Background Using Jackson Heart Study data, we examined associations of multiple measures of perceived discrimination with health behaviors among African Americans (AA). Methods The cross-sectional associations of everyday, lifetime, and burden of discrimination with odds of smoking and mean differences in physical activity, dietary fat, and sleep were examined among 4,939 35–84 year old participants after adjustment for age and socioeconomic status (SES). Results Men reported slightly higher levels of everyday and lifetime discrimination than women and similar levels of burden of discrimination as women. After adjustment for age and SES, everyday discrimination was associated with more smoking and a greater percentage of dietary fat in men and women (OR for smoking: 1.13, 95%CI 1.00,1.28 and 1.19, 95%CI 1.05,1.34; mean difference in dietary fat: 0.37, p<.05 and 0.43, p<.01, in men and women, respectively). Everyday and lifetime discrimination were associated with fewer hours of sleep in men and women (mean difference for everyday discrimination: −0.08, p<.05 and −0.18, p<.001, respectively; and mean difference for lifetime discrimination: −0.08, p<.05, and −0.24, p<.001, respectively). Burden of discrimination was associated with more smoking and fewer hours of sleep in women only. Conclusions Higher levels of perceived discrimination were associated with select health behaviors among men and women. Health behaviors offer a potential mechanism through which perceived discrimination affects health in AA.

Evidence suggests that the consequences of chronic exposure to stressors extend beyond psychological effects, and that adolescents living in socio-economically disadvantaged neighborhoods may experience an accumulation of exposure to stressors that wears down the physical systems in the body, resulting in hyper-activation of the stress response. This research examines the relationship between exposure to neighborhood stressors and salivary cortisol reactivity in a sample of 163 at-risk African American adolescents (average age 21; 50% female) living in disadvantaged urban neighborhoods. More specifically, the relationship between neighborhood stressors and physiological stress, measured by baseline cortisol and cortisol reactivity is assessed. This research also examines several moderating pathways between exposure to neighborhood disadvantage and cortisol reactivity including substance use, high effort coping, psychological stress and social support. Results indicate that both individual and neighborhood-level factors influence adolescent cortisol. High effort coping and psychological stress were associated with cortisol in the sample, and exposure to neighborhood socio-economic disadvantage resulted in an atypical cortisol response. In addition, neighborhood disadvantage interacted with intra- and interpersonal factors to affect cortisol indirectly. Thus, living in disadvantaged neighborhoods may take a psychological and physiological toll on adolescents, and it also may exert synergistic effects through individual coping and vulnerabilities.

We examine the association between neighborhood socio‐economic disadvantage and perceived stress during middle and late adolescence among African American youth (N = 665; 51 % female; M = 15.9 years at baseline). In addition, we explored the ways through which neighborhood stressors interacted with an individual's intra‐ and interpersonal resources (e.g., coping, social support and substance use), to affect their perceived stress trajectories during adolescence. First, we tested a neighborhood stressors model and found that youth who lived in neighborhoods with greater socioeconomic disadvantage had higher baseline stress and a steeper increase in stress over time. When we included individual‐level risk and promotive factors in the model, however, the effect of neighborhood disadvantage on perceived stress was no longer significant, and the stress trajectory was explained by adolescent substance use, social support and perceptions of the neighborhood. Our results support theories of stress and coping, and the importance of proximal intra‐ and interpersonal factors in either amplifying or mitigating perceptions of stress. We discuss implications of the neighborhood context and how our findings may inform future prevention and intervention related to adolescent stress and development.

ABSTRACT. Objective: Risk factors for adolescent alcohol use are typically conceptualized as individual and interpersonal level factors; however, these factors do not fully explain adolescent drinking behavior. We used a socioecological model to examine the contribution of neighborhood factors in a risk and promotive model of adolescent alcohol use among urban high school youth (N = 711; 52% female; 82% African American; M = 18 years old). Method: Using a multilevel model, we considered the role of neighborhood disadvantage on youth alcohol use, after accounting for risk (e.g., peer and parental substance use) and promotive factors (e.g., social support and participation in prosocial activities). Results: Peer alcohol use and peer support were associated with more alcohol use, and maternal support was negatively associated with alcohol use. Despite signifi cant variation at the neighborhood level, neighborhood disadvantage was not directly associated with adolescent drinking. Conclusions: Our study contributes to a mixed body of literature on social context and adolescent health. Although our research highlights the importance of interpersonal relationships, we found no support for neighborhood infl uences. We conclude with future directions for research examining the link between adolescent drinking and neighborhood contexts. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 72,

BackgroundFew studies have examined the impact of lifecourse socioeconomic position (SEP) on cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk among African Americans.Methods and ResultsWe used data from the Jackson Heart Study (JHS) to examine the associations of multiple measures of lifecourse SEP with CVD events in a large cohort of African Americans. During a median of 7.2-year follow-up, 362 new or recurrent CVD events occurred in a sample of 5301 participants aged 21 to 94. Childhood SEP was assessed by using mother’s education, parental home ownership, and childhood amenities. Adult SEP was assessed by using education, income, wealth, and public assistance. Adult SEP was more consistently associated with CVD risk in women than in men: age-adjusted hazard ratios for low versus high income (95% CIs), 2.46 (1.19 to 5.09) in women and 1.50 (0.87 to 2.58) in men, P for interaction=0.1244, and hazard ratio for low versus high wealth, 2.14 (1.39 to 3.29) in women and 1.06 (0.62 to 1.81) in men, P for interaction=0.0224. After simultaneous adjustment for all adult SEP measures, wealth remained a significant predictor of CVD events in women (HR=1.73 [1.04, 2.85] for low versus high). Education and public assistance were less consistently associated with CVD. Adult SEP was a stronger predictor of CVD events in younger than in older participants (HR for high versus low summary adult SEP score 3.28 [1.43, 7.53] for participants ≤50 years, and 1.90 (1.36 to 2.66) for participants >50 years, P for interaction 0.0846). Childhood SEP was not associated with CVD risk in women or men.ConclusionsAdult SEP is an important predictor of CVD events in African American women and in younger African Americans. Childhood SEP was not associated with CVD events in this population.