Neighborhood disadvantage and adolescent stress reactivity

Abstract

Lower socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with higher levels of life stress, which in turn affect stress physiology. SES is related to basal cortisol and diurnal change, but it is not clear if SES is associated with cortisol reactivity to stress. To address this question, we examined the relationship between two indices of SES, parental education and concentrated neighborhood disadvantage, and the cortisol reactivity of African–American adolescents to a modified version of the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). We found that concentrated disadvantage was associated with cortisol reactivity and this relationship was moderated by gender, such that higher concentrated disadvantage predicted higher cortisol reactivity and steeper recovery in boys but not in girls. Parental education, alone or as moderated by gender, did not predict reactivity or recovery, while neither education nor concentrated disadvantage predicted estimates of baseline cortisol. This finding is consistent with animal literature showing differential vulnerability, by gender, to the effects of adverse early experience on stress regulation and the differential effects of neighborhood disadvantage in adolescent males and females. This suggests that the mechanisms underlying SES differences in brain development and particularly reactivity to environmental stressors may vary across genders.

How Socioeconomic Disadvantages Get Under the Skin and into the Brain to Influence Health Development Across the Lifespan

“…Children exposed to SED in middle childhood also exhibited heightened reactivity to an acute stressor (Gump et al 2009). Similar to the findings on blood pressure, neighborhood SES predicted higher cortisol reactivity in adolescent boys (Hackman et al 2012). These same authors, however, also found a more rapid return of cortisol levels to baseline in relation to residence in more deprived neighborhoods: a result opposite to what one would expect.…”

Childhood Poverty and Stress Reactivity Are Associated with Aberrant Functional Connectivity in Default Mode Network

“…Though our finding of comparable HPA activation across groups may seem counterintuitive, in fact, collective TSST investigations demonstrate a stronger link between SES and cortisol reactivity in childhood than in adulthood. In children, neighborhood disadvantage is associated with greater cortisol reactivity during TSST (Hackman et al, 2012;Harkness et al, 2011). Lower income is also associated with greater cortisol reactivity to lab stressors (Blair et al, 2005;Gump et al, 2009).…”

“…One method for assessing HPA axis function is the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST), a standard social challenge protocol that reliably activates the HPA axis leading to a robust increase in glucocorticoid levels including cortisol, the hormonal end-product of the HPA axis (Kirschbaum et al, 1993). Low socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with greater cortisol increase (or cortisol reactivity) in response to TSST in boys (Hackman et al, 2012;Harkness et al, 2011). Lower income is also associated with greater cortisol reactivity among children in response to other laboratory stressors or challenges such as the cold pressor task and neuropsychological testing batteries (Blair et al, 2005;Gump et al, 2009).…”

Neighborhood socioeconomic deprivation, perceived neighborhood factors, and cortisol responses to induced stress among healthy adults

“…More evidence of the impact of neighborhood factors on biomarkers of stress among adults is emerging related to diurnal cortisol profile (Karb et al, 2012, Do et al, 2011, Roe et al, 2013). While no studies have evaluated neighborhood context with respect to cortisol reactivity among adults, a related and mixed literature among adolescents does exist (Brenner et al, 2012, Hackman et al, 2012, Kapuku et al, 2002, Rudolph et al, 2013). While it is has been suggested that alterations to biomarkers of stress, either diurnal cortisol profile or cortisol reactivity, may more accurately reflect the cumulative effects of chronic exposure to neighborhood stressors (Brenner et al, 2012), it is still possible that the severity and timing of the exposure varied across studies and contribute to the lack of consistent findings.…”