Sweating the big stuff: dispositional pessimism exacerbates the deleterious effects of life stress on metabolic health

Abstract

Rationale : Although pessimistic individuals are at increased risk for developing cardiovascular disease, the biological mechanisms underlying this effect, and the social-environmental factors that modify these effects, remain unclear. To address this issue, we examined how pessimism, defined as the generalized tendency to expect negative outcomes, interacts with life stress exposure to predict metabolic health. Methods : Seventy-one pre-menopausal mothers – 35 had a child with autism and 36 did not – participated in the study. They ranged from 28 to 51 years-old (M=41.3, SD = 5.1), had body mass indices from 17.2 to 43 (M=25.58, SD = 5.76), and were free of major chronic illnesses, including diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Participants provided fasting blood samples, had their body measurements taken, completed the Life Orientation Test-Revised to assess their level of pessimism (M=6.37, SD = 2.96) and the Stress and Adversity Inventory to assess their exposure to chronic stress over the life course (M=7.76, SD = 4.35). Participants’ “metabolic risk” was indexed based on waist circumference, glucose, ratio of total cholesterol to HDL, triglyceride levels, and systolic blood pressure. Results : As predicted, pessimism and cumulative life stress exposure were each independently associated with greater metabolic risk, independent of age, income and caregiver status (Pessimism: β=0.49, p<0.001; Stress: β = 0.33, p=0.003). Moreover, when adjusting for age, income and caregiver status, pessimism interacted with cumulative stress exposure to predict greater metabolic risk (F=7.29, p=0.01). Decomposing this interaction effect revealed that pessimistic individuals experiencing high levels of cumulative life stress had the poorest metabolic health. Conclusions : These results suggest that pessimistic individuals living under high levels of stress may have the greatest risk for cardiovascular disease and highlight pessimistic beliefs as a possible treatment target for reducing stress-related disease burden

Childhood stress and birth timing among African American women: Cortisol as biological mediator

“…While the LEDS requires extensive staff training, 1–2 hours per subject for administration, and 1–2 hours to produce expert panel contextual ratings, including loss, danger, humiliation, entrapment, and role conflict ratings (Brown et al, 1987; Brown et al, 1995), the STRAIN uses an online system with extensive intelligent logic to produce comprehensive estimates of life stress and automated ratings in 18 – 30 minutes. In prior work, STRAIN indices correlated positively with negative affect, correlated negatively with forgiveness, and were linked to greater fatigue (in agreement with prediction per childhood neglect [Childhood Trauma Questionnaire]), greater metabolic risk (in agreement with prediction per pessimism [Life Orientation Test-Revised]), more mental health symptoms, and more physical health symptoms (Bower et al, 2014; Dooley et al, 2017; Kurtzman et al, 2012; Shields et al, 2017; Toussaint et al, 2016). …”

Better executive function under stress mitigates the effects of recent life stress exposure on health in young adults

“…The Adult STRAIN has good predictive validity, as evidenced by the fact that the main stress exposure summary scores from the instrument strongly predict mental and physical health complaints in young adults (Toussaint et al, 2016), metabolic health in adults (Kurtzman et al, 2012) and levels of depressive symptoms and fatigue in cancer patients (Bower et al, 2014; Dooley et al, 2017). We used the Transition to College (TTC) Stress Assessment Module because it specifically assesses recent life stressors that are very stressful and highly salient for participants in this young adult college population.…”

Measuring lifetime stress exposure and protective factors in life course research on racial inequality and birth outcomes

“…Based on this information, the system produces 115 summary scores and life charts that describe a person’s exposure to different types of stressors that are known to affect health. The STRAIN has excellent test-retest reliability ( rs = .904–.919; Slavich & Shields, 2017) and predictive validity in relation to several different health outcomes, including metabolic function (Kurtzman et al, 2012), fatigue and depression (Bower, Crosswell, & Slavich, 2014; Dooley, Slavich, Moreno, & Bower, in press), and mental and physical health (Shields, Moons, & Slavich, 2017; Toussaint, Shields, Dorn, & Slavich, 2016). As the STRAIN produces summary scores across 12 different life domains (e.g.…”