Measuring lifetime stress exposure and protective factors in life course research on racial inequality and birth outcomes

“…affect adult health (e.g. allostatic load, health behaviors, cardiovascular disease) and are more common among Blacks and Latinos than among whites (Felitti et al., 1998; Shonkoff, Garner, The Committee on Psychological Aspects of Child and Family Health, Committee on Early Childhood, Adoption,…”

“…are not experienced in the same way across different individuals, it is important to measure not just stress exposure, but also perceptions of the severity of those exposures, because perceived stress is known to predict negative health behaviors and poor health outcomes (Cohen & Willis, 1985).”

“…and norepinephrine sensitivity, and reduced glucocorticoid sensitivity (Cohen et al., 2012; Silverman & Sternberg, 2012), which promotes chronic, low-grade inflammation that leads to oxidative stress and increased risk for inflammation-related disease over time (McEwen, 1998; Miller et al., 2011).”

“Researchers have already developed validated measures of everyday discrimination, for example, that could be adapted to a life course perspective (Williams & Mohammed, 2008).”

“The system of racial inequality also structures access to social rewards, such as fair interpersonal treatment, positive portrayal in the media, and the experience of being evaluated on one’s actions rather than one’s racial group membership (Bonilla-Silva, 1997).”

“For example, stress triggers the release of cortisol (from the HPA axis) and epinephrine and norepinephrine (from the SAM axis), which interact with receptors on immune cells to regulate levels of cellular inflammatory activity throughout the body (Slavich & Irwin, 2014).”

“…and norepinephrine sensitivity, and reduced glucocorticoid sensitivity (Cohen et al., 2012; Silverman & Sternberg, 2012), which promotes chronic, low-grade inflammation that leads to oxidative stress and increased risk for inflammation-related disease over time (McEwen, 1998; Miller et al., 2011).”

“Over time, however, this response can cause increased epinephrine and norepinephrine sensitivity, and reduced glucocorticoid sensitivity (Cohen et al., 2012; Silverman & Sternberg, 2012), which promotes chronic, low-grade inflammation that leads to oxidative stress and increased risk for…”

“Nonetheless, as Lu and Halfon (2003) explained, the considerable evidence that social support improves health makes the construct central to models of how life course factors affect health.”

“…basal transcriptome (Slavich & Cole, 2013), physical structure and functional activity of brain regions that regulate the HPA and SAM axis (McEwen, Eiland, Hunter, & Miller, 2012), and regulation of neural-immune pathways that govern systemic inflammation (Irwin & Cole, 2011; Slavich, 2015).”

“…(HPA) axis, sympatheticadrenal-medullary (SAM) axis, and immune system in ways that in turn affect health (for reviews, see Boyce & Ellis, 2005; Graham, Christian, & Kiecolt-Glaser, 2006; Lupien, McEwen, Gunnar, & Heim, 2009; Miller, Chen, & Parker, 2011; Slavich, 2016).”

“…however, this response can cause increased epinephrine and norepinephrine sensitivity, and reduced glucocorticoid sensitivity (Cohen et al., 2012; Silverman & Sternberg, 2012), which promotes chronic, low-grade inflammation that leads to oxidative stress and increased risk for…”

“Similarly, studies following low birth weight infants into adulthood have documented long-term neurodevelopmental impairments and persisting deficits in academic achievement (Hack et al., 2002).”

“…who are concerned with recall bias, but research has shown that major life stressors can be reliably recalled for decades, especially when the stress assessment questions are detailed and the stressors probed are moderate-to-severe in nature (e.g. Dohrenwend, 2006; Kessler & Wethington, 1991).”

“For example, racial residential segregation allows whites access to more resources such as wealth (e.g. through housing values), neighborhood resources (e.g. full scale grocers), access to desirable jobs, the best public education, and distance from environmental hazards (Reskin, 2012).”

“…can also cause long-term changes in how these systems are regulated by, for example, inducing alterations in the leukocyte basal transcriptome (Slavich & Cole, 2013), physical structure and functional activity of brain regions that regulate the HPA and SAM axis (McEwen, Eiland, Hunter, &…”

“…(HPA) axis, sympatheticadrenal-medullary (SAM) axis, and immune system in ways that in turn affect health (for reviews, see Boyce & Ellis, 2005; Graham, Christian, & Kiecolt-Glaser, 2006; Lupien, McEwen, Gunnar, & Heim, 2009; Miller, Chen, & Parker, 2011; Slavich, 2016).”

“Preterm babies are also more likely to have neurodevelopmental disabilities (Jarjour, 2015), and up to two thirds will require special education services during their school age years (Hornby & Woodward, 2009).”

