Martial dissolution is associated with risk for poor mental health outcomes, but less is known about the variables and processes that may explain this risk. In a sample of recently-separated adults (N = 138), this study examined the association of psychological overinvolvement—assessed using a composite of self-reported rumination, language use, and judge-rated recounting and reconstruing—with daily affect and psychological distress. We included objective measures of sleep, behavioral displays of distress, and social engagement as potential mediators of these associations. Consistent with the preregistered hypotheses, greater psychological overinvolvement predicted higher levels of psychological distress, lower happiness, and greater sadness five months later. Psychological overinvolvement also predicted change in sadness, but not happiness or psychological distress, over five months. Contrary to our predictions, none of the candidate mediators explained these associations. Exploratory analyses suggested that the self-reported rumination component of the psychological overinvolvement composite largely accounted for the association between psychological overinvolvement and the three outcomes. People’s tendency to become overinvolved in their psychological experience after divorce predicts increased risk for distress in the months following marital separation.
Divorce is a common stressor that is associated with increased risk for poor mental health. This study examined the creation of narrative as a psychological mechanism explaining the link between psychological overinvolvement and psychological distress in a sample of recently separated adults (N = 109). Prior analyses of this sample found iatrogenic effects of expressive writing (EW) on psychological distress among people reporting high levels of rumination. In this reanalysis, however, we tested whether narrative creation explained the association between individual differences in psychological overinvolvement and psychological distress, measured by a composite of depressive symptoms and divorce-related distress, 7.5 months later. Participants were assigned to one of three conditions: traditional EW, narrative EW, or a control condition. Participants’ psychological overinvolvement was assessed using a composite of three different methodologies: self-report, language use, and independently coded scores. Lower scores of psychological overinvolvement predicted more self-reported narrative coherence across conditions. Greater narrative coherence in turn predicted lower subsequent divorce-related distress and depressive symptoms. Narrative coherence mediated the association of psychological overinvolvement with later psychological distress, though this effect varied by EW condition. The results suggest narrative creation is one plausible psychological mechanism driving emotional recovery following divorce.
Although marital dissolution is associated with increased risk for poor mental and physical health outcomes, many people report improvements in functioning after divorce. To study the hypothesis that women in lower quality marriages would report the best outcomes upon separation/divorce, we investigated the combined effects of marital quality, gender, and marital status for predicting changes in life satisfaction (LS). Participants (N = 1,639; 50.3% men) were drawn from a nationally representative sample (Midlife in the United States Study), which included assessments of marital quality, marital status, and LS, at 2 time points (T1 and T2), roughly 10 years apart. Hierarchical linear regression analyses revealed an interaction between marital quality, marital status, and gender when predicting residual change in LS. Divorced women evidenced a negative association between marital quality and later LS, whereas continuously married women had a positive association between marital quality and later LS. In addition, women in higher quality marriages that become divorced showed the lowest LS, and women in lowest quality marriages show the highest LS among women with similar levels of marital quality. There was no association between marital quality and later LS for divorced or continuously married men. This work extends prior findings regarding gender differences in marital quality to postdivorce well-being, and suggests women in the lowest quality marriages may gain LS following divorce.
Marital dissolution is associated with a range of negative physical and emotional health outcomes, including increased risk for early death. This entry begins by summarizing basic epidemiological findings on health-relevant outcomes of divorced and separated adults. We then consider the candidate physiological (e.g., cardiovascular and immunological systems), psychological (e.g., forgiveness, rumination, and self-distancing), and behavioral (e.g., sleep, self-care) mechanisms linking relationship dissolution with poor health. The entry concludes with suggestions for future directions and intervention development.
ABSTRACT Objective Stress and stressful events are associated with poorer health; however, there are multiple ways to conceptualize and measure stress and stress responses. One physiological mechanism through which stress could result in poorer health is accelerated biological aging. This study tested which types of stress were associated with accelerated biological aging in adulthood. Methods Studying 955 participants from the Dunedin Longitudinal Study, we tested whether four types of stress assessed from ages 32 to 45 years—perceived stress, number of stressful life events, adverse childhood experiences, and posttraumatic stress disorder—were associated with accelerated biological aging. Results Higher levels of all four measures of stress were significantly associated with accelerated aging in separate models. In a combined model, more perceived stress and more stressful life events remained associated with faster aging, and the stress measures explained 6.9% of the variance in aging. The magnitudes of the associations between the four measures of stress and biological aging were comparable to associations for smoking and low education, two established risk factors for accelerated aging. People with high levels of perceived stress, numerous adverse childhood experiences (4+), high stressful life event counts, or posttraumatic stress disorder were aging an additional estimated 2.4 months, 1.1 additional months, 1.4 months, and 1.4 months per year, respectively. Conclusions Assessing stress, particularly perceived stress, could help identify people at risk of accelerated aging. Intervening to treat stress or the health-relevant sequelae of stress could potentially slow the rate at which people are aging, improving their health as they age.
