The primary objective of the study was to examine associations between financial stress and self-rated health (mental and physical), with presence of and search for meaning in life as moderator variables. The secondary objective was to examine the association between presence of meaning and self-rated health, with search for meaning as a moderator. The sample included 166 emerging adults (ages 18-32, mean age 22.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPerseverative thinking and catastrophizing have well established associations with fear and distress. However, less is known about the impact of interpersonal dynamics, such as co-rumination, on these intrapersonal cognitive processes and subsequent stress. The present study addresses this knowledge gap.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLatent class analysis was used to explore intersections of material circumstances and health care access among 308 adults, and associations between classes with health outcomes. Good fit was found for a four-class model: Resource Stable (Class 1, 62.43%), Unbalanced Meals with Health Care (Class 2, 16.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) is a transdiagnostic feature that predicts increased mental health risks, inflammation, and reduced engagement in health promoting behaviors. Depression, anxiety, stress, inflammation, higher body mass index (BMI), and low engagement in health behaviors are associated with adverse outcomes during pregnancy as well as postpartum. However, there is limited literature on the associations between RNT and these contributing factors in the perinatal period, an at-risk time during which women may benefit from clinical interventions directed at RNT.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPsychotherapy (Chic)
June 2022
Building off insight provided by authors in this special section and in the broader literature, this closing article describes future directions in health in psychotherapy. We use the community wellness model (CWM; Prilleltensky, 2005) sites of personal, relational, and collective to highlight psychotherapy constructs that offer future directions for more fully embracing a community and social justice perspective in health in psychotherapy. Within each level, we describe implications for researchers and clinicians: the personal level focuses on individual psychotherapy, including theoretical orientation, interventions, and feedback-informed treatment; the relational level covers clinician-client dynamics and group psychotherapy; the collective level addresses the scope and innovation of our interventions as well as advocacy efforts.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPerinatal health and health behaviors play a crucial role in maternal and neonatal health. Data examining psychosocial factors which predict self-reported health and health behaviors as well as objective indicators downstream of health behaviors among pregnant women are lacking. In this longitudinal study design with 131 pregnant women, perceived social support was examined as a predictor of self-rated health and average levels of sleep quality, health-promoting and health-impairing behaviors, and red blood cell (RBC) polyunsaturated fatty acids across early, mid, and late pregnancy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHealth psychology research emphasizes biological and positivist methods, giving less attention to the multifaceted sociocultural and political forces at play in health processes and outcomes. In this article, we present a new sociostructural approach for working toward racial equity in health psychology research, consistent with public psychology goals. This new approach uses the multicultural orientation framework (MCO) to guide health psychologists to consider the sociocultural and political history of their work, systems of oppression and privilege embedded in health research, and a path toward using research to achieve social change, antiracism, and health equity.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo test an integrated social cognition model predicting two forms of social distancing behavior (maintaining distance and avoiding going out in public) during COVID-19. Participants from the U.S.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Health Psychol
December 2021
This study utilized a latent profile analysis approach to examine the relationship between mindfulness profiles and self-reported mental and physical health, as well as salivary cortisol levels in a sample of 85 undergraduate students. Consistent with theory, the Judgmentally Observing (high monitoring, low acceptance) reported poorer mental health and exhibited flatter diurnal cortisol slopes than the Unobservant Accepting (low monitoring, high acceptance) and Average Mindfulness profiles. No differences in self-reported physical health, cortisol response to awakening, or diurnal mean cortisol were observed among the profiles.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFElevated proinflammatory cytokines and decreased antiinflammatory cytokines are important in the context of perinatal health, and immune dysregulation has been found among perinatal women with low socioeconomic status (SES). Data examining psychological factors that may contribute to cytokines in pregnancy are lacking. Of importance, these associations may be most evident among women with low SES.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Compared to women who have given birth before (i.e., multiparas), those giving birth for the first time (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground:: Breastfeeding plays an important role in both maternal and infant health and well-being. While researchers have examined the relationship between postpartum psychological distress and breastfeeding behaviors, few have investigated links between prenatal distress, postpartum distress, and breastfeeding behaviors over time.
Research Aim:: We aimed to determine if prenatal breastfeeding beliefs and psychological distress during and after pregnancy were associated with initiation and early cessation rates of breastfeeding.
Background: Postpartum is a period of unique psychosocial stress characterized by sleep disturbance, risk for depressed mood, and heightened parenting stress. However, data on effects of these exposures on inflammatory immune function are limited.
Methods: This study examined associations among sleep, psychosocial stress (i.
Psychoneuroendocrinology
January 2018
Adverse perinatal health outcomes are heightened among women with psychosocial risk factors, including childhood adversity and a lack of social support. Biological aging could be one pathway by which such outcomes occur. However, data examining links between psychosocial factors and indicators of biological aging among perinatal women are limited.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Childhood trauma is associated with negative perinatal health outcomes including mood disorders and shorter gestation. However, effects of early life exposures on maternal biology are poorly delineated. This study examined associations between childhood trauma and inflammation, as well as the mediating role of obesity in this relationship.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In the US, influenza vaccination is recommended annually to everyone ≥6months. Prior receipt of influenza vaccine can dampen antibody responses to subsequent vaccination. This may have implications for pregnant women and their newborns, groups at high risk for complications from influenza infection.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUnlabelled: Guidelines for suggested intake of ω-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are limited in youth and rely primarily on age. However, body weight varies considerably within age classifications. The current analyses examined effects of body weight and body mass index (BMI) on fatty acid accumulation in 64 youth (7-14 years) with a diagnosed mood disorder in a double-blind randomized-controlled trial (2000mg ω-3 supplements or a control capsule) across 12 weeks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHypertension is estimated to cause 12.8% of all deaths worldwide. Both literature and well-supported cognitive models indicate that hopelessness predicts depressive symptoms.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFArch Womens Ment Health
February 2017
The effects of financial strain during pregnancy have received limited attention. In addition, data examining the pathways by which SES indicators contribute to birth weight are lacking. The objective of the current study was to examine the potential pathway of psychological distress in the relationship between financial strain and birth weight.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is implicated as a causal factor in major depression and is critical to placental development during pregnancy. Longitudinal data on BDNF across the perinatal period are lacking. These data are of interest given the potential implications for maternal mood and fetal growth, particularly among Black women who show ∼2-fold greater risk for delivering low birth weight infants.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSome studies suggest that fetal sex plays a role in maternal physiological processes during pregnancy including glycemic control, blood pressure, and cortisol regulation. However, data examining fetal sex-specific differences in maternal immune parameters is lacking. In the current study, serum levels of interleukin(IL)-6, IL-8, and tumor necrosis factor(TNF)-α as well as LPS-stimulated production of IL-6, IL-8, TNF-α, and IL-1β by PBMCs incubated for 24h were assessed in early, mid, and late pregnancy among 80 women (46 with male and 34 with female fetuses).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study extended the literature by examining whether three profiles of depression predicted breast cancer status. In 1076 women of the Baltimore Epidemiologic Catchment Area study, depression status and hopelessness were measured at baseline and breast cancer status was ascertained 24 years later. Double depression, but not major depression or dysthymia, was associated with breast cancer.
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