Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2022 Feb 3;77(2):272-283. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbab024.
Stressful life events are associated with poorer physical, cognitive, and mental health. Examining life events trends across midlife illustrates normative experiences of stress in a critical life period for intervention and disease prevention. Further, there is a critical need for research with racially/ethnically diverse samples to identify differences in life event exposure, as they may relate to later health disparities.
Annual life event reports were analyzed from 3,066 White, Black, Hispanic, Chinese, and Japanese women in the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation. Across ages 43-65, longitudinal trajectories were fit to annual number of life events and 9 subcategories of life events (i.e., work problems, economic problems, partner unemployment, illness/accident of loved one, caregiving, bereavement, relationship problems, family legal/police problems, and violent events that happened to the self or family). Racial/ethnic differences were examined, controlling for education.
Number of annual life events declined with age and plateaued in later midlife. This pattern was largely consistent across types of life events, though family health and bereavement-related life events increased in later midlife. Compared to White women, Black women experienced more life events, while Chinese, Hispanic, and Japanese women experienced fewer life events. Racial/ethnic differences were amplified in specific subtypes of life events.
Racial/ethnic differences in exposure to life events across midlife may contribute to racial/ethnic health disparities in later life.
生活压力事件与较差的身体、认知和心理健康有关。研究中年期生活事件的趋势可以说明在一个关键的生命时期，压力的正常体验对于干预和疾病预防至关重要。此外，迫切需要对不同种族/族裔的样本进行研究，以确定生活事件暴露方面的差异，因为这些差异可能与以后的健康差距有关。
对参与“全国妇女健康研究”的 3066 名白人、黑人、西班牙裔、华裔和日裔美国女性的年度生活事件报告进行了分析。在 43-65 岁的年龄段，对每年生活事件的数量和 9 个生活事件亚类（即工作问题、经济问题、伴侣失业、亲人患病/意外、照顾、丧亲、关系问题、家庭法律/警察问题以及发生在自己或家人身上的暴力事件）进行了纵向轨迹拟合。在控制教育程度的情况下，检查了种族/民族差异。
每年生活事件的数量随年龄的增长而减少，并在中年后期趋于平稳。这种模式在各种生活事件中基本一致，尽管家庭健康和与丧亲相关的生活事件在中年后期有所增加。与白人女性相比，黑人女性经历的生活事件更多，而华裔、西班牙裔和日本女性经历的生活事件较少。种族/民族差异在特定的生活事件亚类中更为明显。
中年期生活事件暴露方面的种族/民族差异可能导致晚年生活中的种族/民族健康差距。
