Program Area: Behavioral and Social Sciences
Eileen Graham, PhD
Associate Professor
Medical Social Sciences
Northwestern University
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Nicholas Turiano, PhD
Associate Professor
Psychology
West Virginia University
Morgantown, West Virginia, United States
Nicholas Turiano, PhD
Associate Professor
Psychology
West Virginia University
Morgantown, West Virginia, United States
Daisy Zavala, MA
Graduate Student
Social and Health Psychology
Stony Brook University
Queens, New York, United States
Jing Luo, PhD
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Medical Social Sciences
Northwestern University
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Kathryn Jackson, MS
Senior Biostatistician
Medical Social Sciences
Northwestern University
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Gabrielle Pfund, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher
Psychological & Brain Sciences
Northwestern University
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Crucial to understanding the aging process is to identify modifiable characteristics that can be targeted in hope of optimizing health across adulthood. This symposium brings together a diverse set of talks about the biopsychosocial and behavioral processes that influence aging outcomes. Turiano used a national sample to demonstrate that individuals with higher levels of neuroticism often use food to cope with stressors which ultimately results in a greater central adiposity and elevated glycated hemoglobin. Zavala used an epidemiological sample of long-banked frozen blood samples to successfully extract DNA and methylation biomarkers from 140 adults and found that stress measures are associated with accelerated biological aging. Luo used coordinated analysis to explore how correlations between personality traits and four health outcomes fluctuate over time, and found the associations between personality (level/change) and health increased in strength through middle adulthood and early stage of late adulthood but weakened in very old age. Jackson found that individuals who experienced high and increasing loneliness in older adulthood had worse cognitive function and steeper cognitive decline than expected given their observed post-mortem neuropathology (i.e., worse cognitive resilience). Lastly, Pfund investigated how personality and social support change together and found within and between person associations between personality and social support, and evidence that retirement was associated with an increase in social support. In sum, this symposium presents novel evidence for the associations among personality, stress, social support, and lonliness are associated with physical and cognitive health in old age.
Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Nicholas A. Turiano, PhD – West Virginia University
Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Daisy V. Zavala, MA – Stony Brook University
Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Jing Luo, PhD – Northwestern University
Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Kathryn Jackson, MS – Northwestern University
Individual Symposium Abstract First Author: Gabrielle N. Pfund, PhD – Northwestern University