Risk as a First Derivative: Using Intensive Repeated Measures and Molecular Approaches to Studying Families

Abstract

This chapter highlights developments in using intensive repeated measures of family environments through daily diaries to shed light on neuroendocrine and immune processes linking family functioning and health. I review data from the UCLA Families and Health Study, which included a 2-month daily diary, 8 days of diurnal cortisol sampling, and a blood draw to obtain DNA and RNA in immune cells. Frequent sampling of family conflict and warmth over weeks to months allowed for examining how changes over time were related to changes in multiple indicators of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis function. Multiple daily measures of childreported parent-parent and parent-child interactions, as well as negative and positive mood, allowed for computing individual differences in children's mood "reactivity" to parent-parent and parent-child interactions over two months. Greater child negative mood reactivity to parent-parent conflict was related to shorter leukocyte (immune cell) telomere length. Finally, for both parents and children, greater family conflict (combined across parent-and child-reports) was related to greater expression of genes regulated by nuclear factor-kappa B, a transcription factor that plays a key role in promoting inflammation in immune cells that are first responders to infection and injury. Using intensive repeated measures can shed light on the kinds of outcomes that may be responsive to family-based interventions, and potential treatment targets (e.g., emotional reactivity to family conflict). Combined with cutting-edge biomarker assessment, such approaches to exposures may also help identify markers of risk and resilience with high translational potential.