Diminished Protective Effects of Household Income on Internalizing Symptoms among African American than European American Pre-Adolescents

Abstract

Aim: To investigate the differential role of race on the effect of household income on pre-adolescents’ internalizing symptoms in a national sample of U.S. pre-adolescents. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study that used data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. Wave 1 ABCD data included 5,913 adolescents between ages 9 and 10 years old. The independent variable was household income. The primary outcome was internalizing symptoms measured by the teacher report of the Brief Problem Monitor (BPM) scale. Results: Overall, high household income was associated with lower levels of pre-adolescents internalizing symptoms. Race showed statistically significant interaction with household income on pre-adolescents’ internalizing symptoms, controlling for all confounders, indicating weaker protective effect of high household income on internalizing symptoms for African American than European pre-adolescents. Conclusion: High household income is a more salient protective factor against internalizing symptoms of socially privileged European American pre-adolescents than of historically marginalized African Americans pre-adolescents. Elimination of internalizing behavioral gaps across racial groups requires more than equalizing socioeconomic status. Future research should study the moderating role of institutional and structural racism experienced by African American families across all income levels. Such research may explain why pre-adolescent African Americans with high household income remain at high risk of internalizing symptoms.

Parental Educational Attainment, the Superior Temporal Cortical Surface Area, and Reading Ability among American Children: A Test of Marginalization-Related Diminished Returns

“…Similarly, some of the effects of age on brain function [ 62 , 63 ] were weaker in black than white children. These observations are consistent with weaker SES effects on behavioral (externalizing) and mental health (depression, suicide, and stress) outcomes for black than white children [ 50 , 51 , 64 ]. We are not aware of any studies conducted explicitly on differential associations between SES, the superior temporal cortical surface area, and reading ability by race/ethnicity.…”

“…The racial and SES gap in school performance is due to contextual and social factors, not immutable biological differences across race/ethnic groups. As these patterns are shown in various racial and ethnic minorities, but also immigrants [ 64 , 65 ], LGBT [ 66 , 67 ], and even marginalized white people [ 57 ], suggesting that any type of social marginalization reduces the gains of SES, black communities should not be blamed for undesired outcomes. These gaps are believed to be due to social, contextual, and environmental (modifiable) factors, such as low school quality in urban areas [ 68 ], residential segregation [ 69 ], and labor market discrimination [ 45 ], which all reduce the return of educational attainment for black communities.…”

Resting-State Functional Connectivity between Putamen and Salience Network and Childhood Body Mass Index

“…For example, SES shows weaker associations with brain structure and function of Non-Hispanic Blacks than Non-Hispanic Whites [20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27]. The same pattern is shown for SES effects on trauma [28], attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) [29], suicide [27], depression [30], aggression [31], tobacco use [31][32][33], impulsivity [34], school bonding [35], school performance [36], math performance [37], attention [38], and inhibitory control [39] in Non-Hispanic Black children compared with Non-Hispanic White children. Similar results are shown in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study [26,27,39,40], Add Health [17], the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS) [29,34,35,[41][42][43][44], Monitoring the Future (MTF) [36], the National Survey of American Life (NSAL) [30], the Flint Adolescents Study (FAS) [45], the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) [31], the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS) study [46], and the Family and Community Health Study (FACHS) [47,48].…”

“…Our second finding that putamen functional connectivity to the salience network showing weaker association with BMI for Non-Hispanic Black children than Non-Hispanic White children is an extension of the MDRs literature. Our past research using the ABCD data [ 26 , 27 , 39 , 40 ], Add Health [ 17 ], FFCWS [ 29 , 34 , 35 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 ], MTF [ 36 ], NSAL [ 30 ], FAS [ 45 ], and FACHS [ 47 , 48 ] have all shown significantly weaker effects of individual-level risk and protective factors (e.g., SES, age, coping, and affect) on various health outcomes for Non-Hispanic Black children in comparison with Non-Hispanic White children. For example, family income and parental education showed stronger association with aggression [ 31 ], tobacco use [ 33 ], school bonding [ 35 ], school performance [ 36 ], ADHD [ 29 ], impulsivity [ 34 ], inhibitory control [ 21 ], stress [ 28 , 41 ], obesity [ 44 ], physical health [ 31 ], and depression [ 30 ] for Non-Hispanic White children when compared with Non-Hispanic Black children.…”

“…The MDRs have been shown for outcomes such as obesity [ 44 ], tobacco use [ 31 ], suicide [ 27 ], and aggression [ 31 ], which are all linked to impulsivity. In the ABCD [ 26 , 27 , 39 ], FFCWS [ 29 , 34 , 44 ], and PATH [ 31 ] studies, high SES Non-Hispanic Black children have remained at a high level of impulsivity [ 21 , 39 ], risk-taking [ 31 ], and reward-dependency [ 26 , 49 ], to a level that is unexpected given their SES. For example, Non-Hispanic Black children from high SES backgrounds showed worse than expected impulsivity [ 34 ], inhibitory control [ 21 ], fun-seeking [ 49 ], and reward responsiveness [ 26 ].…”