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Attachment style may influence the acculturation process by shaping the types of social relationships that individuals form and maintain. Social relationship quantity and quality have been linked to chronic low-grade systemic inflammation, an immune process associated with risk for age-related diseases. The goal of this study was to investigate whether attachment style moderates the change in systemic inflammation during the early phases of the acculturation process, a period associated with rapid changes in social functioning. In this 5-month longitudinal study, 58 new international students completed the Adult Attachment Scale and provided blood samples for C-reactive protein (CRP) analysis shortly after arrival in the host country as well as 2 and 5 months later. Results indicated that individuals with higher attachment anxiety experienced larger increases in CRP over time. During a period of rapid changes in social functioning, attachment anxiety promotes immune changes that may increase health risk over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Exposure to adverse childhood experiences (ACE) has been associated with elevated circulating inflammatory markers in adulthood. Despite the robust effect of ACE on later health outcomes, not all individuals exposed to ACE suffer from poor health.Purpose: The goal of this study was to evaluate whether current resilience resources may attenuate the impact of ACE on inflammatory markers among individuals with elevated C-reactive protein (CRP) levels.Methods: Participants (N = 174) completed one-time self-report questionnaires assessing ACE exposure within the first 18 years of life and current resilience resources, and provided blood samples for interleukin-6 (IL-6) and CRP.Results: Individuals who were exposed to multiple ACE had greater IL-6 than participants with lesser ACE exposure. However, current resilience resources significantly moderated this effect. Among individuals who reported multiple ACE, higher resilience resources were associated with lower IL-6 levels.Conclusion: These data suggest that resilience resources might attenuate the association between ACE and later health outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caregiving stress increases risk for poor health. The overproduction of inflammatory markers is a core process contributing to this effect. In this study the authors investigated whether formal and informal social support act as protective factors against stress-induced immune dysregulation. Fifty-six parents of children with an autism spectrum disorder completed questionnaires on formal support services, informal social support, self-rated health, and daily somatic symptoms, and they provided a blood sample for analysis of C-reactive protein ( CRP), a biomarker of inflammation. The results indicated that greater informal social support was associated with lower CRP and that a higher number of formal support services received by the family was related to better self-rated health, fewer daily somatic symptoms, and lower CRP. Moreover, the impact of support services on the parents' CRP levels increased with child age. These findings highlight the role of formal and informal support in protecting the health of individuals facing caregiving stress across the life course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Childhood abuse leads to greater morbidity and mortality in adulthood. Dysregulated physiological stress responses may underlie the greater health risk among abused individuals. Purpose: This study evaluated the impact of childhood abuse on inflammatory responses to naturalistically occurring daily stressors. Methods: In this cross-sectional study of 130 older adults, recent daily stressors and childhood abuse history were evaluated using the Daily Inventory of Stressful Events and the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire. Blood samples provided data on circulating interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), and C-reactive protein (CRP). Results: Childhood abuse history moderated IL-6 levels but not TNF-α and CRP responses to daily stressors. Individuals with a childhood abuse history who experienced multiple stressors in the past 24 h had IL-6 levels 2.35 times greater than those of participants who reported multiple daily stressors but no early abuse history. Conclusion: Childhood abuse substantially enhances IL-6 responses to daily stressors in adulthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Different aspects of personal relationships including social integration, social support, and social conflict have been related to inflammation. This article summarizes evidence linking the quality and quantity of relationships with gene expression, intracellular signaling mechanisms, and inflammatory biomarkers, and highlights the biological and psychological pathways through which close relationships impact inflammatory responses. Relationship conflict and lower social support can effectively modulate proinflammatory cytokine secretion both directly (via CNS/neural/endocrine/immune biobehavioral pathways), and indirectly, by promoting depression, emotional stress responses, and detrimental health behaviors. Accordingly, thorough assessments of health behaviors and attention to key methodological issues are necessary to identify the contributions of relationships to inflammation, and thus we highlight procedural issues to be considered in the design of studies. Despite some notable methodological challenges, the evidence suggests that learning more about how close relationships influence inflammation will provide important new insights into the ways that relationships impact health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Animal studies have implicated oxytocin and vasopressin in social bonding, physiological stress responses, and wound healing. In humans, endogenous oxytocin and vasopressin levels covary with perceptions of relationship quality, marital behaviors, and physiological stress responses. To investigate