How Families Make Their Way Into Your Heart: Exploring the Associations Between Daily Experiences Involving Family Members and Cardiovascular Health.

BACKGROUND: Cardiovascular disease is a critical public health issue and a growing body of literature on relationships and health point to individuals' interactions and involvement with family members as significant correlates of cardiovascular outcomes. However, less is known about the implications of daily encounters with family members on cardiovascular health outcomes and how the associations vary across adulthood. PURPOSE: The aims of this study were to examine the associations of positive and negative daily experiences with family members with comprehensive measures of cardiovascular health and to further explore how age moderates these associations. METHODS: This study used data from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) II and MIDUS Refresher. The sample was composed of respondents who participated in two subprojects of MIDUS, namely the National Study of Daily Experiences (NSDE) and Biomarker Project (N = 1,312). Indices of cardiovascular health included inflammatory markers, autonomic functioning, and Life's Simple 7 scores. RESULTS: Results showed that the associations between daily family experiences and cardiovascular outcomes differed by age. Having more daily negative experiences with family members was associated with better cardiovascular health outcomes among young adults and worse cardiovascular outcomes among older adults. Having more daily positive experiences was also associated with lower heart rate variability for older adults. CONCLUSIONS: Results revealed that contrary to the general assumption that negative experiences have health-damaging effects, frequent involvement with family members in daily life, even negative ones, may be indicative of active engagement in life that could be health promoting for younger adults.

Sleep quality moderates the association between family bereavement and heart rate variability.

Two separate bodies of literature point to the link between family bereavement and cardiovascular health and between sleep quality and cardiovascular outcomes. However, less is known about the joint influence of family bereavement and sleep quality on cardiovascular functioning. The aims of this study were to examine the relationships between experiencing the death of a family member and heart rate variability (HRV) and to further explore whether these associations differ by sleep quality. Using data from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) Biomarker Project, the sample for this study included respondents who experienced the death of an immediate family member - father, mother, spouse, sibling, or child - within a year before the Biomarker project and those who did not experience any deaths (N = 962). We used two measures of HRV and sleep quality was measured using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Results showed that experiencing the death of a family member was associated with worse HRV only among those with poor sleep quality and not for those with good sleep quality. These results suggest that poor sleep quality may indicate psychophysiological vulnerability for those who experienced the death of a family member. Interventions to improve sleep quality could be effective in enhancing cardiovascular health of bereaved individuals.

Sexual Motives, Stress, and Depressive Symptoms Among Midlife Different-Sex and Same-Sex Couples.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Within relationships, sexual motives and stress are independent determinants of psychological health, with notable gendered patterns. However, previous research largely focuses on young adults and different-sex couples. Both sexual motives and levels of stress may be uniquely important to psychological health in midlife, and in potentially different ways for same-sex and different-sex couples. This study examined how the associations between sexual motives, stress, and depressive symptoms differ for midlife men and women in same-sex and different-sex marriages. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Using dyadic data from same-sex and different-sex midlife married couples (N = 830 individuals; 415 couples), we examined the associations of intrinsic (e.g., sex for enjoyment and pleasure) and extrinsic (e.g., sex to please one's spouse) motives for having sex with depressive symptoms and tested whether these associations differed by levels of stress for same-sex and different-sex spouses. RESULTS: Intrinsic sexual motives were associated with fewer depressive symptoms only for same-sex married couples under high stress. Extrinsic sexual motives were related to greater depressive symptoms for women in low-stress conditions and men in high-stress conditions, and this did not differ for same-sex compared to different-sex marriages. DISCUSSION AND IMPLICATIONS: Results show that the interplay between sexual motives and stress varies for men and women in same-sex and different-sex marriages. These findings underscore the importance of considering both gender and sexuality in studying sexual motives in midlife and suggest sexual motives as a useful treatment focus for protecting the psychological health of midlife married couples.

The mixed benefits of a stressor-free life.

Research documents the pernicious effects of daily stressors on well-being, but often ignored in these studies are people reporting no stressors. The current study compared adults who reported no daily stressors with adults who reported at least one stressor across 8 consecutive days on measures of well-being. Of the 2,804 respondents (age range = 25-75 years, M = 53.46) from the Midlife in the United State Survey daily diary study, 10% reported experiencing no stressors across 8 days. Those reporting no stressors were generally older, male, unmarried, and were less likely to work, provide or receive emotional support, or experience positive daily events. They reported greater daily affective well-being and fewer chronic health conditions but had lower levels of cognitive functioning. Findings suggest that daily stressors may serve as a proxy to engagement in social activities, where a lower level of engagement is related to better physical and emotional well-being but lower levels of cognitive functioning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Patterns of multimorbidity trajectories and their correlates among Korean older adults.

