Richard W. Robins, Ph.D. - US grants

Much of contemporary social life occurs in "cyberspace." People increasingly conduct business, make friends, and fall in love over e-mail. There is a growing consensus that computers are changing the way people communicate with each other, but to what extent is computer- mediated social interaction really different from face-to-face interaction? The medium through which people communicate has profound effects on the availability, meaning, and frequency of a wide range of linguistic, paralinguistic, and nonverbal cues, including proxemics, posture, gaze, facial expression, gesture, and touch. These cues have well-documented links to interpersonal variables, such as dominance, affiliation, trust, deception, and affective responses. Thus, there are good reasons to expect that the medium of communication will influence interpersonal perceptions and behaviors. To date, however, there has been far more speculation than data about the effects of communication medium on social interaction. The purpose of the proposed research is to conduct a series of controlled studies examining how various interpersonal processes are affected by the medium of communication. The basic design of these studies will entail the replication across media of a naturalistic interaction ("getting acquainted") that occurs frequently in everyday life and has an established body of findings in the psychological literature. A strength of the research is that we will sample three points along the continuum of what Daft and Lengel (1986) refer to as medium "richness," that is, the number and type of communication channels available. Thus, we will contrast data from a baseline (face-to-face) condition with two less rich conditions, phone and computer-mediated. In all three conditions, participants will provide ratings of their own and their partner's behavior; in addition, the conversations will be coded by independent observers and by a computerized content coding program. Analyses will focus on how communication medium affects three basic aspects of interpersonal interaction: social behavior and its perception, causal attribution, and interpersonal attraction. The findings emerging from this research will help us to understand the psychological effects of an increasingly ubiquitous mode of communication. while also providing a new way to address longstanding theoretical questions about the impression formation process.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Background and Aims: High self-esteem is associated with many positive outcomes, including occupational success, healthy relationships, subjective well-being, and academic achievement. Conversely, low self-esteem has been linked to a number of societal problems, including depressive symptoms, poor health, and antisocial behavior. Given its importance, we know relatively little about the development of self-esteem during adulthood and old age, about the factors that promote self-esteem at different stages of the lifespan, or about the long-term consequences of self-esteem for important life outcomes. Aims of the proposed project include: (1) to document age differences in self-esteem across the entire adult lifespan, (2) to test hypotheses about the effects of work, relationship, and health experiences on intra-individual changes in self-esteem, and (3) to examine the reciprocal influence of self-esteem on changes in work, relationship, and health experiences. Methods: The proposed research will use data from the Americans' Changing Lives (ACL) study, a national 3-wave panel study that uses a cohort-sequential design in which individuals aged 25 to 96 were followed longitudinally for eight years (N = 3,617; N = 2,867; N = 2,562). The ACL dataset provides a unique opportunity to delineate the normative trajectory of self-esteem from early adulthood to old age and to examine reciprocal relations between self-esteem and important life experiences. The cohort-sequential design allows us to test whether age-related changes in self-esteem and the antecedents and consequences of self-esteem generalize across multiple age cohorts. Hypotheses will be tested using structural equation modeling with latent growth curves. Significance: The findings will help establish when in the lifespan normative change in self-esteem occurs, provide new knowledge about the conditions under which self-esteem changes, and identify factors that promote healthy self-esteem development. Moreover, the proposed research will test competing hypotheses about the positive and negative consequences of self-esteem and help reconcile conflicting theoretical views about whether self-esteem is a cause or consequence (or both) of important social problems. Finally, by examining patterns of results across developmental periods and across three life domains, we will use the findings to develop an overarching theory of the life course trajectory of self-esteem.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal requests a second 5 years of support for a continuing study of over 650 families and children of Mexican origin. During the first 5 years of support, two cohorts of families and children were recruited and followed from 5th through 7th or 8th grades. During the next 5 years, we will continue to follow these families and children as they navigate the adolescent years, a time of high risk for involvement with licit and illicit substances. The research will address four important issues related to the initiation and escalation of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug (ATOD) use. First, the investigation will examine risk for and resilience to ATOD use in a critically important ethnic group in the United States, children of Mexican origin. Mexican Americans living in California will soon become the most populous ethnic group in