Adversity that exhibits continuity across the life course has long-term detrimental effects on physical and mental health. Using 920 participants from the Dunedin Study, we tested the following hypotheses: (a) Children (ages 3–15) who experienced adversity would also tend to experience adversity in adulthood (ages 32–45), and (2) interim personality traits in young adulthood (ages 18–26) would help account for this longitudinal association. Children who experienced more adversity tended to also experience more stressful life events as adults, β = 0.11, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [0.04, 0.18], p = .002. Negative emotionality—particularly its subfacet alienation, characterized by mistrust of others—helped explain this childhood-to-midlife association (indirect effect: β = 0.06, 95% CI = [0.04, 0.09], p < .001). Results were robust to adjustment for sex, socioeconomic origins, childhood IQ, preschool temperament, and other young-adult personality traits. Prevention of early life adversity and treatment of young-adult negative emotionality may reduce vulnerability to later life stress and thereby promote the health of aging adults.
Abstract The emotional processing theory of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) posits that avoidance is central to PTSD development and maintenance. Prolonged exposure (PE) therapy, which clinically focuses on avoidance reduction, has strong empirical support as a PTSD treatment. Virtual reality exposure (VRE) has been utilized to accelerate avoidance reduction by increasing multisensory engagement. Although some exposure therapy studies have found associations between avoidance and PTSD symptoms, others have indicated that reexperiencing or hyperarousal symptoms drive symptom trajectories. Using a cross‐lagged panel design, the present secondary data analysis examined temporal associations between clinician‐assessed PTSD symptom clusters during treatment with PE, VRE, or a waitlist control condition. There were no significant differences between PE and VRE regarding symptom clusters at any assessment. Compared to the waitlist condition, individuals who received VRE or PE exhibited earlier reductions in avoidance/numbing symptoms, β = −.19, 95% CI [−.33, −.05], followed by reductions in hyperarousal symptoms, β = −.21, 95% CI [−.33, −.09]. Hyperarousal symptoms predicted changes in later avoidance/numbing and reexperiencing outcomes across treatment: pretreatment to midtreatment, β = .29, 95% CI [.17, .42]; midtreatment to posttreatment, β = .23, 95% CI [.07, .39]. Reexperiencing symptoms predicted changes in hyperarousal outcomes earlier in treatment, β = .22, 95% CI [.02, .37], whereas avoidance/numbing symptoms predicted changes in hyperarousal outcomes later in treatment, β = .18, 95% CI [.04, .32]. These findings support the efficacy of exposure therapy in addressing avoidance/numbing symptoms and highlight the potential importance of hyperarousal symptoms in relation to other symptom clusters.
Abstract Background Gerofit is a facility-based exercise and health promotion program for older Veterans that transitioned to virtual delivery in March 2020. Little is known about how virtual exercise would promote resilience in the physical function of individuals previously participating in-person. Methods Preliminary data from 1 of 14 sites was gathered 72 Veterans returning to facility-based exercise after COVID mandated shutdowns. 39 individuals chose not to participate virtually, and 33 actively participated virtually for over 1 year. Re-entry data were then compared to the patients’ most recent test. Assessment means were compared within groups. Results Change scores from T1 to T2 were: -1.19 versus +2.4 repetitions for 30-second arm curls; +1.57 repetitions for 30-second chair stands; and -113.87 versus -77.3 yards for six-minute walk distance for non-virtual versus virtual groups. Implications: Participation in virtual exercise interventions may promote resilience and resistance to functional decline in previously active individuals during enforced isolation.
Personality traits are linked with healthy aging, but it is not clear how these associations come to manifest across the life-course and across generations. To study this question, we tested a series of hypotheses about (a) personality-trait prediction of markers of healthy aging across the life-course, (b) developmental origins, stability and change of links between personality and healthy aging across time, and (c) intergenerational transmission of links between personality and healthy aging. For our analyses we used a measure that aggregates the contributions of Big 5 personality traits to healthy aging: a "vital personality" score.Data came from two population-based longitudinal cohort studies, one based in New Zealand and the other in the UK, comprising over 6000 study members across two generations, and spanning an age range from birth to late life.Our analyses revealed three main findings: first, individuals with higher vital personality scores engaged in fewer health-risk behaviors, aged slower, and lived longer. Second, individuals' vital personality scores were preceded by differences in early-life temperament and were relatively stable across adulthood, but also increased from young adulthood to midlife. Third, individuals with higher vital personality scores had children with similarly vital partners, promoted healthier behaviors in their children, and had children who grew up to have more vital personality scores themselves, for genetic and environmental reasons.Our study shows how the health benefits associated with personality accrue throughout the life-course and across generations.
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