Health psychology: what is an unhealthy environment and how does it get under the skin?

This review explores the role of environments in creating chronic and acute health disorders. A general framework for studying the nesting of social environments and the multiple pathways by which environmental factors may adversely affect health is offered. Treating socioeconomic status (SES) and race as contextual factors, we examine characteristics of the environments of community, work, family, and peer interaction for predictors of positive and adverse health outcomes across the lifespan. We consider chronic stress/allostatic load, mental distress, coping skills and resources, and health habits and behaviors as classes of mechanisms that address how unhealthy environments get "under the skin," to create health disorders. Across multiple environments, unhealthy environments are those that threaten safety, that undermine the creation of social ties, and that are conflictual, abusive, or violent. A healthy environment, in contrast, provides safety, opportunities for social integration, and the ability to predict and/or control aspects of that environment.

The effects of perceived daily social and academic failure experiences on school-age children's subsequent interactions with parents.

The hypothesis that perceived failure experiences at school would increase the likelihood of aversive parent-child interactions after school was supported in a study of 167 fourth, fifth, and sixth graders. Children completed measures of mood, school events, and parent-child interaction 3 times each day for 2 consecutive days. Reports of social and academic failure experiences at school (e.g., peer problems and difficulty with schoolwork) were associated with increases in child self-reports of demanding and aversive behavior toward parents that evening. There was no evidence of the reverse effect; aversive child behavior did not predict an increase in reports of negative events the next day. When children rated more academic failure events at school, they also described their parents as more disapproving and punishing after school. However, this effect was only partially mediated by increases in the child's aversive behavior. It is argued that the findings cannot be explained solely by a response bias caused by the child's general mood or frame of mind that day. First, school-to-home mood spillover effects were controlled in the analyses. Second, reports of problems at school were not associated with other aspects of parent-child interaction (e.g., the parent's positive behavioral and emotional involvement with the child). In addition to its substantive findings, the study illustrates use of an unbiased method for assessing child responses to daily stressors.

Short-term effects of occupational stressors on daily mood and health complaints.

This article related daily changes in 2 job conditions, workload and social interaction with co-workers and supervisors, to daily mood and health complaints. Fifty-two air traffic controllers (ATCs) completed measures of subjective well-being and perceived job conditions on 3 consecutive days; objective indicators of daily workload (air traffic volume and visibility at the airport) were also obtained. The results indicate that increases in job stressors are associated with a same-day deterioration in physical and psychological well-being. On days in which workload was perceived to be high, ATCs reported more health complaints and moods that were more negative and less positive. On days in which there was greater air traffic volume (objectively measured), ATCs reported moods that were more negative. On days in which interactions with co-workers and supervisors were described as more distressing, ATCs reported moods that were more negative and less positive.

Effects of daily workload on subsequent behavior during marital interaction: the roles of social withdrawal and spouse support.

This article examines daily variability in 2 marital behaviors, social withdrawal and the expression of anger, as a function of daily taskload at work. Thirty-three air traffic controllers (ATCs) and 27 wives completed surveys on 3 consecutive days. Subjective and objective indicators of daily workload (air traffic volume and visibility at the airport) were related to the couples' descriptions of the ATCs' behavior after work. Despite a positive association between withdrawal and anger, workload seemed to influence these 2 behaviors in opposite ways. On high spouse-support evenings, work overload was associated with increased social withdrawal and less expression of anger. Social withdrawal may help an aroused individual return to a baseline emotional and physiological state. By facilitating their stressed partner's social withdrawal, supportive spouses may buffer the effects of minor daily stressors.

Individual and common components of the social environment at work and psychological well-being.

Interpretations of correlational research on the social origins of psychological well-being are limited by the possibility of reciprocal influences between persons and their social situations and by respondent bias. These issues are addressed in a study of the relation between the social environment at work and mental health. Two components of a social environment were measured: a common social environment, the social climate shared by employees in the same work setting. The study related (a) averaged co-workers' ratings and individuals' own ratings of the social environment to (b) individuals' self-reported psychological well-being. A group of 37 bank branches represented work environments, and nonmanagerial personnel in the branches served as participants. Results indicated that the quality of the social environment at work is related to the mental health of employees. More important, the relation was confirmed with an independent measure of the social environment. Aggregate co-worker ratings of the common social environment were significantly correlated with individual depression and anxiety. However, an individual's perceptions appeared to mediate the social environment's impact. As hypothesized, well-being was more closely tied to the proximal individual social environment than to the more distal common social environment.

[Radioimmunological assay of alpha-fetoprotein in maternal serum and intrauterine fetal growth retardation]. / Dosaggio radioimmunologico dell'alfa-fetoproteina sierica materna e ritardato accrescimento intrauterino fetale.

Maternal plasma alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) was measured in fifteen women during first-mid-third-trimester of pregnancy. In three of these pregnacies by means ultrasound was relevable a condition of intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR). AFP was assayed by a double-antibody radioimmunoassay and values were compared with the median value of the normal range for the particular week of pregnancy. Plasma AFP levels were significantly higher in one subject with IUGR than in other patients.

[Radioimmunological determination of insulin in the amniotic fluid]. / Dosaggio radioimmunologico dell'insulina nel liquido amniotico.

Small amounts of immunoreactive insulin, at about one-eighth the concentrations found in maternal serum, have been detected in human amniotic fluid. A positive correlation between term amniotic fluid insulin levels and newborn birth weight was found. Insulin was studied in 42 samples of amniotic fluid obtained from normal and pathological pregnancies by radioimmunoassay. In only one sample of amniotic fluid of diabetic mother with insulin dependence we found high values of insulin and condition of insufficient fetal lung maturity. We believe that radioimmunoassay of insulin in amniotic fluid may be a parameter of evaluation of fetal maturity.

[Placental lactogen (HPL) in amniotic fluid]. / Ormone lattogeno placentare (HPL) nel liquido amniotico.

Human placental lactogen (HPL) was analyzed in 52 samples of amniotic fluid. Assays of liquor HPL appear to aid in the evaluation of the degree of fetal involvement with erythroblastosys. The measurement of HPL in amniotic fluid may yet be proved also in the management of mothers with diabetes.