:10.1007/s00127-016-1254-z

Cited by 13 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 51 publications

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“…In particular, a meta-analysis of 119 studies published between 1960 and 1996 found that women consistently reported greater exposure to stressful events than men across domains, including in both interpersonal and work domains (Davis et al 1999). It is possible that changing sociocultural norms regarding women in the workplace have closed the gap in work-related stressor exposure, as women place more importance on employment and financial success now than they did in the past (e.g., McLeod et al 2016).…”

Section: Fact 10: Different Types Of Stressful Events Influence Womenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ten Surprising Facts About Stressful Life Events and Disease Risk

Cohen

Murphy

Prather

2019

Annu. Rev. Psychol.

363

320

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After over 70 years of research on the association between stressful life events and health, it is generally accepted that we have a good understanding of the role of stressors in disease risk. In this review, we highlight that knowledge but also emphasize misunderstandings and weaknesses in this literature with the hope of triggering further theoretical and empirical development. We organize this review in a somewhat provocative manner, with each section focusing on an important issue in the literature where we feel that there has been some misunderstanding of the evidence and its implications. Issues that we address include the definition of a stressful event, characteristics of diseases that are impacted by events, differences in the effects of chronic and acute events, the cumulative effects of events, differences in events across the life course, differences in events for men and women, resilience to events, and methodological challenges in the literature. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Psychology Volume 70 is January 4, 2019. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

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Section: Fact 10: Different Types Of Stressful Events Influence Womenmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ten Surprising Facts About Stressful Life Events and Disease Risk

Cohen

Murphy

Prather

2019

Annu. Rev. Psychol.

363

320

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Research on the sociology of health also has shown that stressor exposures and poorer health outcomes are unequally distributed in the population, varying by demographic factors, including gender and race [34,35], and that vulnerability to poorer health outcomes as a result of stressor exposure varies by gender and race [36][37][38]. Accordingly, gender and race are important factors to consider in examining pain and stressors among older adults.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Life Stressors: Elevations and Disparities Among Older Adults with Pain

Brennan

2020

Pain Medicine

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Objective To examine stressor elevations among older adults with pain, and gender and race disparities in the dual burdens of late-life pain and stressors. Design Cross-sectional. Setting Community. Subjects Participants in the Longitudinal Late-Life Health study (LLLH; N = 1,884) and the Health and Retirement Study (HRS; N = 7,704). Methods Pain and stressor measures were harmonized across the LLLH and HRS samples. Analyses of covariance were conducted to determine the effects of older adults’ pain, gender, race, and interactions between these factors, on their stressors in nine separate life domains, and in stressors overall. Results In both the LLLH and HRS samples, older adults with painful conditions (joint, back, headache, chest pain), more numerous painful conditions, more severe pain, and more pain interference had elevated stressors in all life domains, compared with older adults without or with less serious pain. Pain was more prevalent among women and nonwhites than men and whites. Stressor exposure was higher for men than women in most life domains; it was higher for nonwhites than whites in all life domains. For certain types of pain and life domains, pain and gender, as well as pain and race, interacted to predict stressor elevations. Conclusions Late-life pain is associated with elevations in stressors, and there are gender and race disparities in the dual burdens of heightened pain and elevated stressors in later life. Pain and stressors are not consistently more strongly linked among older women than older men, or among older nonwhite than older white persons.

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“…Our observation that the association between participation in the FF intervention and parents' CRP levels eight years later was conditioned on gender is also in concordance with prior research. Several studies focused on psychosocial outcomes suggest greater psychosocial stress during the transition to parenthood among mothers compared to fathers (24,27) and lower levels of postpartum depressive symptoms among mothers but not fathers 3.5 years after participating in the FF intervention (22). It is possible that the nature of the FF intervention, which encourages parents to work together as a coparenting team, may help explain why there appear to be particularly strong benefits among women (20,21).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whereas working fathers may be praised for their parental involvement, these same behaviors may be expected of motherhood and go unnoticed and unrewarded (34). Given the challenges associated with the transition to parenthood, especially among mothers (27), greater paternal involvement (via coparenting) and fathers' reinforcement of mothers' parental self-efficacy may buffer mothers from the potential physiological costs resulting from parenting stressors.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, mothers may feel pressured to meet social expectations of idealized motherhood and take on more childcare and household duties, even in dual-income households, whereas fathers may feel pressured to meet traditionally masculine expectations of being the financial provider of the family (26). Similarly, mothers report greater psychological distress in response to interpersonal stressors, including those associated with pregnancy and parenthood (27). Taken together with the generally greater levels of systemic inflammation among women compared to men (28), it is possible that intervention effects on systemic inflammation may be stronger for (or only observed among) mothers compared to fathers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Perinatal Coparenting Intervention: Effects on Parent Cardiometabolic Risk and Self-Reported Health

Jones¹,

Feinberg²,

Graham‐Engeland³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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The transition to parenthood is a common yet stressful experience faced by many young and midlife adults when the risk of many chronic diseases also begins to rise. Consequently, the transition to parenthood represents an opportune time to intervene with adults to support their psychological and their physiological health and well-being. Here, we examine whether psychosocial benefits of the Family Foundations (FF) program, a perinatal coparenting intervention, extend to levels of systemic inflammation and self-rated health among parents. Results presented here are from a follow-up visit with 292 parents (155 mothers, 137 fathers) who, eight years prior, were either randomly assigned to the 9-session FF program (n=168) or the control condition (n=124). At follow-up, dried blood spots were collected to measure levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6) and parents further reported on their overall self-rated health. Participation in FF eight years prior was associated with lower levels of IL-6 (B=-.254, p=.038) and better self-reported health (B= -.222, p=.015) specifically among parents who were observed to have more negative communication styles prior to participation in the program. There was also a marginal effect of the FF intervention on mothers’ but not fathers’ CRP levels (B=-.378, p=.055). These findings support the notion that coparenting interventions, such as FF, could be leveraged to not only support parents’ psychological well-being but also benefit their longer-term physical health, especially among mothers and expecting couples who have more negative communication styles.

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Life-stress and reactivity by gender in a longitudinal birth cohort at 30 and 35 years

Cited by 13 publications

References 51 publications

Ten Surprising Facts About Stressful Life Events and Disease Risk

Ten Surprising Facts About Stressful Life Events and Disease Risk

Life Stressors: Elevations and Disparities Among Older Adults with Pain

A Perinatal Coparenting Intervention: Effects on Parent Cardiometabolic Risk and Self-Reported Health

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