Social relationships and health: is feeling positive, negative, or both (ambivalent) about your social ties related to telomeres?
OBJECTIVE
The quality of one's personal relationships has been linked to morbidity and mortality across different diseases. As a result, it is important to examine more integrative mechanisms that might link relationships across diverse physical health outcomes. In this study, we examine associations between relationships and telomeres that predict general disease risk. These questions are pursued in the context of a more comprehensive model of relationships that highlights the importance of jointly considering positive and negative aspects of social ties.


METHODS
One hundred thirty-six individuals from a community sample (ages 48 to 77 years) completed the social relationships index, which allows a determination of relationships that differ in their positive and negative substrates (i.e., ambivalent, supportive, aversive, indifferent). Telomere length was determined from peripheral blood mononuclear cells via quantitative polymerase chain reaction.


RESULTS
Participants who had a higher number of ambivalent ties in their social networks evidenced shorter telomeres. These results were independent of other relationship types (e.g., supportive) and standard control variables (e.g., age, health behaviors, and medication use). Gender moderated the links between ambivalent ties and telomere length, with these associations seen primarily in women. Follow-up analyses revealed that the links between ambivalent ties and telomeres were primarily due to friendships, parents, and social acquaintances.


CONCLUSIONS
Consistent with epidemiological findings, these data highlight a novel and integrative biological mechanism by which social ties may affect health across diseases and further suggest the importance of incorporating positivity and negativity in the study of specific relationships and physical health.
Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, USA. bert.uchino@psych.utah.edu
Bert N
BN
Uchino
Richard M
RM
Cawthon
Timothy W
TW
Smith
Kathleen C
KC
Light
Justin
J
McKenzie
McKenzie
M
Carlisle
Heather
H
Gunn
Wendy
W
Birmingham
Kimberly
K
Bowen
D000368:Aged; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016615:Telomere / Q000648:ultrastructure*; D059506:Telomere Shortening