George M Slavich
Biographic Data
| ID | 220129 |
|---|---|
| NAME | George M Slavich |
| GIVEN NAMES | George M |
| FAMILY NAME | Slavich |
| SIGNATURE | SLAVICH G M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of California, Los Angeles |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-5710-3818 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 33 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 60 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 33 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Racial Differences in the Association Between School Quality and Adult Health
Although school quality is associated with greater educational attainment and better health in population-wide studies, it remains unclear whether these effects are experienced similarly across racial and ethnic groups in the USA. To explore this question, we used the nationally representative National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health to examine the association between four individual school quality indicators (student promotion r…
Lifetime Stressor Exposure Profiles and Trait Risk for Substance Use in Young Adults
Background: Substance use severity is shaped by a range of developmental and psychological factors, including the timing of stressor exposure across the lifespan. Previous research identified early-life stressor exposure as a factor in this progression, but emerging research has suggested the importance of considering the timing of stressor exposure across development. Objectives: Here, we tested whether distinct profiles of stressor exposure—in …
Optimism, Lifetime Financial Stressors, and Mental Health Among Racially, Sexually, and Gender Minoritized Emerging Adults
Improving the Assessment of Childhood Adversity
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40653-026-00817-2
Examining systemic inflammation as a pathway linking peer victimization to depressive symptoms in adolescence
BACKGROUND: Adolescents exposed to victimization are at an increased risk for a variety of adverse mental health outcomes, including depressive symptoms. Yet, the biological pathways underlying these associations remain poorly understood. Focusing on within-person processes, we examined whether low-grade systemic inflammation mediated the longitudinal associations between peer victimization and depressive symptoms in adolescence. METHODS: = 12.69…
Prevalence of Adverse Childhood Experience Exposure by Disability Status
This cross-sectional study uses a population-based dataset to examine the prevalence of adverse childhood experiences in people with many different types of disability
Lifetime Stressor Severity and Diurnal Cortisol in Older African American Adults
Multiple theoretical models have been proposed to explain how stressor exposure across the life course relates to the functioning of the hypothalamic‐pituitary‐adrenal (HPA) axis, as indexed by daily cortisol secretion. However, this association remains understudied in African Americans. The present study tested three competing models of stressor severity across the lifespan and diurnal cortisol secretion in a sample of 203 older African American…
Theoretical and Quantitative Disconnect When Modeling Adverse Childhood Experiences Using a Common Factor Framework
Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are highly impactful stressors that increase individuals' risk for a plethora of negative developmental and health outcomes. Furthermore, minoritized groups and under-resourced individuals are at higher risk for ACEs, positioning these stressors as possible mechanisms driving health disparities. Given this fact, a strong methodological foundation is necessary to ensure maximal clinical value. As emphasized by …
Stress, positive affect, and sleep in older African American adults
BACKGROUND: Although sleep disparities contribute to racial health disparities, little is known about factors affecting sleep among African Americans. One such factor may be positive affect, which could impact sleep directly (direct effect hypothesis) or indirectly by buffering the effects of stress (stress buffering hypothesis). PURPOSE: We tested the direct effect and stress buffering effects of positive affect on sleep at three levels (day, we…
Risk and Protective Effects of Need for Approval on Self-Injury in Adolescent Girls
Lifetime stressor exposure, eating expectancy, and acute social stress-related eating behavior
Prefrontal Cortex Volume Mediates the Relationship Between Lifetime Chronic Stressor Exposure and Cognition in People Living With and Without HIV
OBJECTIVE: Despite considerable research documenting how stress affects brain and neurobehavioral outcomes, few studies have assessed stressor exposure occurring over the entire life span, and no studies have investigated these associations in people living with HIV (PLWH), despite the high stress and disease burden experienced by this population. To address this issue, we examined how cumulative lifetime chronic stressor exposure related to cogn…
Effects of Early Life Adversity on Pubertal Timing and Tempo in Black and White Girls
Screening for early life abuse may help address health disparities related to earlier pubertal timing
Stress Measurement in Primary Care
