Browsing by Subject "Physical health"
Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Acculturation, gender, and physical/psychological health : the case of Middle Eastern immigrants in the U.S.(2015-05) Shafeek Amin, 1976-, Neveen Fawzy; Musick, Marc A.; Hummer, Robert A.; Raley, R. Kelly; Rodríguez, Néstor P; Read, Jen'nan GPrevious studies show that health outcomes of immigrants in the United States are favorable compared with U.S.-born whites. Middle Eastern (ME) immigrants are a growing U.S. minority population, yet research on their health is minimal. Using data from the 2002–2012 National Health Interview Surveys, this dissertation addresses key gaps in the immigrant health literature of the ME population through three empirical chapters examining the association between ac¬culturation and various physical/psychological health outcomes of ME immigrants in the U.S. I first examine the association between acculturation and three health outcomes (self-rated health, activity limitations, and chronic health conditions) among ME immigrants, comparing their health to those of U.S.-born whites. Results show that whereas the least acculturated ME immigrants have significantly lower odds of reporting fair or poor health, the most acculturated ME immigrants have higher odds of reporting fair or poor health compared to U.S.-born whites. Additionally, ME immigrants are significantly less likely to report any activity limitations or chronic health conditions compared to U.S.-born whites. I next investigate whether the relationship between acculturation and the three health outcomes varies by gender. Results indicate that, ME immigrants are generally healthier than U.S.-born whites; ME immigrant men are healthier than ME immigrant women. The study finds evidence of an association between acculturation and self-rated health. However, the acculturation pattern does not hold for activity limitations or for chronic health conditions. Male and female ME immigrants of all accultura¬tion levels are less likely to report any activity limitations or chronic health conditions compared to their U.S.-born counterparts.I then examine the linkage of duration status and serious psychological distress (SPD) of ME immigrants comparing their SPD to those of U.S.-born whites and investigating whether this relationship varies by gender. I find evidence that duration status and SPD pattern pertains to ME immigrants, particularly women, who report higher odds of SPD compared to their male counterparts. Results show no statistically significant differences between ME immigrant men and U.S.-born white men with regard to SPD. On the contrary, whereas ME immigrant women with shorter duration are less likely to report SPD than U.S.-born whites, ME immigrant women with longer duration are significantly more likely to report SPD compared to U.S.-born whites.Item Coping with perceived future stressors : the effects of a proactive coping writing intervention(2010-08) Kenney, Brent Allen; Holahan, Charles J.The present study proposed an integrated coping framework that included both personal and social resources and explored the interaction of these constructs with future-oriented, proactive coping processes. Expressive writing was utilized as a cost-effective and minimally intrusive intervention to encourage individuals to facilitate proactive coping in cognitive and behavioral domains. One-hundred and eighty five participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: 1) Proactive Writing (N = 63) to facilitate processing of a significant future stressor that is anticipated but is not certain to occur in the immediate future, 2) Expressive Writing (N = 53) to facilitate processing of the most difficult problem or situation experienced in the previous twelve months, or 3) Control Writing (N = 69) regarding time management as a credible placebo condition. The current study had three empirical aims. First, the current study experimentally tested whether implementing expressive writing as a proactive coping intervention increased proactive coping. Second, the current study tested whether proactive coping was positively related to adaptive functioning. Third, the current study vii examined reactive coping and perceived social support as mediators of the proactive coping to adaptive functioning relationship. Findings indicated that proactive coping and cognitive and behavioral coping efforts were associated with several clinical outcomes in the domains of psychological affect, life satisfaction, and physical health. Significant group differences in days per week of exercise and overeating behavior were present following the intervention, with a marginally significant trend found for social network size. Percentage of approach-oriented cognitive and behavioral coping towards anticipated and extant stressors, and perceptions of available support, enacted support, and satisfaction with one's social network were examined for mediational properties. Overall findings did not support the proposed mediation model of proactive coping. Implications of findings, limitations and future directions are discussed.Item Marriage and physical health : selection, causal and conditional effects on weight gain and obesity(2012-12) Bartolic, Silvia Katherine; Anderson, Edward Robert; Vandewater, Elizabeth A.; Kim, Su Yeong; Gleason, Marci; Umberson, Deborah; Hayward, MarkDespite being linked to many health benefits, marriage is known to be related to weight gain and obesity (e.g. Hedblad et al., 2002; Lipowicz, Gronkiewicz, & Malina, 2002). Those who have studied physical health outcomes of marriage have taken three different approaches: 1) analysing selection effects, 2) investigating protection effects, and 3) focusing less on the discrete comparison of marrieds versus others and more on factors that might make marriage more or less beneficial, such as the quality of the interaction. The focus of this research is to examine this last approach. Could the quality of one’s marriage, level of barriers to