Moderators of the relationship between frequent family demands and inflammation among adolescents.

Abstract

Objective Frequent demands from others in relationships are associated with worse physiological and health outcomes. The present research investigated two potential moderators of the relationship between frequency of demands from one’s family and inflammatory profiles among adolescents: (1) closeness of adolescents’ relationships with their families and (2) the frequency with which adolescents provided help to their families. Methods 234 adolescents ages 13–16 (Mage = 14.53; 47.83% male) completed a daily dairy in which they reported on the frequency of demands made by family members. They were also interviewed about the closeness of their family relationships and reported in the daily diary on how frequently they provided help to their families. Adolescents also underwent a blood draw to assess low-grade inflammation and pro-inflammatory cytokine production in response to bacterial stimulation. Results More frequent demands from family predicted higher levels of low-grade inflammation and cytokine production in response to bacterial stimulation in adolescents. Family closeness moderated the relationship between frequent demands and stimulated cytokine production such that more frequent demands predicted higher cytokine production among adolescents who were closer to their families. Furthermore, frequency of providing help moderated the relationship between frequent demands and both low-grade inflammation and stimulated cytokine production, such that more frequent demands predicted worse inflammatory profiles among adolescents who provided more help to their families. Conclusions These findings build on previous work on family demands and health to show under what circumstances family demands might have a physiological cost.

Family obligations and asthma in youth: The moderating role of socioeconomic status.

“…This study builds on previous research documenting that family obligations can be detrimental to physical health (Fuligni et al, 2009) by examining this relationship in the context of a chronic illness and demonstrating that family obligations have relevance for disease outcomes. Our findings are consistent with previous research that found links between helping the family and worse health-related outcomes among youths who experienced more family conflicts (Telzer et al, 2014) and experienced greater demands from the family (Levine et al, 2017), both of which tend to be more common among youths from low SES families.…”

Psychological Reactivity to Daily Family Experiences During Adolescence: Individual Differences and Developmental Stability

“…Mexican-heritage youth are historically found to hold strong cultural values of interdependence and familism, making the current study sample apt for probing developmental questions about family experiences (Germ an, Gonzales, & Dumka, 2009;Rodriguez, Mira, Paez, & Myers, 2007). At the same time, the rates of family demands among the sample's Mexican-heritage youth were similar to that recorded in other studies with ethnically diverse samples of similarly aged adolescents (e.g., Chiang et al, 2016;Levine, Hoffer, & Chen, 2017), suggesting that the experience of family demands, and perhaps associated reactivity, is common among adolescents of diverse backgrounds. As such, our findings on age and sex differences in daily psychological reactivity, stability of reactivity within adolescence, and the discrete nature of reactivity for females may point to a universal process and generalize to samples of non-Mexican origin adolescents.…”

Transactive-Goal-Dynamics Theory: A Discipline-Wide Perspective

“…Evidence also supports the tenet’s Transactive Density × Goal Coordination interaction, which suggests that coordination is influential only for systems with sufficient density to be shaped by coordination’s benefits and costs (Swaab, Schaerer, Anicich, Ronay, & Galinsky, 2014). Levine, Hoffer, and Chen (2017) found support for Tenet 3 in the context of immunological inflammation among adolescents. Participants reported in a daily diary on how frequently their family made demands on their time, completed interviews that assessed family closeness, and underwent a blood draw that measured inflammatory markers.…”