OBJECTIVE: Exposure to stressors in daily life and dysregulated stress responses are associated with increased risk for a variety of chronic mental and physical health problems, including anxiety disorders, depression, asthma, heart disease, certain cancers, and autoimmune and neurodegenerative disorders. Despite this fact, stress exposure and responses are rarely assessed in the primary care setting and infrequently targeted for disease preventi…
Behavioral Psychedelics
One of the most recent and potentially promising advancements in the health sciences has involved the attempted use of psychedelics for treating mental and behavioral health problems, such as anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and addiction. Despite surging scientific and public interest in this work, however, we presently have no standard of care or consensus regarding how best to combine psychotherapy and psychedelics or to ass…
Associations between lifetime stress exposure, race, and first-birth intendedness in the United States
This study examined how lifetime stress exposure and race are associated with first-birth intendedness, and whether these associations differ based on stress exposure timing. Greater lifetime stress exposure was related to increased first-birth intendedness for black women but was unrelated or even associated with decreased first-birth intendedness for white women, depending on stress exposure timing. These effects were robust while controlling f…
Mental health and clinical psychological science in the time of Covid-19
Belonging
Objective: A sense of belonging – the subjective feeling of deep connection with social groups, physical places, and individual and collective experiences – is a fundamental human need that predicts numerous mental, physical, social, economic, and behavioural outcomes. However, varying perspectives on how belonging should be conceptualised, assessed, and cultivated has hampered much-needed progress on this timely and important topic. To address t…
Research priorities to address the global burden of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the next decade
BACKGROUND: The global prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has increased markedly in recent decades. Given the scarcity of resources available to address global health challenges and respiratory medicine being relatively under-invested in, it is important to define research priorities for COPD globally. In this paper, we aim to identify a ranked set of COPD research priorities that need to be addressed in the next 10 years …
Achieving status and reducing loneliness during the transition to college
Although many emerging adults struggle to gain status and develop social relationships, particularly during the college transition, it remains unclear whether certain personality traits facilitate this transition. Using a longitudinal design, we investigated whether status-related traits-namely, entitlement, intrasexual competitiveness, and dominance-related to the development of status in 91 first-year college students ( M age =18.15, SD =0.44) …
Cumulative lifetime stress exposure predicts greater impulsivity and addictive behaviors
The study investigated whether lifetime stress exposure is associated with greater impulsivity and addictive behavior. We also examined whether stress and impulsivity interactively predicted food addiction and alcohol-related behavior. Greater lifetime stress exposure was related to more impulsivity and food addictive behaviors, but not alcohol-related consequences. There were no interactions between lifetime stress exposure and impulsivity in pr…
Social Safety Theory
Social Safety Theory hypothesizes that developing and maintaining friendly social bonds is a fundamental organizing principle of human behavior and that threats to social safety are a critical feature of psychological stressors that increase risk for disease. Central to this formulation is the fact that the human brain and immune system are principally designed to keep the body biologically safe, which they do by continually monitoring and respon…
Early life stress, subjective social status, and health during late adolescence
Objective: Both lower subjective social status (SSS)—or viewing oneself as having lower status relative to others—and greater early life stress consistently relate to poorer health in adolescence. Early life stress can also negatively influence one’s social relationships and may thereby shape social status. The present studies investigated how early life stress relates to the development of SSS and how SSS relates to health across the transition …
Chronic inflammation in the etiology of disease across the life span
More than a feeling
Stress can influence health throughout the lifespan, yet there is little agreement about what types and aspects of stress matter most for human health and disease. This is in part because "stress" is not a monolithic concept but rather, an emergent process that involves interactions between individual and environmental factors, historical and current events, allostatic states, and psychological and physiological reactivity. Many of these processe…
From stress to inflammation and major depressive disorder
Major life stressors, especially those involving interpersonal stress and social rejection, are among the strongest proximal risk factors for depression. In this review, we propose a biologically plausible, multilevel theory that describes neural, physiologic, molecular, and genomic mechanisms that link experiences of social-environmental stress with internal biological processes that drive depression pathogenesis. Central to this social signal t…
