Almeida David M, McGonagle Katherine, King Heather
Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.
Biodemography Soc Biol. 2009;55(2):219-37. doi: 10.1080/19485560903382338.
This article presents a research method for assessing stress and mental health in ongoing population-based social surveys that combines self-reports of naturally occurring daily stressors with a primary marker of stress physiology, salivary cortisol. We first discuss the relevance of stress processes to mental health and introduce a model for examining daily stress processes, which highlights multiple components of daily stressor exposure. A primary aim of this approach is to capture variability across stressful situations, between persons of different groups, or within persons over a period of time. Next, we describe how the assessment of diurnal salivary cortisol is a promising approach to examining naturally occurring stress physiology in large social surveys. We then present findings from the National Study of Daily Experiences (a substudy of the Midlife in the United States Study) that document the feasibility and reliability of the collection of daily stressors and salivary cortisol and provide examples of research findings linking stressor exposure to cortisol. The final portion of the article describes ways that this approach can leverage the strengths of various features of longitudinal social surveys to extend research on stress and mental health.
本文介绍了一种在基于人群的社会调查中评估压力和心理健康的研究方法，该方法将自然发生的日常压力源的自我报告与压力生理学的主要指标——唾液皮质醇相结合。我们首先讨论压力过程与心理健康的相关性，并引入一个用于检查日常压力过程的模型，该模型突出了日常压力源暴露的多个组成部分。这种方法的一个主要目的是捕捉不同压力情境、不同群体的人之间或一段时间内同一个人身上的变异性。接下来，我们描述了评估昼夜唾液皮质醇如何成为在大型社会调查中检查自然发生的压力生理学的一种有前景的方法。然后，我们展示了来自“日常经历全国研究”（美国中年研究的一个子研究）的结果，这些结果证明了收集日常压力源和唾液皮质醇的可行性和可靠性，并提供了将压力源暴露与皮质醇联系起来的研究结果示例。文章的最后部分描述了这种方法如何利用纵向社会调查的各种特征的优势来扩展对压力和心理健康的研究。
