National Study of Daily Experiences

National Study of Daily Experiences (NSDE)

Dave Almeida is the PI of this project--one of the in-depth studies included in the MacAuthur Foundation National Survey of Midlife in the United States (MIDUS). NSDE  examines the day-to-day lives and stressful experiences of a subsample of MIDUS respondents.  In contrast to previous studies, which relied on small samples that limit the generalizability of findings, examined only one dimension of reactivity, and relied on self-administered check lists of stressors, NSDE:  

• uses a large national sample of US adults;
• utilizes a wide array of personality variables and sociodemographic characteristics;
• uses a semi-structured telephone interview instrument;
• collects quantitative and qualitative information;
• collects biomarker data on stress.

Using a subsample of 242 identical and fraternal same-sex twin pairs, NSDE also explores how genes and environment interact to determine how individuals adapt to day-to-day stressful experiences. An active Program Project Grant on Integrative Pathways to Health during Adulthood includes Almeida, Carol Ryff, Burton Singer, Margie Lachman, and Richard Davidson as project leaders.

Hotel Work and Well-Being: PSU Hotel Managers Initiative .

Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, 2005-2008 (Co-Investigator).

 Hotels are a fascinating window into work-life issues. Hotels operate on a 24/7, 365-days-per-year basis. The serenity of hotel lobbies is belied by the often frantic hustle and bustle in the “back of the house” as employees serve meals, clean rooms, organize banquets and weddings, and respond to guests’ needs. “Exciting” and “stressful” are two adjectives that hotel employees frequently use to describe their work. The Penn State Hotel Work & Well Being Initiative pulls together researchers from the fields of hospitality management, human development and family studies, industrial organization psychology, and biobehavioral health to examine work-life issues in the hotel industry. The project is gathering information about work-life issues with the ultimate goal of formulating recommendations to the industry about workplace policies and practices that would facilitate high levels of performance on and off the job.

Work Stress Health and Parenting among Hotel Employees.

National Institute of Child Health and Development, National Institutes of Health (Co-Principal Investigator)

The Penn State Hotel Initiative team is using a multi-method approach to gather data on the health of hotel employees ranging from corporate executives to hourly workers. They define health very broadly. The project uses interviews with corporate executives and general managers; and daily diary telephone interviews on eight consecutive days with department managers, their spouses, hourly hotel workers, and their children. The daily diary focuses on the links between work experiences and physical symptoms, emotions, and health behavior. They also are asking department managers and their spouses for saliva on four of the diary days to test for two stress hormones.