OBJECTIVE Numerous theories have proposed that acute and chronic stressors may exert a cumulative effect on life-span health by causing biological "wear and tear," or allostatic load, which in turn promotes disease. Very few studies have directly tested such models, though, partly because of the challenges associated with efficiently assessing stress exposure over the entire life course. To add...

OBJECTIVE To examine the effects of prenatal stress on cognition and behavioral fearfulness in infants. METHOD Mothers were recruited at amniocentesis at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital, London, between 2001 and 2005, and recalled when their children were 14 to 19 months to assess cognitive development using the Bayley Scales and fearfulness using the Lab-TAB. Measures of prenatal and ...

BACKGROUND Women who used cocaine during pregnancy may become at risk for increased physical and mental health problems. METHODS Three hundred and twenty-one (158 cocaine use during pregnancy (PC), 163 no cocaine (NC)) women were assessed using the Health Survey Questionnaire (SF-36V2) 10 years after infant birth. Factors related to mental and physical health, and co-occurring with PC, were e...

Objectives. To explore the financial situation and social contacts of employed, unemployed and studying respondents; the relationship between their employment status and perceived health and possible mediating effect of financial strain and social contacts. Methods. Data were obtained from 844 secondary school leavers (mean age 19.6) from Slovakia. The effect of unemployment on several health i...

Title of thesis: BEING SINGLE IN LATE-LIFE: SINGLE STRAIN, MODERATING RESOURCES, AND DISTRESS Tetyana Pudrovska, Master of Arts, 2004 Thesis directed by: Dr. Scott Schieman Department of Sociology Using a sample of 532 nonmarried adults over age 65 residing in the District of Columbia and two adjoining Maryland counties, this study examines “single strain”––the strain of not being married or no...

The potential stressfulness of an event may depend on how it is appraised by the individual, although up to now there have been no longitudinal studies on the relationship between lay beliefs concerning work stress and perceived strain. This longitudinal study examines how lay theories of work stress at baseline were related to perceived mental strain at follow up. The present paper builds on a...

PURPOSE Transitions in caregiving, such as becoming a primary caregiver to grandchildren or having adult children and grandchildren move in or out, may affect the well-being of the grandmother. DESIGN AND METHODS This report describes caregiving patterns at 3 time points over 24 months in a sample of 485 Ohio grandmothers and examines the effects of stability and change in grandmother caregiv...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate working conditions associated with health-related quality of life (HRQL) among nursing providers. METHODS Cross-sectional study conducted in a university hospital in the city of São Paulo, Southeastern Brazil, during 2004-2005. The study sample comprised 696 registered nurses, nurse technicians and nurse assistants, predominantly females (87.8%), who worked day and/or ni...

OBJECTIVES In the occupational health field, it is important to know how workload influences mental health. Overtime work and job strain appear to affect the mental health status of workers. Sense of coherence (SOC) may mediate the relationship between work stress and mental health. Since SOC represents a personal ability to manage psychological stressors, we hypothesized that a strong SOC woul...