Are life stress and social support related to parity in women?

Although an increased risk of coronary heart disease has been demonstrated among women with high gravidity/parity, the mechanism by which this association may be mediated is unclear. One possible pathway that has been suggested is that pregnancy and child rearing may result in changes in factors such as stress or lifestyle. This hypothesis was tested in a sample of 541 middle-aged women who participated in a prospective study of the effects of menopause on behavioral and biological cardiovascular risk factors. Married women generally reported less chronic stress, less perceived stress, and more structural support than did unmarried women. However, the findings in this study indicated no consistent relationship between parity and stress or parity and social support in this group of middle-aged women. Only unmarried women with more children reported a higher number of life events than did women with fewer children.

Early adolescents' substance use and life stress: concurrent and prospective relationships.

Life stress during early adolescence has been linked to substance use. Few studies have investigated whether the amount of control the child has over stress moderates this relationship even though the role of personal control is of increasing theoretical importance. Relationships between controllable and uncontrollable life stress and substance use were investigated in 303 urban, African-American fourth and fifth graders (152 males, 151 females). Controllable life stress contributed to six regression equations predicting children's substance use both cross-sectionally and longitudinally, even when selected demographic and personal variables were controlled. Evidence supporting a similar role for uncontrollable life stress was not found.

Healthful behaviors: do they protect African-American, urban preadolescents from abusable substance use?

PURPOSE: Relationships between positive health behaviors and abusable substance use in preadolescent, urban, African-American schoolchildren were investigated. DESIGN: Personal interviews and classroom surveys were used to assess health behavior and abusable substance use cross-sectionally. SETTING: All respondents resided in the District of Columbia and attended the public school system. SUBJECTS: The sample consisted of 303 urban, African-American fourth and fifth graders (151 boys, 152 girls). MEASURES: Classroom surveys assessed drinking, drinking without parental knowledge, smoking, use of other abusable substances, friends' use, self-esteem, and academic performance. Personal interviews assessed children's diet, exercise, overall health behavior, and socioeconomic status. RESULTS: Logistic regressions showed that children who engaged in more health behaviors (exercise and proper nutrition) were one-third less likely to have smoked (OR=0.66) or to have drunk alcohol (OR=0.63) than those who engaged in fewer healthful activities. However, when gender, socioeconomic status, self-esteem, academic performance, personal use, and friends' use of other abusable substances were controlled, relationships were no longer statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that although positive health behaviors appear to be inversely related to abusable substance use in urban, African-American preadolescents, the relationship may be spurious.