Racial discrimination and cortisol in African American emerging adults: The role of neighborhood racial composition (original) (raw)
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Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2015
Perceived racial discrimination (PRD) has been associated with altered diurnal cortisol rhythms in past cross-sectional research. We investigate whether developmental histories of PRD, assessed prospectively, are associated with adult diurnal cortisol profiles. One-hundred and twelve (N = 50 Black, N = 62 White) adults from the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study provided saliva samples in adulthood (at approximately age 32 years) at waking, 30 min after waking, and at bedtime for 7 days. Diurnal cortisol measures were calculated, including waking cortisol levels, diurnal cortisol slopes, the cortisol awakening response (CAR), and average daily cortisol (AUC). These cortisol outcomes were predicted from measures of PRD obtained over a 20-year period beginning when individuals were in 7th grade (approximately age 12). Greater average PRD measured across the 20-year period predicted flatter adult diurnal cortisol slopes for both Black and White adults, and a lower CAR. Greater average PRD also predicted lower waking cortisol for Black, but not White adults. PRD experiences in adolescence accounted for many of these effects. When adolescent and young adult PRD are entered together predicting cortisol outcomes, PRD experiences in adolescence (but not young adulthood) significantly predicted flatter diurnal cortisol slopes for both Black and White adults. Adolescent, but not young adult PRD, also significantly predicted lower waking and lower average cortisol for Black adults. Young adult PRD was, however, a stronger predictor of the CAR, predicting a marginally lower CAR for Whites, and a significantly larger CAR for Blacks. Effects were robust to controlling for covariates including health behaviors, depression, income and parent education levels. PRD experiences interacted with parent education and income to predict aspects of the diurnal cortisol rhythm. Although these results suggest PRD influences on cortisol for both Blacks and Whites, the key findings suggest that the effects are more pervasive for Blacks, affecting multiple aspects of the cortisol diurnal rhythm. In addition, adolescence is a more sensitive developmental period than adulthood for the impacts of PRD on adult stress biology.
Journal of Community Psychology, 2018
Racial discrimination is associated with numerous psychological consequences, including increased depressive symptoms for African American adolescents (Brody et al., 2006; Wong, Eccles, & Sameroff, 2003). Adolescents' perceptions of their neighborhood can influence how youth interpret and manage racial discrimination (Sampson, Morenoff, & Gannon-Rowley, 2002). Yet little is known about how adolescent perceptions of neighborhood cohesion and neighborhood disorganization protect or exacerbate the effects of racial discrimination, or how these effects vary by youth's gender. Therefore, the current study examined whether neighborhood social cohesion and neighborhood disorganization moderated the association between racial discrimination and depressive symptoms for African American adolescents and how the effects differ for boys and girls. Participants were 106 African American adolescents (57% female; mean age 15.14) from an urban metropolitan area. Regression analyses indicated that perceptions of neighborhood social cohesion protected against racial discrimination for boys and girls. Additionally, the results suggest that when boys perceive less neighborhood disorganization, racial discrimination has a greater influence on their depressive symptoms. Findings have implications for intervention and prevention efforts that enhance and utilize positive neighborhood social processes for youth contending with racial discrimination.
Development and Psychopathology, 2017
Children who grow up in poverty are more likely to experience chronic stressors that generate "wear" on stress regulatory systems including the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. This can have long-term consequences for health and well-being. Prior research has examined the role of proximal family and home contributions to HPA axis functioning. However, there is evidence to suggest that more distal levels of context, including neighborhoods, also matter. Prior evidence has primarily focused on adolescents and adults, with little evidence linking the neighborhood context with HPA activity in infancy and toddlerhood. We tested whether neighborhood disadvantage (indexed by US Census data) was associated with basal salivary cortisol levels at 7, 15, and 24 months of child age in a large sample of families (N = 1,292) residing in predominately low-income and rural communities in the United States. Multilevel models indicated that neighborhood disadvantage was positively associated with salivary cortisol levels and that this effect emerged across time. This effect was moderated by the race/ethnicity of children such that the association was only observed in White children in our sample. Findings provide preliminary evidence that the neighborhood context is associated with stress regulation during toddlerhood, elucidating a need for future work to address possible mechanisms. Research in child development is now converging on the idea that the origins of adult disease may lie in children's experiences in very early life (Shonkoff, Boyce, & McEwen, 2009). In particular, exposure to chronic adversity during childhood has been shown to shape the neural and physiologic systems involved in the body's stress response in ways that are injurious to lifelong physical and mental health (Cohen, Janicki-Deverts, Chen, & Matthews, 2010; Evans & Kim, 2012; McEwen, 2000, 2007). The hypothalamus-pituitaryadrenal (HPA) axis and its chemical output cortisol have been a main focus of research in this domain, and the effects of proximal psychosocial, sociodemographic, and family stress on children's HPA axis functioning have been recently documented (e.g.
