Three studies examined the conceptualization and assessment of health-related social control in marriage. Using a sample of 100 couples, Study 1 tested the idea that social control is best thought of as the exercise of power and control in close relationships. Results did not support this conceptualization or assessment of health-related social control in marriage. Based on these results, Study 2 collected qualitative data from husbands and wives via focus groups to explore the use of social control tactics that couples use to change health behavior. Results indicated that many tactics reported by spouses are not contained in the social influence literature, and that the exercise of social control in marriage may best be characterized of as an interdependent communally oriented process between spouses. Using another sample of 109 married couples, Study 3 tested the reliability and validity of a measure developed from the qualitative data. Results indicated the new measure of health-related social control tactics evidenced better reliability and validity than the measure used in Study 1.

Self-efficacy is an important factor for management of self-care practices and physiological outcomes among young adults with Type I diabetes, and self-care may be an important mechanism by which self-efficacy influences HbA1c levels.

Results provide the first evidence that CVR may mediate the relation between household density and medical illness in children. More generally, these findings support the role of allostasis as an underlying mechanism in the link between chronic stress and health.