Department of Sociology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA.
Department of Psychology and Center for Family Research, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA.
Fam Process. 2023 Jun;62(2):818-834. doi: 10.1111/famp.12808. Epub 2022 Aug 25.
The accelerated pace of biological aging predicts mortality and morbidity later in life. The current study examines whether a change in supportive couple functioning buffers accelerated aging associated with stressful community environments among Black Americans who live in rural, Southern, disadvantaged neighborhoods. We examined 348 Black American middle-aged adults assigned randomly to receive the Protecting Strong African American Families (ProSAAF) intervention or a control condition. The program was designed to enhance supportive couple functioning among Black Americans. We used DunedinPoAm to quantify the methylation pace of aging and employed the Area Deprivation Index at the census block group level to measure neighborhood disadvantage. Neighborhood disadvantage was associated with the accelerated pace of aging. Further, participation in ProSAAF enhanced supportive couple functioning, and improvement in couple functioning protected participants from the harmful effects of neighborhood disadvantage on the accelerated pace of aging. These findings supported mediated moderation and suggested that family-based prevention programs that enhance couple support may decrease the erosive effects of neighborhood disadvantage and improve prospects for healthy aging among rural, Southern, Black Americans living in difficult circumstances. This may provide a supplemental strategy for decreasing health disparities due to neighborhood disadvantage by enhancing family systems.
生物衰老的加速步伐预示着人们在晚年的死亡率和发病率。本研究考察了在生活在农村、南方、贫困社区的美国黑人中，支持性夫妻功能的变化是否缓冲了与有压力的社区环境相关的加速衰老，这些人受到了不利的社会环境影响。我们调查了 348 名随机分配接受保护强大非裔美国家庭（ProSAAF）干预或对照条件的美国黑人中年成年人。该计划旨在增强非裔美国人的支持性夫妻功能。我们使用 DunedinPoAm 来量化衰老的甲基化速度，并采用人口普查街区组层面的区域贫困指数来衡量社区劣势。社区劣势与衰老加速有关。此外，参与 ProSAAF 增强了夫妻之间的支持功能，而夫妻功能的改善保护了参与者免受社区劣势对衰老加速的有害影响。这些发现支持了中介调节作用，并表明增强夫妻支持的基于家庭的预防计划可能会减少社区劣势的侵蚀性影响，并改善生活在困难环境中的农村、南方、美国黑人健康衰老的前景。这可能为通过增强家庭系统来减少因社区劣势而导致的健康差距提供了一种补充策略。
