Teresa E Seeman
Biographic Data
| ID | 80132 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Teresa E Seeman |
| GIVEN NAMES | Teresa E |
| FAMILY NAME | Seeman |
| SIGNATURE | SEEMAN T E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Department of Medicine, Division of Geriatrics, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 70 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1954 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 70 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1980 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 17 |
Measuring the Interrelationships Between Cognitive Performance, Race/Ethnicity, Discrimination, Health Behaviors, and Physiological Dysregulation
Objective The objective of this study was to examine the interrelationships between cognitive performance, race/ethnicity, discrimination, health behaviors, and physiological dysregulation. Methods We used data from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) ( N = 1667). We used path analyses to examine the association between discrimination, physiological dysregulation, health behaviors, and cognitive performance using the Cognitive Abilit…
Depression-, Anxiety-, and Anger and Cognitive Functions
Background: Determinants of changes in cognitive function during aging are not well-understood. We aimed to estimate the effects of depression-, anxiety- and anger symptoms on cognition and on cognition changes, especially on changes in episodic memory (EM) and executive functioning (EF). Methods: We analyze data from the Mid-Life in the Midlife in the United States Biomarker study at two time points including n = 710 women, and n = 542 men (1996…
Generativity and Social Well-Being in Older Women
These results highlight the importance of psychological factors, such as ERA, in moderating the efficacy of interventions to promote social well-being in older adults
Childhood parental warmth and heart rate variability in midlife
The current study investigated high‐frequency heart rate variability (HF‐HRV) as a potential mediator between childhood parental warmth and later health and mortality outcomes. Participants were 1,255 adults (56.9% female). Childhood parental warmth was reported retrospectively at mean age 46; resting HF‐HRV was measured at mean age 57; cardiovascular health and self‐evaluated health were assessed at mean ages 57 and 63, and mortality records ext…
Social stratification and allostatic load
Social stratification is an important mechanism of human organization that helps to explain health differences between demographic groups commonly associated with socioeconomic gradients. Individuals, or group of individuals, with similar health profiles may have had different stratification experiences. This is particularly true as social stratification is a significant non-measurable source of systematic unobservable differences in both SES ind…
Association between allostatic load and health behaviours
BACKGROUND: Allostatic load (AL) has been characterised in many ways throughout the literature; however, its relationship to health behaviours has only been studied in limited populations. We aimed to uncover qualitative patterns of biological indicators in AL and determine if those patterns were associated with certain health behaviours. METHODS: We conducted latent class analysis using biological indicators from a multiethnic population. We fit…
Neighbourhood racial/ethnic residential segregation and cardiometabolic risk
BACKGROUND: Racial residential segregation has been linked to adverse health outcomes, but associations may operate through multiple pathways. Prior studies have not examined associations of neighbourhood-level racial segregation with an index of cardiometabolic risk (CMR) and whether associations differ by race/ethnicity. METHODS: We used data from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis to estimate cross-sectional and longitudinal association…
Early-Life Adversity and Dysregulation of Adult Diurnal Cortisol Rhythm
Early-life adversity appears to leave a long-term imprint on cortisol secretion dynamics, reducing diurnal dynamic range without increasing total secretion. This points to the importance of examining the adaptation capacity of physiological systems when studying the impact of early-life and chronic stresses on adult health
Food insecurity and intimate partner violence against women
Objective To investigate the association between food insecurity and intimate partner violence in a population-based sample of heterosexual women. Design Logistic regression was used to evaluate the association between three levels of food insecurity and intimate partner violence. Setting Data from 6 years of the California Women’s Health Survey. Subjects Randomly selected women ( n 16 562) aged 18 years and older from the State of California, US…
Attendance and Retention of Older Adults in School-Based Volunteer Activities
This study examined the relationship between school climate (e.g., safety, resources, learning environment) and average weekly attendance (hours/week) and retention (total weeks volunteered) of older adults in school-based volunteer roles within the Baltimore Experience Corps Trial. The sample included 298 older adults (age 67.3 ± 5.9; 86.9% female; 91.3% African American). We assessed eight dimensions of school climate rated by school staff and …
