Health Psychology最新文献

Objective: Health information avoidance can prevent or delay the detection and diagnosis of a disease. One resource that could mitigate health information avoidance in individuals of African descent is engagement with ethnic identity. However, historical medical mistrust in these communities could make ethnic identity exacerbate information avoidance. The present study examines the association between ethnic identity and health information avoidance and the potential moderating effect of spontaneous self-affirmation (which has been shown to be protective against information avoidance) in an African descent cohort participating in an exome sequencing study (ClinSeq).

Method: Participants were 407 individuals who self-identified as African, African American, or Afro-Caribbean (M_age = 57.52 years old, SD_age = 6.22; 75.2% female). Prior to receiving their sequencing results, participants reported their engagement with their ethnic identity, tendency to self-affirm, and tendency to avoid health information in a baseline assessment. We used the Hayes PROCESS macro to test a moderation model with age, sex, education, and income as covariates.

Results: The model revealed a positive association between ethnic identity and health information avoidance only when self-affirmation was low, producing a significant interaction (b = -.25, SE = .11, p = .03, 95% confidence interval = [-.47, -.02]). No other associations were significant.

Conclusions: Self-affirmation may be protective against health information avoidance among individuals of African descent who engage highly with their ethnic identity. Future research should consider ethnic identity and self-affirmation as factors in health information avoidance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Background: Proinflammatory cytokine production may be related to poor emotional adjustment in dementia spousal caregivers. People who display attachment insecurity may be at increased risk for adverse caregiving experiences and poor psychosocial outcomes.

Objective: This study aimed to understand whether proinflammatory cytokine production was associated with anticipatory grief, caregiver burden, and depressive symptoms and whether those relationships were stronger for caregivers higher on attachment anxiety or avoidance.

Method: A sample of 103 dementia spousal caregivers provided self-report data on demographics, health information, and psychosocial outcomes. We also determined lipopolysaccharide-induced whole-blood interleukin-6, interleukin-1β, tumor necrosis factor-α, and interleukin-10 production and combined these cytokines into a composite score.

Results: Higher cytokine production was associated with increased anticipatory grief and depressive symptoms. Proinflammatory cytokine production was only associated with anticipatory grief, caregiver burden, and depressive symptoms for those high on attachment anxiety or avoidance.

Discussion: Targeting individuals who display a proinflammatory phenotype and report attachment insecurity may be a key first step in preventing poor caregiving adjustment in dementia spousal caregivers. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Objectives: To investigate the trajectory of social engagement from before to after diabetes diagnosis at three time points (prediagnosis, diagnosis, 2 years postdiagnosis) in individuals who developed diabetes and a comparison group.

Method: Data were from 3,185 initially diabetes-free participants from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (Wave 2; 2004-2005). Face-to-face contact and telephone contact with friends, family, and children were assessed from Wave 3 (2006-2007) to Wave 8 (2016-2017). Cultural engagement (derived as an index of museum, theatre, and cinema attendance) was also measured from Waves 3 to 8. Generalized estimating equations were used to assess differences by group, time, and group-by-time interactions, adjusting for age, sex, wealth, education, marital status, ethnicity, depressive symptoms, sedentary behavior, and limiting physical illness.

Results: A total of 341 (10.7%) individuals developed diabetes. The diabetes group reported lower face-to-face contact, W²(1) = 17.06, p < .001, and lower telephone contact, W²(1) = 13.06, p < .001, than the comparison group across all time points. They were less likely to engage in cultural activities, W²(1) = 13.03, p < .001, across time points. No significant group-by-time interactions were detected for any of the social engagement variables.

Conclusion: Individuals who develop diabetes have lower face-to-face and telephone contact with friends, family, and children than those who do not develop diabetes. They also report lower engagement with cultural activities than those without diabetes. Future research should investigate whether screening for social factors during a midlife health check could mitigate the potential impact of diabetes on people's social engagement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: Communal coping is an interpersonal coping style that has been linked to positive psychosocial and health outcomes. The study goals were (a) to investigate changes in communal coping among persons with diabetes (PWD) over 5 years and (b) to assess how links of communal coping to outcomes change over that time.

Method: A measurement burst design was used. Couples in which one person had Type 2 diabetes (64% White, 36% Black) completed a 14-day diary shortly after diagnosis (M = 1.88 years) (2012-2017) and again 5 years later. Mean levels of communal coping (shared appraisal, collaboration) among PWD were compared across the two bursts to assess changes in communal coping. Multilevel modeling was used to assess links of between- and within-person communal copings to psychosocial (mood, coping, positive support, and negative interactions) and diabetes (glucose checking, glucose level, and dietary adherence) outcomes. Interactions with time were included to determine how links of communal coping to outcomes changed over time.

