# Social Relationship Qualities as Predictors of Health & Aging from Adolescence through Early Midlife

> **NIH NIH R37** · UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA · 2021 · $610,809

## Abstract

Project Summary
Public health efforts in adolescence aimed at life course physical health promotion have to date focused almost
exclusively on addressing physiological risk factors and health behaviors (e.g., weight, smoking, etc.). This
proposal examines a far-reaching hypothesis with the potential to open up new venues for intervention: that
social relationship qualities established in adolescence have an integral, long-term relationship to life course
physical health and aging processes.
The proposed study will clarify both the existence and the mechanisms by which two specific relationship
qualities in adolescence—experience of hostile conflict and absence of supportive relationships—are linked to
midlife health and aging outcomes. It uses uniquely rich longitudinal data on peer, romantic partner, and family
relationship qualities across a 25-year span, to address four overarching aims: 1) direct prediction of midlife
health & aging from adolescent social relationship qualities; 2) assessment of mediational vs. weathering
explanations of links from adolescence to midlife health & aging outcomes; 3) examination of mediation of
adolescent-midlife linkages via mental health and health behaviors; and 4) examination of biologic and
contextual mediators and moderators of observed adolescent-midlife linkages.
The proposed study addresses each of these Aims with a uniquely intense combination of repeated interviews,
sociometric assessments, and direct observations of interactions with parents, peers, and romantic partners,
with the new addition in midlife of an array of highly valid physiological indicators of health and aging—all
obtained from a socio-demographically diverse final sample of 172 individuals (with 97% sample retention to
date), followed across a 25-year span, from age 13 into midlife (ages 33 – 37). The proposed study has
significance in allowing: a. identification of several entirely new arenas within adolescence for potential
interventions to promote lifelong health and healthy aging; b. suggest specific relational characteristics to target
across this period in screening and preventive interventions; c. distinguish social processes in adolescence
that directly predict accelerated aging (and are thus critical to address within adolescence) from those that lead
to mediated chains of risk (which would suggest multiple promising points of intervention); and d. dramatically
advance overall theoretical understanding of the ways in which early relationship difficulties are linked to and
potentially affect physical health and aging outcomes well into midlife.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10189669
- **Project number:** 5R37HD058305-25
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA
- **Principal Investigator:** JOSEPH Patrick ALLEN
- **Activity code:** R37 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $610,809
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2008-07-10 → 2023-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10189669

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10189669, Social Relationship Qualities as Predictors of Health & Aging from Adolescence through Early Midlife (5R37HD058305-25). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10189669. Licensed CC0.

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