Highlights of 2011 - Institute for Policy Research - Northwestern ...

Social Disparities AND Health
IPR psychobiologist Emma Adam (second from left) clarifies a point about her study on the links between early experiences,
genes, sleep, and depression in adolescents, as IPR social psychologist Jennifer Richeson and IPR developmental psychologist Lindsay
Chase-Lansdale study a slide.
William Funk, an IPR associate, to develop and evaluate an
efficient and cost-effective method to assess infant and child
exposures to environmentally toxic heavy metals such as lead,
mercury, cadmium, and arsenic, in addition to chemicals related
to traffic pollution.
Stressed Teens, Happy Teens, and Health
Adam and McDade are co-principal investigators of a grant
examining social influences on stress biology in a nationally
representative sample of approximately 15,000 young adults,
(from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health
or Add Health), who have been studied since their early
adolescence. The researchers are investigating connections
between socioeconomic, neighborhood, and interpersonal
stressors and multiple measures of stress biology and emotional
and physical health in young adults. The team has published four
papers so far, including a Journal of Adolescent Health article
that examines how multiple types of adverse relationship
experiences—loneliness, low parental support, relationship
instability, intimate partner violence, and loss—relate to selfreported
general health and depressive symptoms in young
adulthood, both individually and cumulatively. In it, Adam and her
co-authors describe how each relationship risk factor matters
for adult health, but find additive rather than multiplicative effects
of increasing numbers of adverse relationship experiences. The
R01 project has received funding from the NICHD.
In another study, the Add Health team uncovered an association
between positive psychological characteristics in adolescence
and long-term health. Researchers examined answers to a
series of “well-being” questions from the Add Health survey
that gauged the teens’ sense of happiness, enjoyment of life,
optimism, self-esteem, and social acceptance. They used
these measures of positive well-being during adolescence,
measured in 1994, to predict perceived general health and
risky health behaviors in young adulthood, measured in 2001.
The researchers controlled the study for pre-existing health
conditions, socioeconomic status, depressive symptoms, and
other known predictors of long-term health. A second outcome
showed adolescents who reported higher positive well-being
as teens were less likely to engage in risky health behaviors
as young adults. The study raises important, policy-relevant
questions about fostering positive youth development instead
of focusing on problem behaviors. Published in the Journal of
Adolescent Health, the research team was composed of lead
author and IPR graduate research assistant Lindsay Till Hoyt,
Adam, McDade, and IPR developmental psychologist Lindsay
Chase-Lansdale. The study was covered widely in the press by
The Atlantic, Fox News, and Chicago Sun-Times, among others.
Disease Risk Set in the Womb
Preterm births pose a major health problem and have been on
the rise, with more than 50 percent attributable to no known
cause. Despite much research on the topic, no consensus has
coalesced around the importance of the role stress might play
in preterm births. Obstetrician and IPR associate Ann Borders
and her co-authors decided to examine existing research to see
if one reason might be variation in how stress in pregnancies
is measured. They found 136 studies in four different medical
databases that met their criteria. In these, 85 different methods
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