Results: Communal coping decreased across the 5 years among the 99 PWD. Consistent with past research, within- and between-person communal copings were linked to positive psychosocial outcomes and improved diet. Overall, between-person communal coping was more strongly linked to positive outcomes at Time 2 than Time 1. The opposite pattern was observed at the within-person level, but it was less consistent for diabetes outcomes, and several exceptions emerged.

Conclusions: Person-level communal coping becomes more important over time. Interventions aimed at sustaining communal coping may facilitate better health among people with Type 2 diabetes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection is a significant public health concern, particularly among young men who have sex with men (YMSM). Preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is highly effective in preventing HIV infection. However, PrEP does not protect against other sexually transmitted infections. Previous studies have shown unintended consequences following PrEP initiation, including increased sexual risk behaviors. Problematic alcohol use, to which YMSM are particularly vulnerable, may also play a role in increasing sexual risk. The present study examines the prospective relationship between PrEP initiation and alcohol-related sexual behaviors among YMSM.

Method: One hundred thirty-nine YMSM (M_age = 21.22) were enrolled in a longitudinal study examining PrEP initiation and alcohol-related sexual risk over 18 months. Participants completed a baseline assessment and follow-up assessments every 6 months. Data collection took place between 2016 and 2020.

Results: PrEP initiation was modeled at Time 1, Time 2, Time 3, and Time 4. Alcohol-related sexual risk behaviors were measured at Time 1 and Time 4. The trajectory of PrEP initiation was used to predict latent change in alcohol-related sexual behaviors. Consistent with our hypothesis, a combined latent change score and latent trajectory model revealed a positive association between PrEP initiation and alcohol-related sexual behaviors between baseline and 18-month follow-up.

Conclusion: These results are consistent with research identifying a potentially high-risk period following PrEP initiation among a vulnerable group (YMSM), with implications for risk assessment and interventions targeting alcohol-related sexual behaviors among YMSM. Findings may aid in reducing adverse sexual outcomes among YMSM who initiate PrEP and ultimately contribute to the minimization of sexual health disparities among YMSM. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: Higher life satisfaction is associated with reduced risk of age-related morbidities and premature mortality. However, the degree to which life satisfaction moderates the physical and mental health-related outcomes of daily stressors remains understudied. In this study, we evaluated whether higher life satisfaction moderated the association between the experience of daily stressors and reports of positive affect, negative affect, and physical symptoms.

Method: We used data from a substudy of the Midlife in the United States Study (n = 2,022; conducted 2004-2009). Participants reported their life satisfaction and daily diary entries on stress, positive/negative affect, and physical symptoms. We used multilevel modeling to assess whether life satisfaction moderated stress-related variations in affect and physical symptoms when participants reported a particularly high number of stressors.

Results: Higher life satisfaction was associated with lower negative affect and fewer physical symptoms among participants who reported more frequent stressors (i.e., between-subjects). We did not observe associations with positive affect. Life satisfaction also moderated the impact of stressors within individuals, such that people reported higher negative affect and physical symptoms on days with more stressors but this association was reduced among those higher in life satisfaction.

Conclusion: The findings from this study advance our understanding of how life satisfaction might confer benefits for mental and physical health, primarily through moderating the effect of stress on poorer outcomes. We discuss the findings in the context of the mechanisms linking psychological well-being to physical health in the context of stress across the lifespan. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: To use a recently developed methodology, z-curve analysis, to estimate the likelihood of replication success for recently published studies in three leading health psychology journals with high impact factors that involved some form of a moderation analysis.

Method: Utilizing a z-curve analysis, we estimated the replicability, false positives, publication bias, and "file drawer ratio" of 124 independent tests of moderation with significant results published in recent issues of three leading journals in the field of health psychology. z-curve analyses were conducted for all the journals combined and each journal separately.

Results: The distribution of z scores derived from all 124 studies indicated that the estimation of the expected replication rate and false positive ratio were 46.0% and 8.3%, respectively. The estimated file drawer ratio was 1.6, indicating that for every statistically significant interaction reported, nearly two nonsignificant interactions go unreported. In comparing the three journals, Health Psychology had the best overall results (expected replication rate = 52.3%, Soric false discovery rate = 4.8%, file drawer ration = 0.9). Of the 124 studies examined, 23 conducted power analyses to determine sample size, seven preregistered hypotheses, and three conducted a replication analysis.