“The STRAIN has excellent test–retest reliability (rs¼ .904–.919; Slavich & Shields, 2017) and predictive validity in relation to several different health outcomes, including metabolic function (Kurtzman et al., 2012), fatigue and depression (Bower, Crosswell, & Slavich, 2014; Dooley, Slavich,…”

“The present paper focuses on the measurement challenges in evaluating the theoretical model. coping with stress (Kramer & Hogue, 2009).”

“Indeed, a few studies have linked a warm parenting relationship during childhood with improved adult health on a wide range of measures (e.g. Russek & Schwartz, 1997).”

“…basal transcriptome (Slavich & Cole, 2013), physical structure and functional activity of brain regions that regulate the HPA and SAM axis (McEwen, Eiland, Hunter, & Miller, 2012), and regulation of neural-immune pathways that govern systemic inflammation (Irwin & Cole, 2011; Slavich, 2015).”

“…who are concerned with recall bias, but research has shown that major life stressors can be reliably recalled for decades, especially when the stress assessment questions are detailed and the stressors probed are moderate-to-severe in nature (e.g. Dohrenwend, 2006; Kessler & Wethington, 1991).”

“Probably the most widely studied dynamic involves positive social relationships (Cohen & Williamson, 1988).”

“This study utilized a subset of the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (Bernstein & Fink, 1998) to assess childhood support by asking seven questions about feeling loved and having an adult to provide care (Slopen et al., 2016).”

“Preterm babies are also more likely to have neurodevelopmental disabilities (Jarjour, 2015), and up to two thirds will require special education services during their school age years (Hornby & Woodward, 2009).”

“Among the studies that have been done, Witt et al. (2015) used the large Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Birth Cohort (n¼ 9300 in their subsample) to examine the interaction of current neighborhood disadvantage and stressors related to relationships, such as the death of a family member,…”

“…(rs¼ .904–.919; Slavich & Shields, 2017) and predictive validity in relation to several different health outcomes, including metabolic function (Kurtzman et al., 2012), fatigue and depression (Bower, Crosswell, & Slavich, 2014; Dooley, Slavich, Moreno, & Bower, in press), and mental and…”

“Life stress has been a notoriously messy construct with little agreement about what actually matters (Cohen et al. 2019, Malat et al. 2017, Monroe & Slavich 2020).”

“Considering residence only at the time of birth discounts the potential effect of residence in a redlined neighborhood of the life course, including, for example, effects on maternal lifetime stress, which could influence birth outcomes [68].”

“Maly and Dalmage (2015) describe how whites maintain a positive white identity by creating stories of a better racial past that was disrupted by institutions or a racial “other,” creating a narrative in which they are victims.”

“…biological aging and premature mortality (Holt-Lunstad, Robles, & Sbarra, 2017; Kelly-Irving et al., 2013; Mayer et al., 2019), making it a critical factor to assess when predicting human health (Epel et al., 2018; Malat, Jacquez, & Slavich, 2017; Toussaint, Shields, Dorn, & Slavich, 2016).”

“Although life stress contributes to a wide variety of serious mental and physical health problems, very few published studies have measured cumulative stress exposure occurring over the entire life course [22, 37].”

“These findings also highlight the importance of taking a lifecourse approach, which hypothesizes that a woman’s life experiences before pregnancy can shape the development of the fetus and pregnancy outcomes as well as elucidating the etiology of perinatal health disparities.(65,66) The early identification of women a…”

“…screening patients ’ stress levels or tailoring adjunctive stress management programs to focus on the specific biological pathways that are maximally disrupted across individuals (Malat et al., 2017; McBain et al., 2023; Princip et al., 2022; Valderhaug and Slavich, 2020; Wulsin et al., 2022).”

“, 2012) and provide preliminary support for applying a life course approach to better understand factors affecting prenatal health behaviors (Malat et al., 2017).”

“bated by ongoing challenges in measuring relevant exposures and factors over the course of a lifetime.(84) Ng, et al.”

“Fifth, we did not examine any resilience factors, such as social support or integration, which could have moderated the effects of stress on depression and helped reveal additional processes affecting who is most resilient/vulnerable for this disorder (Malat et al., 2017; Valderhaug & Slavich, 2020).”

“Although well-established maternal risk factors explain only about half of the PTB risk [5], growing evidence attributes the remaining unexplained risk to chronic stress [1, 6–10].”

“Its original form comprises nine subscales measuring food cravings as intentions to consume food, anticipation of positive reinforcement, relief from negative states, lack of control over eating, pre - occupation with food, hunger, emotions, cues that trigger cravings, and guilt [28].”