Socioeconomic Status, Daily Affective and Social Experiences, and Inflammation During Adolescence
OBJECTIVE: To assess the relation between socioeconomic status (SES) and inflammation during adolescence and determine whether daily affective and social experiences across a 15-day period mediate this relation. METHODS: Adolescents (n = 316) completed daily diary reports of positive affect, negative affect, and negative social interactions for 15 days and provided whole blood spot samples for the assessment of C-reactive protein (CRP). Parents p…
Childhood Adversities and Adult Cardiometabolic Health
Findings demonstrate the insights that can be gleaned about the early-life origins of adult health by examining operationalization of childhood exposures
The Baltimore Experience Corps Trial
Results provide the first-ever, large-scale experimental demonstration that participation in an intergenerational civic engagement program can positively alter self-perceptions of generativity in older adulthood
Additive contributions of childhood adversity and recent stressors to inflammation at midlife
We examined the joint contributions of self-reported adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and recent life events (RLEs) to inflammation at midlife, by testing 3 competing theoretical models: stress generation, stress accumulation, and early life stress sensitization. We aimed to identify potential mediators between adversity and inflammation. Participants were 1,180 middle-aged and older adults from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) Biomar…
External Quality Control for Dried Blood Spot-Based C-Reactive Protein Assay
Measurement of C-reactive protein (CRP), a marker of inflammation, in dried blood spots has been increasingly incorporated into community-based social surveys internationally. Although the dried blood spot-based CRP assay protocol has been validated in the United States, it remains unclear whether laboratories in other less-developed countries can generate CRP results of similar quality. We therefore conducted external quality monitoring for drie…
Life Course Socioeconomic Status and Longitudinal Accumulation of Allostatic Load in Adulthood
Objectives. We examined the association of childhood and adult socioeconomic status with longitudinal change in allostatic load (AL), a measure of biological dysfunction. Methods. The study sample included 6135 participants from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, aged 45 to 84 years, recruited in 2000 from 6 US counties; 3 follow-up examinations took place through September 2011. We calculated standardized scores for several metabolic and…
A Test of Biological and Behavioral Explanations for Gender Differences in Telomere Length
The purpose of this study was to examine biological and behavioral explanations for gender differences in leukocyte telomere length (LTL), a biomarker of cell aging that has been hypothesized to contribute to women's greater longevity. Data are from a subsample (n = 851) of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, a population-based study of women and men aged 45 to 84. Mediation models were used to examine study hypotheses. We found that women…
Changes in Waist Circumference and Body Mass Index in the Us Cardia Cohort
Prior studies examining the association between self-reported experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination and obesity have had mixed results and primarily been cross-sectional. This study tests the hypothesis that an increase in self-reported experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination predicts gains in waist circumference and body mass index in Black and White women and men over eight years. In race/ethnicity- and gender-stratified models, this …
Is Change Bad? Personality Change Is Associated with Poorer Psychological Health and Greater Metabolic Syndrome in Midlife
Personality change is emerging as an important predictor of health and well‐being. Extending previous research, we examined whether two types of personality change, directional and absolute, are associated with both subjective and objective indicators of health. Utilizing the longitudinal Midlife in the U nited S tates survey ( MIDUS ) data, we examined whether both types of change over 10 years were associated with psychological well‐being, self…
Trends in Late-Life Activity Limitations in the United States
This article updates trends from five national U.S. surveys to determine whether the prevalence of activity limitations among the older population continued to decline in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Findings across studies suggest that personal care and domestic activity limitations may have continued to decline for those ages 85 and older from 2000 to 2008, but generally were flat since 2000 for those ages 65–84. Modest increas…
Marital Quality, Gender, and Markers of Inflammation in the Midus Cohort
Marital quality is an important factor for understanding the relationship between marriage and health. Low-quality relationships may not have the same health benefits as high-quality relationships. To understand the association between marital quality and health, we examined associations between two indicators of marital quality (marital support and marital strain) and two biomarkers of inflammation (interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein) among me…