Effects of lifetime stress exposure on mental and physical health in young adulthood
To examine risk and resilience factors that affect health, lifetime stress exposure histories, dispositional forgiveness levels, and mental and physical health were assessed in 148 young adults. Greater lifetime stress severity and lower levels of forgiveness each uniquely predicted worse mental and physical health. Analyses also revealed a graded Stress × Forgiveness interaction effect, wherein associations between stress and mental health were …
Cumulative lifetime stress exposure predicts greater impulsivity and addictive behaviors
The study investigated whether lifetime stress exposure is associated with greater impulsivity and addictive behavior. We also examined whether stress and impulsivity interactively predicted food addiction and alcohol-related behavior. Greater lifetime stress exposure was related to more impulsivity and food addictive behaviors, but not alcohol-related consequences. There were no interactions between lifetime stress exposure and impulsivity in pr…
Transformational Teaching
The Emerging Field of Human Social Genomics
Although we generally experience our bodies as being biologically stable across time and situations, an emerging field of research is demonstrating that external social conditions, especially our subjective perceptions of those conditions, can influence our most basic internal biological processes—namely, the expression of our genes. This research on human social genomics has begun to identify the types of genes that are subject to social-environ…
From stress to inflammation and major depressive disorder
Major life stressors, especially those involving interpersonal stress and social rejection, are among the strongest proximal risk factors for depression. In this review, we propose a biologically plausible, multilevel theory that describes neural, physiologic, molecular, and genomic mechanisms that link experiences of social-environmental stress with internal biological processes that drive depression pathogenesis. Central to this social signal t…
Cumulative burden of lifetime adversities
This study examined the utility of a lifetime cumulative adversities and trauma model in predicting the severity of mental health symptoms of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder. We also tested whether ethnicity and gender moderate the effects of this stress exposure construct on mental health using multigroup structural equation modeling. A sample of 500 low-socioeconomic status African American and Latino men and women with h…
Stress-related changes in personality
Effects of lifetime stress exposure on mental and physical health in young adulthood
To examine risk and resilience factors that affect health, lifetime stress exposure histories, dispositional forgiveness levels, and mental and physical health were assessed in 148 young adults. Greater lifetime stress severity and lower levels of forgiveness each uniquely predicted worse mental and physical health. Analyses also revealed a graded Stress × Forgiveness interaction effect, wherein associations between stress and mental health were …
Handbook of Psychophysiology
More than a feeling
Stress can influence health throughout the lifespan, yet there is little agreement about what types and aspects of stress matter most for human health and disease. This is in part because "stress" is not a monolithic concept but rather, an emergent process that involves interactions between individual and environmental factors, historical and current events, allostatic states, and psychological and physiological reactivity. Many of these processe…
Assessing Lifetime Stress Exposure Using the Stress and Adversity Inventory for Adults (Adult STRAIN)
OBJECTIVE: Numerous theories have proposed that acute and chronic stressors may exert a cumulative effect on life-span health by causing biological "wear and tear," or allostatic load, which in turn promotes disease. Very few studies have directly tested such models, though, partly because of the challenges associated with efficiently assessing stress exposure over the entire life course. To address this issue, we developed the first online syste…
Chronic inflammation in the etiology of disease across the life span
Social Safety Theory
Social Safety Theory hypothesizes that developing and maintaining friendly social bonds is a fundamental organizing principle of human behavior and that threats to social safety are a critical feature of psychological stressors that increase risk for disease. Central to this formulation is the fact that the human brain and immune system are principally designed to keep the body biologically safe, which they do by continually monitoring and respon…
Early life stress, subjective social status, and health during late adolescence
Objective: Both lower subjective social status (SSS)—or viewing oneself as having lower status relative to others—and greater early life stress consistently relate to poorer health in adolescence. Early life stress can also negatively influence one’s social relationships and may thereby shape social status. The present studies investigated how early life stress relates to the development of SSS and how SSS relates to health across the transition …
Mental health and clinical psychological science in the time of Covid-19
