Daily Caregiving Appraisals, Future Self-Views, and Physical Activity Goals Among Adult-Daughter Dementia Caregivers.

OBJECTIVES: Caregiving dynamics may shape caregivers' views on their own aging in ways that affect their (de)motivation to improve their current and future health and well-being. In this study, we investigated within-person associations of daily positive and negative caregiving appraisals, future self-views (physical functioning, cognitive, and overall health domains), and physical activity goal pursuit among adult-daughter dementia caregivers. METHODS: Data came from 33 middle-aged caregivers (M = 55.03) who participated in a 30-day microlongitudinal study of caregiving (N of occasions = 855). We used multilevel modeling to analyze within-person associations. RESULTS: Daily positive caregiving appraisals were not associated with daily future self-views. However, on days when caregivers reported higher negative caregiving appraisals, they thought more negatively about their future older selves in all domains. In turn, on days when caregivers thought more negatively about their future older selves in all domains, they reported lower physical activity goal pursuit. Future self-views in all domains mediated the association between negative caregiving appraisals and physical activity goal pursuit. Future self-views did not mediate the association between positive caregiving appraisals and physical activity goal pursuit. However, cognitive future self-views moderated the association between positive caregiving appraisals and physical activity goal pursuit. DISCUSSION: Results suggest that one pathway through which subjective caregiving experiences, especially negative caregiving appraisals, affect caregivers' physical activity goal pursuit is through future self-views. Thus, this study offers a deeper theoretical understanding of caregivers' self-regulatory health behavior and new empirical information on how caregiving might affect life-span developmental motivation.

Affective Reactions to daily interpersonal stressors: Moderation by family involvement and gender.

The goal of this study was to examine whether family involvement and gender moderated daily changes in affect associated with interpersonal stressors. Adults (N = 2022; M age = 56.25, Median = 56, SD = 12.20, Range = 33-84) from the second wave of the National Study of Daily Experiences participated in eight consecutive daily diaries. Each day they reported whether a daily interpersonal stressor occurred, whether family was involved, and their positive and negative affect. Results from multilevel models indicated that family involvement did not significantly moderate daily interpersonal stressor-affect associations; however, gender was a significant moderator in some instances. Women showed greater increases in negative affective reactivity to arguments and avoided arguments compared to men. Further, compared to men, women reported larger decreases in positive affective reactivity, but only for avoided arguments. Neither family involvement, gender, nor the interaction between family involvement and gender predicted affective residue. Gender differences in daily interpersonal stressors and affective reactivity may be attributable to overarching gender norms and roles that are still salient in the U.S. Our results suggest that daily interpersonal stressors may be detrimental to affective well-being, regardless of family involvement. Future work should explore associations between daily interpersonal stressors and family involvement by specific relationship roles, such as mother or spouse, for a more comprehensive understanding of what stressor characteristics impact daily affective well-being.

Early Childhood Teachers' Self-efficacy and Professional Support Predict Work Engagement.

Early childhood teachers play a central role in children's learning and development. Yet, they encounter stressors that can negatively impact their well-being, relationships with children, and, ultimately, job retention. To inform efforts to support early childhood teachers' work-related well-being, the current study examines positive factors that predict work engagement. Participants were 50 early childhood teachers from Head Start (34%), center-based programs (32%), and licensed home-based programs (34%). Consistent with a resilience framework and the Job Demands-Resources model, we examined both a personal resource (self-efficacy) and a workplace resource (professional support) in relation to work engagement, or the positive, fulfilling connection to one's work. Teachers' self-efficacy and professional support predicted greater work engagement, accounting for job demands (teachers' compassion fatigue/work distress and children's challenging behaviors) and teachers' education and professional development. Although not causal, findings are suggestive that supporting early childhood teachers with what they need to do their job effectively and feel that they can make meaningful differences in children's lives may help them to engage in their work with passion, dedication, and positive energy. Ultimately, supporting teachers' work engagement may in turn have developmental benefits for children as well.

Effects of a workplace intervention on daily stressor reactivity.

Heightened affective and physical reactions to daily stressful events predict poor long-term physical and mental health outcomes. It is unknown, however, if an experimental manipulation designed to increase interpersonal resources at work can reduce associations between daily stressors and physical and affective well-being. The present study tests the effects of a workplace intervention designed to increase supervisor support for family and personal life and schedule control on employees' affective and physical reactivity to daily stressors in different domains (i.e., work, home, interpersonal, and noninterpersonal stressors). Participants were 102 employed parents with adolescent children from an information technology (IT) division of a large U.S. firm who participated in the Work, Family, and Heath Study. Participants provided 8-day daily diary data at baseline and again at a 12-month follow-up after the implementation of a workplace intervention. Multilevel models revealed that the intervention significantly reduced employees' negative affect reactivity to work stressors and noninterpersonal stressors, compared to the usual practice condition. Negative reactivity did not decrease for nonwork or interpersonal stressors. The intervention also did not significantly reduce positive affect reactivity or physical symptom reactivity to any stressor type. Results demonstrate that making positive changes in work environments, including increasing supervisor support and flexible scheduling, may promote employee health and well-being through better affective responses to common daily stressors at work. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Adolescent effects on mothers' bedtime cortisol: Cognitive interference as a mediating mechanism.