Protective Factors for Adults From Low-Childhood Socioeconomic Circumstances
OBJECTIVE: Low socioeconomic status (SES) early in life is one of the most well-established social predictors of poor health. However, little is understood about why some adults who grew up in low-SES environments do not have poor health outcomes. This study examined whether the psychological characteristic of "shift-and-persist" protects adults from the physiological risks of growing up in low-SES households. Shift-and-persist consists of refram…
Racial/ethnic and gender differences in the association between self-reported experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination and inflammation in the Cardia cohort of 4 US communities
Social strain and cortisol regulation in midlife in the US
History of socioeconomic disadvantage and allostatic load in later life
From social integration to health
Risky families
Risky families are characterized by conflict and aggression and by relationships that are cold, unsupportive, and neglectful. These family characteristics create vulnerabilities and/or interact with genetically based vulnerabilities in offspring that produce disruptions in psychosocial functioning (specifically emotion processing and social competence), disruptions in stress-responsive biological regulatory systems, including sympathetic-adrenome…
Structural characteristics of social networks and their relationship with social support in the elderly
Cumulative biological risk and socio-economic differences in mortality
History of socioeconomic disadvantage and allostatic load in later life
Health Behavior and Personal Autonomy
Melvin Seeman, Teresa E. Seeman, Health Behavior and Personal Autonomy: A Longitudinal Study of the Sense of Control in Illness, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Vol. 24, No. 2 (Jun., 1983), pp. 144-160
Racial/ethnic and gender differences in the association between self-reported experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination and inflammation in the Cardia cohort of 4 US communities
Urban Neighborhoods and Depressive Symptoms Among Older Adults
This study shows that apparent neighborhood-level socioeconomic effects on depressive symptoms among urban-dwelling older adults are largely if not entirely compositional in nature. Further, residential stability in the urban neighborhood may not be emotionally beneficial to its aged residents
Beyond single indicators of social networks
Bioindicators in the Midus National Study
Strengths of the protocol vis-à-vis similar studies include opportunities to link biological factors with diverse content from other MIDUS projects
Disability Trends Among Older Americans
Objectives. We investigated trends in disability among older Americans from 1988 through 2004 to test the hypothesis that more recent cohorts show increased burdens of disability. Methods. We used data from 2 National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (1988–1994 and 1999–2004) to assess time trends in basic activities of daily living, instrumental activities, mobility, and functional limitations for adults aged 60 years and older. We asses…
Trends in Late-Life Activity Limitations in the United States
This article updates trends from five national U.S. surveys to determine whether the prevalence of activity limitations among the older population continued to decline in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Findings across studies suggest that personal care and domestic activity limitations may have continued to decline for those ages 85 and older from 2000 to 2008, but generally were flat since 2000 for those ages 65–84. Modest increas…
Association of socioeconomic status with inflammation markers in black and white men and women in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (Cardia) study
Social strain and cortisol regulation in midlife in the US
A multilevel analysis of urban neighborhood socioeconomic disadvantage and health in late life
The Baltimore Experience Corps Trial
Results provide the first-ever, large-scale experimental demonstration that participation in an intergenerational civic engagement program can positively alter self-perceptions of generativity in older adulthood
Sex Differences in Reports of Illness and Disability
Data from health surveys typically show higher rates of morbidity among women than among men, while mortality data show the opposite pattern. Medical sociologists have formulated several key hypotheses to explain this female excess in morbidity-particularly as it occurs in milder forms of illness and disability. In this paper we examine one such hypothesis, using data from the Los Angeles Health Survey. According to the role hypothesis, inflexibl…
Childhood Adversities and Adult Cardiometabolic Health
Findings demonstrate the insights that can be gleaned about the early-life origins of adult health by examining operationalization of childhood exposures
Impact of socioeconomic status on longitudinal accumulation of cardiovascular risk in young adults
Additive contributions of childhood adversity and recent stressors to inflammation at midlife
We examined the joint contributions of self-reported adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and recent life events (RLEs) to inflammation at midlife, by testing 3 competing theoretical models: stress generation, stress accumulation, and early life stress sensitization. We aimed to identify potential mediators between adversity and inflammation. Participants were 1,180 middle-aged and older adults from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) Biomar…
