Grant: Operating Grant

Chronic stress is associated with increased risk for poor health. However, some people can handle stress well, while others are more vulnerable to the negative impact of stress on health. Although most people will show some adaptation to stress over time, some individuals will exhibit ongoing difficulties in response to chronic stress. One way that stress gets under the skin to impact health is by creating an over-production of inflammatory proteins. There is thus a need to study the risk and protective factors for chronic inflammation when individuals are exposed to stress over several years. This information will help us identify individuals at greater risk for poor health. To accomplish this, we will follow parents of children with developmental disabilities given that they are experiencing daily stress and parenting challenges over several years. We will follow parents as their adult child is exiting high school because this transition period is associated with frequent and repeated stressors typical of most situations of chronic stress. Three times over a period of 24 months during their child's transition out of high school, parents will provide information on the stress that they experience, their psychological response to stress, and their social support. At the baseline, 12-month, and 24-month visits, parents will provide saliva samples to assess stress hormones production, wear a portable electrocardiogram to monitor their heart rate, and provide blood samples for the analysis of their blood levels of inflammatory proteins. These data will allow us to examine which psychological and physiological factors predict chronic inflammation among these parents exposed to chronic stress for several years. This study will help us identify stressed individuals who are the most vulnerable to poor health. In the context of limited health care resources, these data will help us provide preventive interventions to individuals who need it the most.