3-128 - Close Relationships and Physical Health: A Lifespan Developmental Perspective

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

A growing literature suggests that qualities of close relationships influence not only mental health, but also physical health outcomes (Shonkoff et al., 2009). Indeed, the magnitude of the impact of poor social relationships on physical health problems has been compared to the effect of health behaviors like smoking and unhealthy diets (Holt-Lunstad et al., 2010, 2017). This symposium highlights some of the cutting-edge research integrating developmental relationship science, psychoneuroimmunology, and public health perspectives to understand how close relationships shape health outcomes from infancy through midlife, with a focus on inflammation. Paper 1 examines the quality of parent-child attachment in infancy as a predictor of inflammation in early childhood and increases in BMI across middle childhood in an at-risk sample of parents and children. Paper 2 continues this exploration into later development, examining indices of attachment security in early adolescence, early adulthood, and young adulthood as predictors of inflammation at age 32 among African Americans. Paper 3 gives further specificity to this picture, showing that particular qualities of close relationships such as jealousy, hostility, and conflict at specific developmental time points predict sleep problems and inflammation in adulthood. A senior expert will discuss the role of timing and key dimensions of social relationships in understanding the developmental origins of health and disease, as well as on potential mechanisms by which social experiences become biologically embedded. Together, this collection of findings has important implications for prevention and intervention efforts to leverage developmental relationship science to promote health and wellbeing across the lifespan.

Sub Unit

• Parenting & Parent-Child Relationships

Chair

• Jessica A Stern, University of Maryland, College Park

Discussant

• Roger Kobak, University of Delaware

Individual Presentations

• Longitudinal Associations between Attachment Quality, C-Reactive Protein, and BMI: Preliminary Evidence from a CPS-Referred Sample - Presenting Author: Kristin Bernard, Stony Brook University; Non-Presenting Author: Camelia E. Hostinar, University of California-Davis; Non-Presenting Author: Mary Dozier, University of Delaware

• Close Relationships in Adolescence and Adulthood as Predictors of Inflammatory Markers in Midlife - Presenting Author: Jessica A Stern, University of Maryland, College Park; Non-Presenting Author: Katherine B Ehrlich, University of Georgia; Non-Presenting Author: Jason Jones, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; Non-Presenting Author: Margaret E. Kemeny, University of California, San Francisco; Non-Presenting Author: Emma Adam, Northwestern University; Non-Presenting Author: Jacque Eccles, University of California, Irvine; Non-Presenting Author: Jude Cassidy, Department of Psychology, University of Maryland-College Park

• Hostile Conflict and Jealousy in Early Romantic Relationships Predict Interleukin-6 and Sleep Problems into Adulthood - Presenting Author: Emily Loeb, University of Virginia; Non-Presenting Author: Meghan Costello, University of Virginia; Non-Presenting Author: Jessica Kansky, University of Virginia; Non-Presenting Author: Joseph Allen, University of Virginia