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to identify distinct patterns of 10-year multimorbidity trajectory among Korean older adults and examine factors associated with the patterns. METHODS: Data were drawn from the six waves of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing (KLoSA, 2006-2016). We examined trajectories of multimorbidity of 1,705 older adults aged 65 and older using Growth Mixture Modeling. Then, the identified patterns were used as dependent variables to examine the correlates of multimorbidity trajectories. Explanatory variables considered were sociodemographic, psychological, health behavioural and interpersonal factors at baseline. RESULTS: Four distinct patterns of multimorbidity trajectories were identified: 'maintaining-low' (59.4%), 'chronically-high' (7.5%), 'moderately-increasing' (26.0%) and 'rapidly- increasing' (7.1%). Gender, depressive symptoms, life satisfaction and frequency of contacts with others were associated with trajectory membership. Specifically, women were more likely to be in the 'chronically-high' group than any other groups. Compared to the 'maintaining-low' group, those with higher levels of depressive symptoms and lower levels of life satisfaction were more likely to belong to the 'chronically-high' group and 'moderately-increasing' group, respectively. Respondents who had less frequent meetings with others in close relationships were more likely to be in the 'rapidly-increasing' group than the 'maintaining-low' group. DISCUSSION: These findings are suggestive of distinct trajectories of multimorbidity across older adulthood, indicating that multimorbidity experiences might differ among older adults. Moreover, results suggest that there may be gender inequalities in multimorbidity trajectories, and that levels of psychological well-being and social engagement could be useful in identifying older adults who are at higher risk of worsening multimorbidity.

Non-spousal family support, marital status, and heart problems in adulthood.

OBJECTIVES: Support from one's spouse has long been documented as a significant determinant of health for married individuals. However, non-spousal family support may play an important role in health particularly for unmarried individuals. Therefore, this study examined whether the association between non-spousal family support and diagnosis of heart problems differed by marital status and whether gender and education moderated these associations. DESIGN: Data came from the first two waves of the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study. This study selected respondents who participated in both waves of MIDUS and were not diagnosed with a heart problem at Wave 1 (N = 3,119). MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Participants reported whether they had any heart trouble. Discrete-time event history analysis was used to examine the risk of heart problems between MIDUS Waves 1 and 2. RESULTS: A higher level of non-spousal family support was associated with a lower risk of developing a heart problem only among unmarried women and unmarried individuals with high school education or less, and not for married individuals. CONCLUSION: Findings highlight the importance of considering specific sources of family support when studying heart health, and the health-protective role of non-spousal family support for those who are not married.

Revisiting Intergenerational Contact and Relationship Quality in Later Life: Parental Characteristics Matter.

Contact and relationship quality between adult children and aging parents are two widely used indicators of intergenerational solidarity and are often assumed to be positively correlated. However, the association between the two may depend on characteristics of the parent involved. Using Family Exchanges Study Wave 1, this study assessed whether parental difficulties-measured as functional limitations and life problems-and gender moderated the associations between middle-aged adults' contact and relationship quality with their parents. We found that more frequent email or phone contact was associated with worse relationship quality for fathers who had functional limitations. For life problems, however, more contact was not related to relationship quality for fathers with life problems. The associations did not differ by mother's difficulties. These results suggest that frequent contact between middle-aged adult children and aging parents does not uniformly reflect better relationship quality but rather depends on parents' characteristics.

Daily stressors facilitate giving and receiving of emotional support in adulthood.

The aims of the present study were to examine whether daily stressors are associated with engagement in emotional support and whether these associations differ by gender. Analyses were conducted using Wave 2 of Midlife in the United States data and its subproject National Study of Daily Experiences. The sample consisted of adults aged 33 to 84 (N = 1,622). Using multinomial multilevel analysis, we looked at the associations between lagged and concurrent daily stressors with engagement in emotional support. For concurrent associations, people who experienced stressors were more likely to both give and receive, solely give, and solely receive emotional support compared with those who did not have any stressors. Women were more likely to engage in both giving and receiving of emotional support compared with men when they experienced stressors during the same day. In terms of the lagged associations, both men and women who experienced stressors during the previous day were more likely to both give and receive emotional support the next day compared with those who did not experience any stressors during the previous day. These results suggest that experiencing daily stressors facilitates giving and receiving of emotional support at daily level in adulthood.

Relationship Between Ties With Adult Children and Life Satisfaction Among the Middle-Aged, the Young-Old, and the Oldest-Old Korean Adults.

One of the important determinants of well-being among aging parents is their relationship with adult children. Using the two waves of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing, this study examined how different types of ties with adult children affect the life satisfaction of the Korean middle-aged, the young-old, and the oldest-old adults. Multigroup analysis was used to see if the effects of ties with adult children differ by the three age-groups. The results showed that frequency of contact had positive effect on life satisfaction for all of the age-groups. However, coresidence with children had a negative effect for the middle-aged, but a positive effect for the oldest-old. Finally, exchanges of support with adult children had significant effects only for the young-old. These results show that the importance of different types of ties with children change according to aging parents' life stages.