Sex differences in reports of illness and disability
Sex Differences in Health Status
Effects of a supportive or an unsupportive audience on biological and psychological responses to stress
Although social support is related to substantial benefits for health and well-being, research has uncovered qualifications to its benefits. In a test of the psychological and biological impact of an audience on responses to laboratory stress challenges, 183 participants going through the Trier Social Stress Test experienced either (a) an unsupportive audience, (b) a supportive audience, or (c) no audience. Both audience conditions produced signi…
Marital Quality, Gender, and Markers of Inflammation in the Midus Cohort
Marital quality is an important factor for understanding the relationship between marriage and health. Low-quality relationships may not have the same health benefits as high-quality relationships. To understand the association between marital quality and health, we examined associations between two indicators of marital quality (marital support and marital strain) and two biomarkers of inflammation (interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein) among me…
The Health Consequences of Multiple Morbidity in the Elderly
Longitudinal data from the Alameda County Study are used to examine three health consequences of multiple or co-morbidity, defined as the coexistence of two or more chronic conditions and/or symptoms. Age-adjusted analyses of the consequences of baseline co-morbidity show significant associations in both age groups with 17-year mortality, and with the development of multiple new conditions and the occurrence of depression over a 9-year follow-up.…
Monitoring Health Status, Access to Health Care, and Compliance Behavior in a Large Urban Community
This article summarizes results from 2 health surveys conducted in Los Angeles County in 1974 and 1977. The original objective of this analysis was to identify aggregate changes in the health status of this population, in access as measured by the use/disability ratio, and in self-reported compliance with medical regimens. Additionally, we have suggested that this study illustrates the value of local population surveys for health policy--particul…
Sex Differences in Health Status
Sex Differences in Reports of Illness and Disability
Data from health surveys typically show higher rates of morbidity among women than among men, while mortality data show the opposite pattern. Medical sociologists have formulated several key hypotheses to explain this female excess in morbidity-particularly as it occurs in milder forms of illness and disability. In this paper we examine one such hypothesis, using data from the Los Angeles Health Survey. According to the role hypothesis, inflexibl…
Sex differences in reports of illness and disability
Health Behavior and Personal Autonomy
Melvin Seeman, Teresa E. Seeman, Health Behavior and Personal Autonomy: A Longitudinal Study of the Sense of Control in Illness, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Vol. 24, No. 2 (Jun., 1983), pp. 144-160
Teetering on the horns of a dilemma
Social Network Ties and Mortality Among Tile Elderly in the Alameda County Study
Seventeen-year mortality data from the Alameda County Study are used to examine the relative importance of social ties as predictors of survival at different ages, ranging from 38-94 years at baseline. Previous analyses of Alameda County data by Berkman and Syme (Am J Epidemiol 1979;109:186-204) have shown that such ties are significant predictors of lower nine-year mortality risk for persons aged less than 70 years at baseline. Proportional haza…
Structural characteristics of social networks and their relationship with social support in the elderly
The Health Consequences of Multiple Morbidity in the Elderly
Longitudinal data from the Alameda County Study are used to examine three health consequences of multiple or co-morbidity, defined as the coexistence of two or more chronic conditions and/or symptoms. Age-adjusted analyses of the consequences of baseline co-morbidity show significant associations in both age groups with 17-year mortality, and with the development of multiple new conditions and the occurrence of depression over a 9-year follow-up.…
High, usual and impaired functioning in community-dwelling older men and women
Self-Efficacy and Cognitive Performance in High-Functioning Older Individuals
The hypothesis that stronger self-efficacy beliefs are associated with better cognitive performance at older ages was examined in a sample of men and women, age 70-79. Multiple domains of efficacy beliefs and cognitive abilities were examined. Analyses revealed considerable specificity in the observed associations. For men, multiple regression analyses revealed that instrumental efficacy beliefs were related to better performance on tests of memo…
Social ties and health
Impact of Social Environment Characteristics on Neuroendocrine Regulation