the state, consistent with national trends for Latinos. Second, the investigation will examine developmental pathways leading to the initiation and escalation of ATOD use from late childhood through adolescence. A developmental approach is generally considered the best strategy for informing the creation of effective intervention programs that can prevent the early initiation of ATOD use, when it is most likely to have severe long-term consequences. Third, the investigation will examine family influences on the initiation and escalation of ATOD use, also considered crucial for early prevention. Finally, the investigation will employ state-of-the-art research methods for studying family influences on the development of ATOD use. Hypotheses will be derived from the family stress model, which proposes that acculturation processes, minority experiences, economic hardship, and neighborhood and school risks will affect parent-parent, parent-child, and sibling and peer relationships. These relationships, in turn, are expected to influence the initiation and escalation of ATOD use and related adjustment problems such as risky sexual behaviors, which increase long-term risk for HIV/AIDs and other STDs. The family stress model also proposes that a set of cultural (e.g., respect, familism), personal (e.g., ethnic identity, self-control), and social (e.g., effective family problem solving) resources will promote resilience to the hypothesized risk factors. The major test of these hypotheses will come during the next 5 years when the children enter adolescence and risk for ATOD use increases dramatically. An important goal of this next phase of the research will be to evaluate how risk factors, protective mechanisms, and ATOD use interrelate in a dynamic manner across the adolescent years. Results of the study are expected to inform the development of more effective and culturally sensitive early prevention programs for an important and understudied population. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This research aims to understand (a) the developmental pathways that increase risk for drug use and other adjustment problems in Mexican origin youth living in California and (b) the social, cultural, and personal characteristics that promote resilience to such risks. Knowledge acquired from the project will improve intervention programs intended to promote resilience and prevent the initiation and escalation of drug use in this population.

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This proposal requests a second 5 years of support for a continuing study of over 650 families and children of Mexican origin. During the first 5 years of support, two cohorts of families and children were recruited and followed from 5th through 7th or 8th grades. During the next 5 years, we will continue to follow these families and children as they navigate the adolescent years, a time of high risk for involvement with licit and illicit substances. The research will address four important issues related to the initiation and escalation of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug (ATOD) use. First, the investigation will examine risk for and resilience to ATOD use in a critically important ethnic group in the United States, children of Mexican origin. Mexican Americans living in California will soon become the most populous ethnic group in the state, consistent with national trends for Latinos. Second, the investigation will examine developmental pathways leading to the initiation and escalation of ATOD use from late childhood through adolescence. A developmental approach is generally considered the best strategy for informing the creation of effective intervention programs that can prevent the early initiation of ATOD use, when it is most likely to have severe long-term consequences. Third, the investigation will examine family influences on the initiation and escalation of ATOD use, also considered crucial for early prevention. Finally, the investigation will employ state-of-the-art research methods for studying family influences on the development of ATOD use. Hypotheses will be derived from the family stress model, which proposes that acculturation processes, minority experiences, economic hardship, and neighborhood and school risks will affect parent-parent, parent-child, and sibling and peer relationships. These relationships, in turn, are expected to influence the initiation and escalation of ATOD use and related adjustment problems such as risky sexual behaviors, which increase long-term risk for HIV/AIDs and other STDs. The family stress model also proposes that a set of cultural (e.g., respect, familism), personal (e.g., ethnic identity, self-control), and social (e.g., effective family problem solving) resources will promote resilience to the hypothesized risk factors. The major test of these hypotheses will come during the next 5 years when the children enter adolescence and risk for ATOD use increases dramatically. An important goal of this next phase of the research will be to evaluate how risk factors, protective mechanisms, and ATOD use interrelate in a dynamic manner across the adolescent years. Results of the study are expected to inform the development of more effective and culturally sensitive early prevention programs for an important and understudied population. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This research aims to understand (a) the developmental pathways that increase risk for drug use and other adjustment problems in Mexican origin youth living in California and (b) the social, cultural, and personal characteristics that promote resilience to such risks. Knowledge acquired from the project will improve intervention programs intended to promote resilience and prevent the initiation and escalation of drug use in this population.