Neighborhood racial discrimination and the development of major depression
Journal of abnormal psychology, 2018
This study examined the impact of neighborhood racial discrimination on the development of major depressive disorder (MDD) in a sample of African American women. Participants were 499 women from Georgia and Iowa with no history of MDD who were followed for 9 to 11 years. Several neighborhood characteristics (community social disorder, community cohesion, and community racism) and individual characteristics (negative life events, financial strain, personal outlook, religious involvement, relationship quality, negative affectivity, and individual experiences of racism) were employed as predictors of whether or not the women met criteria for MDD during this period of time. In a multilevel logistic regression analysis, neighborhood-level discrimination as well as individual-level variables including the number of negative life events, financial strain, and negative affectivity were found to be significant predictors of developing MDD. Analyses of cross-level interactions indicated that ...
Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2012
The current study considered the influence of perceived discrimination on the diurnal cortisol rhythm of 50 African American older adults and a matched comparison groups of 100 Whites (M age =56.6; 58% female). The role of socioeconomic status (SES) as a moderator of the effects of discrimination on the diurnal decline was also considered for each group. In support of the idea that perceptions of unfair treatment take on a unique meaning for stigmatized minority groups, results suggest that perceived discrimination is associated with a flatter (less healthy) diurnal slope among Whites but a steeper (more healthy) diurnal slope among African Americans. Perceived discrimination was also found to be more strongly associated with a steepening of the diurnal slope among lower SES African Americans than higher SES African Americans.
Social context matters: Ethnicity, discrimination and stress reactivity
Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2017
Exposure to chronic discrimination is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. The study of biobehavioral pathways linking discrimination with health outcomes has mostly focused on the cardiovascular system, with fewer studies addressing the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. In this study we tested associations between Latino ethnicity, experiences of discrimination, and cortisol responses to an acute laboratory stressor. One hundred fifty eight individuals (92 female, 66 male) between the ages of 18 and 29 years participated in the study. Salivary cortisol was measured once before and eight times after administration of a laboratory stressor (the Trier Social Stress Test). Past experiences of discrimination were measured with the Experiences of Discrimination Scale. Findings from conditional process modeling suggest that Latino ethnicity predicted a) heightened cortisol reactivity and b) more pronounced cortisol recovery through discrimination experiences (mediator), and that this effect was further moderated by sex with a significant indirect effect only among males. The direct path from Latino ethnicity to cortisol reactivity or cortisol recovery was, however, not significant. In sum, findings suggest that Latino ethnicity and discrimination interact to predict cortisol dysregulation, which implies that an appropriate model for understanding minority health discrepancies must incorporate interactive processes and cannot simply rely on the effects of ethnicity or discrimination alone.
Do neighbourhoods matter? Neighbourhood disorder and long-term trends in serum cortisol levels
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 2010
Background-Characteristics associated with low socioeconomic status neighborhoods may put children at risk for unique chronic stressors that affect cortisol levels. This research sought to explore whether neighborhood stressor exposure affected serum cortisol levels among children. Methods-A total of 148 African and European American children with an average age of 8.28 years participated in a longitudinal study evaluating ethnic differences in body composition and disease risk. A total of five waves of data were included in analyses. Mixed modeling was used to explore neighborhood stressors, which was a composite index of five items for zip code level poverty and physical disorder, and serum cortisol outcomes for the full sample, by race/ethnicity and gender. Adjustments were made for individual level correlates age, pubertal status, gender, and total fat mass. Results-Neighborhood disorder was predictive of lower serum cortisol levels among African American children (p<.05), such that higher neighborhood stressor exposure resulted in lower serum cortisol over time compared to individuals in socially ordered neighborhoods. Neighborhood disorder was marginally significant and predictive of higher serum cortisol among European American children (p <.10). Transition to a higher pubertal status, nested in age was also predictive of lower serum cortisol levels (p<.01) among European American children. Conclusion-Children who are exposed to negative socioenviornmental climates over time are more likely to have altered serum cortisol levels. This may be an adaptive mechanism to cope with stress; however, disrupted cortisol levels may have negative effects on general physical and mental health. Keywords Neighborhood; cortisol; children Neighborhood environments may be sources of negative stressful stimuli that pose significant health risks for children. The work of William Julius Wilson suggests that health outcomes within specific geographic locations cannot be understood without taking into account the social and economic circumstances from which they emerge. 1, 2 Researchers posit that neighborhood chronic stressors such as noise, violence, and poverty may disrupt