OBJECTIVE: This article reviews evidence relating social environment characteristics to patterns of neuroendocrine regulation. To date, although there has been considerable interest in the effects of social ties and support on health and longevity, less attention has been given to the effects of such social environment characteristics on actual physiologic parameters. METHOD: Animal and human studies from 1960s to the present are reviewed for evi…
Price of Adaptation—Allostatic Load and Its Health Consequences
BACKGROUND: Exponential growth in the population of older adults presents clinicians with special concerns about factors affecting risks for declines in cognitive and physical functioning. OBJECTIVES: To examine the hypothesis that risks for such declines and for disease outcomes, such as cardiovascular disease, are related to differences in allostatic load, the cumulative physiologic toll exacted on the body over time by efforts to adapt to life…
Beyond single indicators of social networks
Is Educational Attainment Associated With Shared Determinants of Health in the Elderly? Findings From the MacArthur Studies of Successful Aging
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the association of educational attainment with an array of risk factors for poor health among high-functioning older men and women. METHODS: Cross-sectional analyses of psychosocial, behavioral, and biological factors and educational attainment were conducted using data from a population-based cohort study of older men and women. Participants consisted of 70- to 79-year-old residents of communities of East Boston, MA; Ne…
Psychosocial Resources and the SES‐Health Relationship
A bstract : Psychosocial resources, which include optimism, coping style, a sense of mastery or personal control, and social support, influence the relationship between SES and health. To varying degrees, these resources appear to be differentially distributed by social class and related to health outcomes. Such resources may partially mediate the impact of SES on health. For example, environments that undermine personal control may have an impac…
Health Promoting Effects of Friends and Family on Health Outcomes in Older Adults
OBJECTIVE: To highlight the significant impact of social relationships on health and illness and suggest implications of these effects for health promotion efforts among older adults. DATA SOURCES: Published studies on social relationships and health (or health behaviors) for the period 1970-1998 were identified through MEDLINE by using the key words social relationships, social support, and health, as well as review of health-related journals su…
Measuring Social Integration and Social Networks
This chapter illustrates the various ways in which social integration hasbeen measured and provide guidelines for choosing an appropriate measure. It discusses the theoretical underpinnings of the social integration conceptand reviews the various measurement techniques that have been used, including an overview of both individual and community-level social integrationmeasures. It suggests that measurement techniques should be chosen in the contex…
From social integration to health
Social Environment Effects on Health and Aging
A bstract : This paper provides an overview of epidemiological and demographic research linking social characteristics of both individuals and communities to differences in both morbidity and mortality risks. Evidence is presented linking three broad aspects of the social environment to health—the network of personal social relationships within which most of us live our lives, individual socioeconomic status (SES), and community‐level social char…
Social relationships, social support, and patterns of cognitive aging in healthy, high-functioning older adults
This study examines the relationship of social ties and support to patterns of cognitive aging in the MacArthur Studies of Successful Aging (see L. F. Berkman et al., 1993), a cohort study of 1,189 initially high-functioning older adults. Baseline and longitudinal data provide information on initial levels as well as changes in cognitive performance over a 7.5-year period. Linear regression analyses revealed that participants receiving more emoti…
Allostatic load as a marker of cumulative biological risk
Allostatic load (AL) has been proposed as a new conceptualization of cumulative biological burden exacted on the body through attempts to adapt to life's demands. Using a multisystem summary measure of AL, we evaluated its capacity to predict four categories of health outcomes, 7 years after a baseline survey of 1,189 men and women age 70–79. Higher baseline AL scores were associated with significantly increased risk for 7-year mortality as well …
Allostatic load as a predictor of functional decline
Social Relationships, Gender, and Allostatic Load Across Two Age Cohorts
OBJECTIVE: This article addresses the question of biological pathways through which social integration and support may affect morbidity and mortality risks. A new concept of cumulative biological risk, allostatic load, is used to test the hypothesis that social experiences affect a range of biological systems. Data from two community-based cohorts are examined to evaluate the consistency of findings across two different age groups. METHODS: One c…
Medicine (59 works) · Psychology (58 works) · Gerontology (35 works) · Demography (33 works) · Health disparities and outcomes (33 works) · Gerontology (28 works) · Psychiatry (24 works) · Population (23 works) · Developmental psychology (21 works) · Environmental health (20 works)