Eating moderates the link between body mass index and perceived social connection

Typhoid vaccine does not impact feelings of social connection or social behavior in a randomized crossover trial among middle-aged female breast cancer survivors

BACKGROUND

Inflammation can have social consequences, which may be relevant to inflammation's link with depression. The current study tests whether a typhoid vaccine increases feelings of social disconnection and avoidance behavior.

METHOD

In two full-day visits at least three weeks apart, 172 postmenopausal breast cancer survivors (Stage I-IIIA) each received a typhoid capsular polysaccharide vaccination and a saline placebo injection in a random sequence. Blood was drawn prior to the injection, as well as every 90 min thereafter for 8 h to assess the inflammatory response (interleukin-6, IL-6; interleukin-1 receptor antagonist, IL-1Ra). At both visits, women completed the Social Connection Scale at 0 and 8.5 h post-vaccination as well as implicit and explicit social avoidance tasks at 7 h post-vaccination.

RESULTS

The typhoid vaccine triggered rises in both inflammatory markers (ps < 0.01), but it did not impact feelings of social connection (p = .32), or performance on the implicit (p = .34) or explicit tasks (p = .37). Inflammatory rises did not predict feelings of social connection (ps > 0.64) or performance on explicit (ps > 0.73) or implicit (ps > 0.88) social avoidance tasks.

CONCLUSION

Milder inflammatory stimuli may not affect social processes. Higher levels of inflammation or, relatedly, more sickness symptoms may be necessary to recapitulate prior findings of social avoidance.

Effect of COVID-19 disruptions on young adults' affect and substance use in daily life

OBJECTIVE

Guided by accounts of adjustment in daily life as a key indicator of health, the current study examined prospective changes in young adults' emotions and substance behaviors assessed during a normative baseline period and during the acute COVID-19 disruption period in late March/early April 2020. The COVID-19 assessment also collected psychosocial risk factors expected to moderate changes in adjustment across time.

METHOD

Participants included 295 young adults (70.8% female; ages 18-21 at baseline), drawn from an ongoing study of daily behaviors and health in college life that oversampled for recent substance behaviors, who completed both the baseline and COVID-19 assessments. Hypotheses were tested using analyses of repeated-measures data that included covariates of length of time between assessments and sampling group status.

RESULTS

Direct tests in support of hypotheses indicated an increase in negative affect (d = .67, p < .001), and greater alcohol use (d = .75, p < .001) and marijuana use (d = .58, p < .001), in daily life across time. Levels of positive affect (d = .08, p > .05), nicotine use (d = .01, p > .05), and prescription drug misuse (d = .003, p > .05) did not reliably change in tests of direct models. Moderation tests indicated several risk factors for experiencing steeper increases in negative affect, and increased likelihood of marijuana and nicotine use, in daily life across time.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings offer implications for future research and clinical efforts to improve young adult adjustment in response to the pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

United on Sunday: The effects of secular rituals on social bonding and affect

Religious rituals are associated with health benefits, potentially produced via social bonding. It is unknown whether secular rituals similarly increase social bonding. We conducted a field study with individuals who celebrate secular rituals at Sunday Assemblies and compared them with participants attending Christian rituals. We assessed levels of social bonding and affect before and after the rituals. Results showed the increase in social bonding taking place in secular rituals is comparable to religious rituals. We also found that both sets of rituals increased positive affect and decreased negative affect, and that the change in positive affect predicted the change in social bonding observed. Together these results suggest that secular rituals might play a similar role to religious ones in fostering feelings of social connection and boosting positive affect.

Measurement of the influences of social processes in appetite using ecological momentary assessment

Obesity and eating disorders are serious health concerns that both involve dysregulated eating patterns, including binge eating and emotional eating. Though social processes and appetite dysregulation have been shown to predict dysregulated eating separately, limited research has examined the potential link between social processes and appetite in daily life. The purpose of the present study was to examine the association between naturally occurring social processes previously linked with dysregulated eating and appetite using ecological momentary assessment (EMA). Thirty women with binge-eating pathology completed five semi-random EMA surveys a day for 14 days. The EMA surveys included measures of social processes that occurred between surveys (i.e., interpersonal problems, body social comparisons, social media use, and external pressures for thinness) and assessments of appetite at time of survey. Multilevel analyses revealed that each social process approximately 2-h prior positively predicted appetite. Further, using lagged analyses, all of the social processes approximately 4-h prior, aside from social media use, predicted appetite. Our findings suggest that social processes are important in predicting appetite among women with binge-eating pathology. Future extensions of this research that include measures of dysregulated eating are needed.