Belonging
Objective: A sense of belonging – the subjective feeling of deep connection with social groups, physical places, and individual and collective experiences – is a fundamental human need that predicts numerous mental, physical, social, economic, and behavioural outcomes. However, varying perspectives on how belonging should be conceptualised, assessed, and cultivated has hampered much-needed progress on this timely and important topic. To address t…
Research priorities to address the global burden of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the next decade
BACKGROUND: The global prevalence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) has increased markedly in recent decades. Given the scarcity of resources available to address global health challenges and respiratory medicine being relatively under-invested in, it is important to define research priorities for COPD globally. In this paper, we aim to identify a ranked set of COPD research priorities that need to be addressed in the next 10 years …
Achieving status and reducing loneliness during the transition to college
Although many emerging adults struggle to gain status and develop social relationships, particularly during the college transition, it remains unclear whether certain personality traits facilitate this transition. Using a longitudinal design, we investigated whether status-related traits-namely, entitlement, intrasexual competitiveness, and dominance-related to the development of status in 91 first-year college students ( M age =18.15, SD =0.44) …
Cumulative lifetime stress exposure predicts greater impulsivity and addictive behaviors
The study investigated whether lifetime stress exposure is associated with greater impulsivity and addictive behavior. We also examined whether stress and impulsivity interactively predicted food addiction and alcohol-related behavior. Greater lifetime stress exposure was related to more impulsivity and food addictive behaviors, but not alcohol-related consequences. There were no interactions between lifetime stress exposure and impulsivity in pr…
Prefrontal Cortex Volume Mediates the Relationship Between Lifetime Chronic Stressor Exposure and Cognition in People Living With and Without HIV
OBJECTIVE: Despite considerable research documenting how stress affects brain and neurobehavioral outcomes, few studies have assessed stressor exposure occurring over the entire life span, and no studies have investigated these associations in people living with HIV (PLWH), despite the high stress and disease burden experienced by this population. To address this issue, we examined how cumulative lifetime chronic stressor exposure related to cogn…
Effects of Early Life Adversity on Pubertal Timing and Tempo in Black and White Girls
Screening for early life abuse may help address health disparities related to earlier pubertal timing
Stress Measurement in Primary Care
OBJECTIVE: Exposure to stressors in daily life and dysregulated stress responses are associated with increased risk for a variety of chronic mental and physical health problems, including anxiety disorders, depression, asthma, heart disease, certain cancers, and autoimmune and neurodegenerative disorders. Despite this fact, stress exposure and responses are rarely assessed in the primary care setting and infrequently targeted for disease preventi…
Behavioral Psychedelics
One of the most recent and potentially promising advancements in the health sciences has involved the attempted use of psychedelics for treating mental and behavioral health problems, such as anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and addiction. Despite surging scientific and public interest in this work, however, we presently have no standard of care or consensus regarding how best to combine psychotherapy and psychedelics or to ass…
Associations between lifetime stress exposure, race, and first-birth intendedness in the United States
This study examined how lifetime stress exposure and race are associated with first-birth intendedness, and whether these associations differ based on stress exposure timing. Greater lifetime stress exposure was related to increased first-birth intendedness for black women but was unrelated or even associated with decreased first-birth intendedness for white women, depending on stress exposure timing. These effects were robust while controlling f…
Lifetime stressor exposure, eating expectancy, and acute social stress-related eating behavior
Risk and Protective Effects of Need for Approval on Self-Injury in Adolescent Girls
Examining systemic inflammation as a pathway linking peer victimization to depressive symptoms in adolescence
BACKGROUND: Adolescents exposed to victimization are at an increased risk for a variety of adverse mental health outcomes, including depressive symptoms. Yet, the biological pathways underlying these associations remain poorly understood. Focusing on within-person processes, we examined whether low-grade systemic inflammation mediated the longitudinal associations between peer victimization and depressive symptoms in adolescence. METHODS: = 12.69…
Psychology (25 works) · Medicine (19 works) · Clinical Psychology (17 works) · Psychiatry (12 works) · Developmental psychology (11 works) · Mental health (11 works) · Stress Responses and Cortisol (11 works) · Stressor (10 works) · Social Psychology (9 works) · Clinical Psychology (7 works)