leaving, sex, and age provide insight into the relationship between marriage and weight gain? Data is from the Americans Changing Lives survey Waves I-III. Stability paths, marital protection paths, relationship commitment paths and psychological stress paths are outlined. The moderating effects of barriers to leaving, sex and age are also discussed. Cross sectional analyses show that marital quality decreases depression while barriers to leaving increases depression with an interaction effect at Wave III where high marital quality decreases depression when barriers are low; when barriers are high, marital quality has a stronger effect on depression. These effects are stronger for the young than the old and for females compared to males. Longitudinal analyses show that marital quality and barriers to leaving are positively related to depression over time. The same effects occur when examined by age (barriers however, are no longer significant) and depression is negatively related to weight gain (only at Wave II) for the old. Analyses by sex show that barriers moderate the effect of marital quality on depression over time for men but not women at Wave III. Once again marital quality increases depression for both sexes but depression decreases weight concurrently and increases weight over time for men. Overall, results show modest support for the links between marital quality and barriers to leaving on depression and little support for its effect on weight. Results should be interpreted with caution as suppressor effects may be occurring and model fit was poor in the longitudinal models.Item Romantic relationship dissolution and health outcomes(2016-05) McDonald, Meagan Ann; Loving, Timothy J.; Gleason, Marci; Neff, LisaThe purpose of this study was to test the prospective association between perceived social support and mental and physical health outcomes following a romantic breakup. Additionally, I tested whether an individual’s dependence on his or her partner prior to their relationships’ termination moderated the degree to which perceived social support buffered individuals from negative health outcomes following romantic relationship dissolution. I drew on an extant dataset that included 97 individuals who experienced a romantic breakup at some point during the study’s 9-month duration. All participants completed baseline measures of mental and physical health as well as perceived social support during the first six months of their romantic relationships. They also completed measures of romantic relationship dependence every two weeks up until reporting their relationship’s termination. Upon breakup, participants completed assessments of mental and physical health. Consistent with the limited research documenting a prospective link between perceived social support and mental health (and study hypothesis), social support and relationship dependence interacted to predict mental health following a breakup (controlling for baseline mental health, sex, and breakup initiator status). Results are discussed in the context of the broader social support literature and a framework for future studies on this topic is provided.Item Variability of relationship evaluations & physical health outcomes : testing the moderating role of implicit theories of relationships(2015-08) Morgan, Taylor Anne; Loving, Timothy J.; Neff, Lisa A.; Gleason, Marci E.; Anderson, Edward R.; Campbell, LorneVariability (i.e., greater fluctuations) of relationship evaluations over time undermines current and future relationship and individual well-being. To date, greater variability of relationship evaluations has not been linked to individual physical health, yet overall relationship quality (e.g., initial or mean levels) is a strong predictor of several markers of physical health. The aims of the current study are three-fold--first, to explore new methods of capturing intra-individual variability; second, to replicate and extend previous findings on the damaging effects of variability by examining variability's association with relationship fate and physical health outcomes; and third, to investigate the potential moderating role of individuals' general relationship beliefs on these associations. I drew from a 9-month longitudinal study of 202 individuals who were in new dating relationships at the start of study participation (M[subscript length] = 3.28 months). The study included baseline self-reports of relationship satisfaction and Implicit Theories of Relationships (ITRs) as well as bi-weekly self-reports, for a total of up to 20 assessments per individual, of relationship status (together or not) and quality (semantic differential) and physical health (shortened SF-36). A series of analyses were conducted to obtain de-trended levels of intra-individual variability and a previously understudied measure of intra-individual change in relationship evaluations over time -- temporal dependency (i.e., the extent to which one day's relationship evaluation is correlated with the previous day's evaluation). These two variables were subsequently entered into a Cox proportional hazards model to explain the effect of each on the likelihood of relationship dissolution. Both variability and temporal dependency of relationship evaluations (but not their interaction) predicted increased likelihood of experiencing relationship dissolution. Contrary to predictions, however, greater variability and temporal dependency (and their interaction) were not associated with changes in self-reported physical health over time; all three terms, however, predicted higher levels of average self-reported physical health across assessments. Finally, the hypothesized moderating effects of individuals' implicit theories of relationships were not supported. These findings emphasize the predictive power of individuals' patterns of relationship evaluations over time for relationship fate yet suggest additional research is needed to understand the association between variable relationship evaluations and health outcomes.