Main description:

Most health research to date has been pursued within the confines of scientific disciplines that are guided by their own targeted questions and research strategies. Although useful, such inquiries are inherently limited in advancing understanding the interplay of wide-ranging factors that shape human health.

The Oxford Handbook of Integrative Health Science embraces an integrative approach that seeks to put together sociodemographic factors (age, gender, race, socioeconomic status) known to contour rates of morbidity and mortality with psychosocial factors (emotion, cognition, personality, well-being, social connections), behavioral factors (health practices) and stress exposures (caregiving responsibilities, divorce, discrimination) also known to influence health. A further overarching
theme is to explicate the biological pathways through which these various effects occur. The biopsychosocial leitmotif that inspires this approach demands new kinds of studies wherein wide-ranging assessments across different domains are assembled on large population samples. The MIDUS (Midlife in the U.S.)
national longitudinal study exemplifies such an integrative study, and all findings presented in this collection draw on MIDUS. The way the study evolved, via collaboration of scientists working across disciplinary lines, and its enthusiastic reception from the scientific community are all part of the larger story told. Embedded within such tales are important advances in the identification of key protective or vulnerability factors: these pave the way for practice and policy initiatives
seeking to improve the nation's health.

Contents:

PART I: Setting the Stage

Chapter 1 Approaching Human Health as an Integrative Challenge: Introduction and Overview
Carol D. Ryff and Robert F. Krueger

Chapter 2 Behind The Scenes in Integrative Health Science: Understanding and Negotiating Data Management Challenges
Barry T. Radler and Gayle D. Love

Chapter 3 The Roles of Twin Studies and Modern Genomic Technologies in Integrative Health Science
Robert F. Krueger and Susan C. South

PART II: Early Experience, Life Course Pathways, and Adult Health

Chapter 4 Early Life Adversity and Adult Health
Cynthia S. Levine, Gregory E. Miller, Margie E. Lachman, Teresa E. Seeman, and Edith Chen

Chapter 5 Gender, Early Life Adversity and Adult Health
Chioun Lee, Carol D. Ryff, and Christopher L. Cole

Chapter 6 Cumulative Stress and Health
Natalie Slopen, Celena Meyer, and David R. Williams

Chapter 7 Determinants and Implications of Subjective Age Across Adulthood and Old Age
Yannick Stephan, Angelina R. Sutin, and Antonio Terracciano

PART III: Work and Family Roles, Daily Life, and Adult Health

Chapter 8 Promoting Healthy Practices in the Work Place: Making Worker's Health a Priority Before It Becomes a Problem
Kasey E. Longley, Amy M. Smith, and Joseph G. Grzywacz

Chapter 9 Work and Family: Pathways to Health
Amy M. Smith, Kasey E. Longley, and Joseph G. Grzywacz

Chapter 10 Intimate Partner Relationships and Health
Deborah Carr and Dawne M. Mouzon

Chapter 11 The Lifelong Health Effects of Parenting a Child with Developmental or Mental Health Problems
Jieun Song, Marsha R. Mailick, Jan S. Greenberg, and Jinkuk Hong

Chapter 12 Daily Positive Experiences and Health: Biobehavioral Pathways and Resilience to Daily Stress
Nancy L. Sin and David M. Almeida

Chapter 13 Family as a Naturally Occurring Stressor: Race, Psychosocial Factors, and Daily Health
Kelly E. Cichy and Jeong Eun Lee

Chapter 14 Social Capital, Altruistic Behaviors, and Health
Takeo Fujiwara and Carol D. Ryff

PART IV: Interplay of Psychosocial Factors, Biology, and Health Outcomes

Chapter 15 Psychosocial Resources and Physiological Dysregulation
Joshua F. Wiley, Tara L. Gruenewald, and Teresa E. Seeman

Chapter 16 Biopsychosocial Patterning of Multimorbidity and its Consequences
Elliott Friedman, Beth LeBreton, Lindsay Fuzzell, and Elizabeth Wehrspann

Chapter 17 Psychosocial Life Histories and Biological Pathways to Bone Health
Arun S. Karlamangla, Neil Binkley, and Carolyn J. Crandall

Chapter 18 Biopsychosocial Pathways to Prediabetes and Diabetes
Vera Tsenkova, Deborah Carr, Christopher L. Coe, Arun S. Karlamangla, and Carol D. Ryff

Chapter 19 Weight Identity Among Older Adults in the United States: Genetic and Environmental Influences
Robbee Wedow, Daniel A. Briley, Susan E. Short, and Jason Boardman

Chapter 20 Psychosocial Consequences of Body Weight and Obesity
Deborah Carr and Vera Tsenkova

PART V: Psychological Factors and Health: Cognition, Personality, Emotion, Well-Being

Chapter 21 Cognition at Midlife: Antecedents and Consequents
Stefan Agrigoroaei, Stephanie A. Robinson, Matthew L. Hughes, Elizabeth H. Rickenbach, and Margie E. Lachman

Chapter 22 Associations Between Personality and Behavior Over the Life Course
Nicholas A. Turiano, Patrick L. Hill, Eileen K. Graham, and Daniel K. Mroczek

Chapter 23 Personality as a Determinant of Health Behaviors and Chronic Diseases: Review of Meta-Analytic Evidence
Markus Jokela

Chapter 24 The Road to Positive Health: Behavioral and Biological Pathways Linking Positive Psychological Functioning with Health Outcomes
Julia K. Boehm

Chapter 25 Distinguishing Between Enduring and Fragile Positive Affect: Implications for Health and Well-Being in Midlife
Anthony D. Ong, Nancy L. Sin, and Nilam Ram

Chapter 26 The Temporal Dynamics of Emotional Responding: Implications for Well-Being and Health from the MIDUS Neuroscience Project
Stacey M. Schaefer, Carien M. van Reekum, Regina Lapate, Aaron S. Heller, Daniel W. Grupe, and Richard J. Davidson

Chapter 27 Culture, Emotions, and Health
Jiah Yoo and Yuri Miyamoto

Chapter 28 Anger, Expression and Health: The Cultural Moderation Hypothesis
Jiyoung Park and Shinobu Kitayama

PART VI: Integrative Perspectives on Social Inequalities in Health

Chapter 29 Personality and Socioeconomic Status Over the Adult Working Years
Benjamin P. Chapman and Ari Elliott

Chapter 30 Social Inequalities, Psychological Risk and Resilience, and Health
Jennifer Morozink Boylan, Christopher L. Coe, and Carol D. Ryff

Chapter 31 Socioeconomic Status and Health-Related Biology: Links Between Socioeconomic Disadvantage, Psychological Factors, and HPA Activity in MIDUS
Samuele Zilioli, Ledina Inami, and Richard B. Slatcher

Chapter 32 Perceived Discrimination and Health: Integrative Findings
Adolfo G. Cuevas and David R. Williams

Chapter 33 Disparities in Health Between Black and White Americans: Current Knowledge and Directions for Future Research
Thomas E. Fuller-Rowell, David S. Curtis, and Adrienne M. Duke

Chapter 34 The Education Gradient in Physiological Dysregulation: A Cross-Country Investigation
Dana A. Glei, Noreen Goldman, and Maxine Weinstein

Chapter 35 The Great Recession, Inequality, and Health: An Integrative Approach
Julie A. Kirsch and Carol D. Ryff