PROJECT SUMMARY Individuals from Hispanic/Latino backgrounds have a 50% increased risk of Alzheimer's disease (AD) compared to non-Hispanic white individuals. With the changing demographic trends in the United States, the prevalence of AD in the Hispanic/Latino population is expected to increase nine fold over the next 50 years. In addition to the patient, the burden of AD takes a significant toll on the families of loved ones with dementia, their communities, and the healthcare system. The difference in prevalence of AD is rooted in social disparities rather than differences in genetic vulnerability between Hispanic/Latino and white populations. It is critical to identify the specific social determinants in Hispanic/Latino populations that can be leveraged to develop culturally informed interventions that aim to maintain cognitive health and slow or prevent the progression toward mild cognitive impairment and clinical dementia. Midlife is a particularly important, yet understudied, period of the lifespan for cognitive aging. Prevention and intervention efforts are likely to be more effective if started before significant neuropathology accumulates in the brain. The objective of this proposal is to identify midlife factors and associated processes that contribute to health disparities in cognitive decline and risk of dementia. We will leverage an existing longitudinal study of midlife adults ? the California Families Project ? to couple more than 10 years of repeated assessments across middle adulthood with new data collection on the risk/protective factors and cognitive outcomes. This project will test socioeconomic (e.g., education, financial hardship), personality (e.g., neuroticism, conscientiousness), social (e.g., discrimination, social support), and acculturation (e.g., cultural values, acculturative stress) risk/protective factors for cognitive functioning in midlife Hispanic/Latino adults and the behavioral (e.g., physical inactivity, smoking), psychosocial (e.g., depressive symptoms, delay discounting), and physiological (e.g., inflammation, cellular biomarkers) mechanisms that explain these associations. This work will lead to new knowledge on midlife predictors of cognition and risk of AD, identify social determinants and pathways that create and sustain health disparities for Hispanic/Latino populations, and point to new prevention and intervention targets for promoting healthy cognitive aging in midlife and beyond.

PROJECT SUMMARY Latinos in the United States have been disproportionately affected by the economic, health, and psychosocial stressors related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet this population remains understudied and underserved in current research. The current project aims to fill this gap by studying adults from the California Families Project (CFP), a long-standing longitudinal study of Mexican-origin adults who have been followed longitudinally for over 14 years across middle adulthood (approximate N = 900 in this proposed supplement). The purpose of the proposed research under this supplement is to add (a) an assessment of COVID-19-related stress exposure and behavior, (b) an additional assessment of cognition and physical health, and (c) a COVID-19 antibody test for participants in the CFP. To meet this objective, the research team will undertake two specific aims. First, we will identify cognitive, socioeconomic, personality, and social/relational predictors of cumulative stress burden related to COVID-19 and test whether COVID-19-related stress is associated with declines in cognitive function and physical health. For the second aim, we will test pre-pandemic cognitive, socioeconomic, personality, and social/relational predictors of compliance with COVID-19 prophylactic measures (e.g., mask wearing, social distancing) and willingness to be vaccinated. We will also test the extent to which compliance with prophylactic measures predicts physical health outcomes, such as COVID-19 infection as reflected by a laboratory IgG antibody test. Accomplishing these aims will allow us to characterize the detrimental effects of cumulative stress burden related to the pandemic on concurrent and long-term trajectories in cognitive function and risk for Alzheimer?s disease, as well as identify risk and resilience factors within this population. Furthermore, analyses of the cognitive, socioeconomic, personality, and social/relational predictors of compliance with COVID-19 prophylactic measures and of willingness to be vaccinated against COVID-19 will directly inform public health efforts to reduce the adverse consequences of the current and future pandemics for a particularly vulnerable population.