relationships among marital behavior, oxytocin, vasopressin, and wound healing, and to determine the characteristics of individuals with the highest neuropeptide levels, 37 couples were admitted for a 24-h visit in a hospital research unit. After small blister wounds were created on their forearm, couples participated in a structured social support interaction task. Blister sites were monitored daily following discharge to assess wound repair speed. Blood samples were collected for oxytocin, vasopressin, and cytokine analyses. Higher oxytocin levels were associated with more positive communication behaviors during the structured interaction task. Furthermore, individuals in the upper oxytocin quartile healed blister wounds faster than participants in lower oxytocin quartiles. Higher vasopressin levels were related to fewer negative communication behaviors and greater tumor necrosis factor-α production. Moreover, women in the upper vasopressin quartile healed the experimental wounds faster than the remainder of the sample. These data confirm and extend prior evidence implicating oxytocin and vasopressin in couples’ positive and negative communication behaviors, and also provide further evidence of their role in an important health outcome, wound healing. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Marital stress has been associated with immune dysregulation, including increased production of interleukin-6 (IL-6). Attachment style, one’s expectations about the availability and responsiveness of others in intimate relationships, appears to influence physiological stress reactivity and thus could influence inflammatory responses to marital conflict. Thirty-five couples were invited for two 24-h admissions to a hospital research unit. The first visit included a structured social support interaction, while the second visit comprised the discussion of a marital disagreement. A mixed effect within-subject repeated measure model indicated that attachment avoidance significantly influenced IL-6 production during the conflict visit but not during the social support visit. Individuals with higher attachment avoidance had on average an 11% increase in total IL-6 production during the conflict visit as compared to the social support visit, while individuals with lower attachment avoidance had, on average, a 6% decrease in IL-6 production during the conflict visit as compared to the social support visit. Furthermore, greater attachment avoidance was associated with a higher frequency of negative behaviors and a lower frequency of positive behaviors during the marital interaction, providing a mechanism by which attachment avoidance may influence inflammatory responses to marital conflict. In sum, these results suggest that attachment avoidance modulates marital behavior and stress-induced immune dysregulation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Background: Older adults often experience an increase in low-grade chronic inflammation. Purpose in life could act as a protective factor as it is associated with beneficial health outcomes. Purpose in life may exert part of its adaptive function by promoting persistence in goal pursuit. During older adulthood, however, when many individuals experience an increase in intractable stressors and declining resources, the adaptive function of purpose could become reduced. Purpose: We examined whether the association between inter- and intra-individual differences in purpose in life and chronic inflammation differed across older adulthood. Method: We assessed four waves of data among 129 older adults (63–91 years old) across 6 years. Results: Hierarchical linear modeling demonstrated that within-person increases in purpose in life predicted reduced levels of chronic inflammation in early old age (25th percentile or 73 years, coefficient = −.016, p <.01), but not in advanced old age (75th percentile or 81 years, coefficient =.002, p =. 67). Between-person differences in purpose were not related to chronic inflammation. Conclusions: These results suggest that greater within-person increases in purpose may protect health processes particularly in early old age but become less effective in advanced old age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective This study examined the associations between intra-individual variability in, and inter-individual levels of, diurnal cortisol secretion with a marker of low-grade inflammation (i.e., C-Reactive Protein; CRP). Reasoning that greater day-to-day cortisol variability could reflect a dysregulation of the HPA axis, we hypothesized that it would predict higher levels of CRP, above and beyond inter-individual differences in cortisol levels. Methods A 10-year longitudinal study of 130 older adults examined diurnal cortisol secretion on three different days across each of the 6 waves of data collection and levels of CRP during the last 3 waves. Indicators of mean cortisol levels, short-term cortisol variability, and long-term cortisol variability were analyzed. Results Hierarchical linear modeling showed significant main effects, linking baseline mean cortisol levels, T-ratio = 2.25, p = 0.03, and long-term cortisol variability, T-ratio = 2.63, p = 0.01, with higher CRP values six to ten years after study entry. In addition, a two-way interaction demonstrated that short-term variability in cortisol were associated with higher levels of CRP among individuals who secreted relatively high, T-ratio = 2.68, p = 0.01, but not low, T-ratio = −1.09, p = 0.28, baseline levels of cortisol. Finally, a three-way interaction, T-ratio = 2.24, p = 0.03, suggested that the effect of long-term cortisol variability on CRP became stronger over time among participants who secreted high average levels of cortisol, whereas it became weaker among their counterparts who secreted low average levels of cortisol. Conclusion Variability in cortisol secretion across days forecasts low-grade inflammation, and this association is paramount among older adults who secrete high levels of diurnal cortisol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]