Conclusion: Results suggest a need for change regarding both the methodological practices used and the publication processes in place to improve the validity and efficacy of research regarding moderation effects in behavioral medicine-this includes preregistering hypotheses, using formalized methods to determine sample size, and utilizing attention checks. Journals can encourage or require these practices and foster acceptance of nonsignificant results to limit publication biases. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: Despite the positive role of social relationships in behavior change, dyadic interventions for smoking have not been consistently successful. This owes, in part, to the fact that dual-smoking cohabiting couples share similar routines, environments, and relational dynamics that can undermine quitting efforts. We adopted an exploratory and descriptive approach to identify distinct profiles of smoking abstinence within dyads, how relationship dynamics relate to these patterns, and whether these patterns predict smoking status at follow-up.

Method: We utilized preexisting data from a pilot RCT examining the effects of partner-involved financial incentives on dyadic abstinence. Both members of 95 dual-smoking couples (52% female, 73% White, M_age = 42.39, SD = 10.57) recruited between 2021 and 2022 provided baseline information about their relational and motivational dynamics, followed by 10 weeks of daily reports of smoking behavior, and biochemically verified quit status at follow-up.

Results: Latent growth mixture models suggested four patterns of dyadic abstinence: Concordant abstainers, Discordant abstainers, Discordant nonabstainers, and Concordant nonabstainers. Treatment arm and motivational and relational dynamics predicted the probability of following specific dyadic patterns of behavior change, and dyadic patterns of change predicted individual and couple quitting status at follow-up.

Conclusions: Our findings underscore the importance of considering that treatment will facilitate coordinated dyadic behavior change for some couples but not all and emphasize the need to better understand when and how mechanisms support long-term abstinence. More work is needed to investigate whether these patterns generalize across samples with more diverse sociodemographic and health characteristics. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Objectives: The transition to college is associated with increased sleep difficulties. Everyday discrimination is an important social determinant of sleep difficulties, and this study examined associations between precollege exposures to everyday discrimination and sleep during the first year of college. The study also considers the mediating role of daily sleep quality.

Method: Using a combination of longitudinal surveys and daily diaries, the extent to which precollege exposures to everyday discrimination collected in the fall semester predicted sleep difficulties in the spring semester of students' first year in college was investigated in a sample of 628 diverse college students (mean age = 18.54 years). Sleep difficulties included self-reported sleep onset-related disturbance and daytime dysfunction.

Results: Precollege exposures to everyday discrimination were associated with higher levels of daytime dysfunction (but not with sleep disturbance) in the spring semester. Precollege exposures to everyday discrimination were also associated with lower mean levels of daily sleep quality across 14 days; in turn, lower daily sleep quality contributed to higher levels of daytime dysfunction in the spring. Although precollege exposures to everyday discrimination were associated with higher variability in daily sleep quality, variability in daily sleep quality was not associated with sleep difficulties in the spring.

Conclusions: Precollege exposures to everyday discrimination were associated with sleep difficulties in the first year of college, and these sleep concerns are explained by daily-level sleep processes. Targeting daily sleep quality may be an important health lever to improve first-year college students' sleep problems and their transition to college. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).

Objective: Men who experience childhood economic disadvantage may be at elevated risk for subclinical cardiovascular disease in adulthood, showing signs of disease 10 years before women. Leveraging prospective data from men who experienced low levels of family income in infancy/toddlerhood, we examine the variance in adult carotid intima-media thickness (IMT), a putative marker of subclinical atherosclerosis, that is related to cumulative childhood family income.

Method: Data are from 145 men (31.7 years; 47.6% White) who participated in the Pathways to Health study, which is a follow-up study to the Pitt Mother & Infant Project that began in 1991. Between ages 1.5-17 years, participants' parents reported on their annual income on 13 occasions, which were averaged together to calculate their cumulative childhood family income. At age approximately 32 years, men's carotid IMT was measured by a trained technician using ultrasonography. Linear regression was used to examine the association between cumulative childhood family income and adult IMT in an unadjusted model. Then, we controlled for parents' educational attainment, men's socioeconomic status (i.e., income, education, employment), traditional markers of cardiovascular risk (e.g., smoking, blood pressure, adiposity), and race to examine the unique variance in IMT associated with childhood family income.

Results: Cumulative childhood income was negatively associated with adult IMT (β = -.27, p < .01). This association remained statistically reliable when adjusting for parents' educational attainment, adult socioeconomic status, and traditional markers of cardiovascular risk (β = -.24, p = .03).

Conclusions: Pending replication, findings highlight the importance of considering men's economic upbringing when assessing their risk for subclinical atherosclerosis. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).