Probing Resilience: Daily Environmental Mastery, Self-Esteem, and Stress Appraisal.

Objectives: The current study explores one way the process of resilience arises by investigating the underlying process of stress appraisal. In particular, the analyses examine how resilience resources function each day to attenuate the extent to which life experiences are perceived as threatening, and how trait-like resilience resources shape the appraisal process.

Method: Daily diary and questionnaire data from 96 participants of Successful Aging in Context: The Macroenvironment and Daily Lived Experience (SAIC; MAge = 67 years, SDAge = 4.

FINANCIAL STRESS, NEIGHBORHOOD STRESS, AND WELL-BEING: MEDIATIONAL AND MODERATIONAL MODELS.

This study explores whether high quality neighborhoods or social integration have protective effects on psychological well-being, especially in the face of financial challenges. Previous research suggests that low levels of financial stress, lower neighborhood stress, and social integration are each associated with greater levels of well-being; few studies, however, investigate these contextual variables in confluence. Data from the Notre Dame Study of Health and Well-Being were used to investigate whether (a) neighborhood stress mediates the relationship between financial stress and psychological well-being and (b) social integration moderates the relationship between neighborhood stress and psychological well-being.

Telomere length: a review of methods for measurement.

Background: The exciting discovery that telomere shortening is associated with many health conditions and that telomere lengths can be altered in response to social and environmental exposures has underscored the need for methods to accurately and consistently quantify telomere length.

Objectives: The purpose of this article is to provide a comprehensive summary that compares and contrasts the current technologies used to assess telomere length.

Discussion: Multiple methods have been developed for the study of telomeres.

An integrative review of factors associated with telomere length and implications for biobehavioral research.

Background: Although telomere shortening occurs as a natural part of aging, there is now a robust body of research that suggests that there is a relationship between psychosocial, environmental, and behavioral factors and changes in telomere length. These factors need to be considered when integrating telomere measurement in biobehavioral research studies.

Objectives: This article provides a brief summary of the known facts about telomere biology and an integrative review of current human research studies that assessed relationships between psychosocial, environmental, or behavioral factors and telomere length.