Prior studies have shown that parent and adolescent cortisol are associated across days and that this covariation may be adolescent-driven. This study extends this literature by (a) testing whether parents' cognitive interference (i.e., distracting and ruminative thoughts potentially due to worry) mediates the linkages between adolescent and next-day parent cortisol and (b) whether these linkages were moderated by parent gender or warmth. Daily diary data, including bedtime cortisol, were collected on two samples of employees and their adolescent-aged children (N = 318 dyads, Myouth age  = 13.18 years, 74% mothers). We tested mediation with autoregressive cross-lagged models. Moderated mediation by parent gender was found in our bedtime cortisol models. Higher adolescent bedtime cortisol levels were associated with higher next-day levels of mothers' cognitive interference. In turn, higher levels of mothers' cognitive interference were linked to higher mothers' same-day bedtime cortisol levels. These linkages were not significant for fathers. Cognitive interference did not mediate the associations between child and parent area under the curve or cortisol awakening response. No moderation was evident for parental warmth. Results suggest that mothers' cognitions play a key role in the transmission of elevated bedtime cortisol levels from adolescents to their mothers.

Work-family conflict is a public health concern.

Objectives: The objective of this commentary is to describe how the deleterious health effects of the competing demands of work and family roles are a public health issue that deserves immediate attention. Study design: This is a commentary article; therefore, there is no study design. Method: I reviewed and summarized existing research on work-family conflict as it relates to public health action. Results: Work-to-family conflict (WFC) is pervasive among US working adults and is higher in the US than in other developed countries. Time, energy, and behaviors invested in fulfilling work responsibilities often compete with fulfilling family responsibilities, with numerous deleterious effects on employee health including sleep, cardiometabolic risk, stress, depression, and anxiety. WFC is a potent source of stress for working Americans, a major contributor to healthcare costs, and a predictor of mortality. US policies have lagged woefully behind the increasing competition between work and family demands. Conclusion: Work-to-family conflict is a public health concern that deserves immediate attention. Until governmental support for adults' work and family lives improves, WFC will continue to be a significant risk factor for public health. Including WFC in public health research and interventions will improve population health and advance health equity.

Daily parent-adolescent cortisol associations: Unpacking the direction of effects.

Prior studies suggest bidirectional relationships between parent and adolescent behavior. This study examined how parents and their adolescent child's cortisol patterns are associated across days and if there are bidirectional associations between parent and child cortisol. Participants included two samples of employees and their children who participated in a daily diary study where diurnal salivary cortisol was collected on four study days (N = 318 dyads, Myouth age = 13.18 years, 52 % female). Autoregressive cross-lagged models were used to estimate parent-driven effects (parent cortisol effects on adolescent cortisol) and adolescent-driven effects (adolescent cortisol effects on parent cortisol). Adolescents' steeper cortisol awakening response (CAR) was significantly associated with parents' steeper CAR the following day. Adolescents' higher bedtime cortisol levels were also significantly associated with parents' higher bedtime cortisol levels the following day. Parents' cortisol did not predict their children's next-day cortisol. Results support a primarily adolescent-driven process of stress transmission in families. These results suggest that interventions to reduce adolescent stress, as well as to reduce parents' reactivity to adolescents, may be warranted.

Does mothers' employment affect adolescents' weight and activity levels? Improving our empirical estimates.

Women's lives are marked by complex work and family routines - routines that have implications for their children's health. Prior research suggests a link between mothers' work hours and their children's weight, but few studies investigate the child health implications of increasingly common work arrangements, such as telecommuting and flexible work schedules. We examine whether changes in mothers' work arrangements are associated with changes in adolescents' weight, physical activity, and sedentary behavior using longitudinal data and fixed effects models to better account for mothers' social selection in to different work arrangements and children's underlying preferences. With data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (N = 10,518), we find that changes in mothers' work arrangements are not significantly associated with adolescents' weight gain or physical activity but are significantly associated with adolescents' sedentary behavior. Adolescents' sedentary behavior declines when mothers become more available after school and increases when mothers work more hours or become unemployed. In sum, after accounting for unobserved, stable traits, including mothers' selection into jobs with more or less flexibility, mothers' work arrangements are most strongly associated with adolescents' sedentary behavior.