The purpose of the research is to conduct life history analyses of select members of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study (WLS) and relate these histories to mental and physical health in midlife. The WLS was begun in 1957 with a random one-third sample of the high school seniors in the state of Wisconsin, with additional waves of data collected in 1964, 1975, and 1992-93. Data have been collected on family background starting resources, academic abilities, youthful aspirations, adult education and occupational achievement, work events and conditions, family events, social relations, physical and mental health. With a three-year grant from the National Institute on Aging, we will expand the life history data on a subsample of WLS respondents and relate these histories to midlife mental health statuses (i.e., healthy, resilient, vulnerable, depressed). We received additional funding from the MacArthur Foundation Health Program to add in-depth biological assessments (i.e., complete physical examinations, allostatic load, immune function, cerebral activation asymmetry, sleep efficiency) for approximately half of the subsample. The core objective is to use the respondents' life history information, organized according to the cumulation of adversity (and advantage), combined with their mental health statuses, to predict various parameters of biological functioning. That is, we hope to demonstrate how various pathways of life experience have consequences for mental health, and in turn, for multiple physiological substrates implicated in disease and health outcomes. The new data will also establish a baseline for future prospective research in which we will predict, based on a prior knowledge of comprehensive psychosocial and biological factors, who among the WLS respondents will show resilience in the face of future aging challenges.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 459 publications
