ABSTRACT

Few studies have examined the biosocial pathways linking socioeconomic status (SES) to accelerated aging in a population-based sample of southern US women. Even fewer have examined the importance of chronic compared to perceived stress in linking SES to women’s salivary telomere length (STL). Using data from a probability-based sample of 156 US women and structural equation modeling, we examined three pathways – chronic stress exposure, stress appraisal, and coping behavior – linking SES to STL. SES was positively associated with STL (β_TE = 0.16, p < .05). Everyday discrimination was negatively associated with STL (β_DE = −0.21, p < .05), but perceived stress was positively associated with STL (β_DE = 0.20, p < .05). Current smoking decreased STL (β_DE = −0.19, p < .01). Perceived stress acted to suppress the negative relationship of chronic stress exposure on STL. Given the dearth of STL studies that include measures of both perceived and chronic stress, our study supports the importance of disentangling stress measures and a biosocial approach to the study of accelerated aging.

摘要

很少有研究在美国南部妇女的人口样本中研究将社会经济地位 (SES) 与加速老化联系起来的生物社会途径。在将 SES 与女性唾液端粒长度 (STL) 联系起来方面，研究慢性与感知压力的重要性的研究更少。使用来自 156 名美国女性的基于概率的样本数据和结构方程模型，我们检查了三种途径——慢性压力暴露、压力评估和应对行为——将 SES 与 STL 联系起来。SES 与 STL 呈正相关（β _TE  = 0.16，p < .05）。日常歧视与 STL 呈负相关（β _DE  = -0.21，p < .05），但感知压力与 STL 呈正相关（β _DE  = 0.20，p < .05）。当前吸烟降低了 STL（β _DE  = -0.19，p < .01）。感知压力的作用是抑制慢性压力暴露对 STL 的负相关。鉴于缺乏包括感知压力和慢性压力措施的 STL 研究，我们的研究支持解开压力措施和生物社会方法对加速衰老研究的重要性。