The effect of neighborhood disadvantage, social ties, and genetic variation on the antisocial behavior of African American women: A multilevel analysis

Abstract

Social disorganization theory posits that individuals who live in disadvantaged neighborhoods are more likely to engage in antisocial behavior than are those who live in advantaged neighborhoods and that neighborhood disadvantage asserts this effect through its disruptive impact on social ties. Past research on this framework has been limited in two respects. First, most studies have concentrated on adolescent males. In contrast, the present study focused on a sample of adult African American females. Second, past research has largely ignored individual-level factors that might explain why people who grow up in disadvantaged neighborhoods often do not engage in antisocial behavior. We investigated the extent to which genetic variation contributes to heterogeneity of response to neighborhood conditions. We found that the impact of neighborhood disadvantage on antisocial behavior was mediated by neighborhood social ties. Further, the analysis indicated that the effects of neighborhood disadvantage and social ties on antisocial behavior were moderated by genetic polymorphisms. Examination of these moderating effects provided support for the differential susceptibility model of Gene×Environment. The effect of Gene×Neighborhood Disadvantage on antisocial behavior was mediated by the effect of Gene×Neighborhood Social Ties, providing support for an expanded view of social disorganization theory.

Economic hardship and biological weathering: The epigenetics of aging in a U.S. sample of black women

“…On average, 94.7% of PCs in our sample had African ancestry (Lei et al, 2014). At Wave 5, 100 women were randomly selected from the roster of PCs that were identified as being of African American descent to participate in an epigenetic assessment.…”

Neighborhood crime and depressive symptoms among African American women: Genetic moderation and epigenetic mediation of effects

“…Cigarette consumption was measured with a single item: “On average, how many cigarettes do you usually smoke per day?” Neighborhood disadvantage was assessed by using the US Census Bureau’s 2010 American Community Survey (see Lei et al, 2014, for details).…”

“…Given evidence that neighborhood effects on human behavior are often moderated by individual differences (Lei et al, 2014), understanding which individual characteristics influence the relationship between neighborhood contexts and mental health is crucial to the advancement of neighborhood studies. We expect that variability in the serotonin transporter gene may account, at least in part, for this heterogeneity of response.…”

“…Lei et al, 2014; Simons et al, 2011). Thus in the current study we expect to find that the 5-HTTLPR interacts with neighborhood conditions in a manner suggested by the differential susceptibility perspective: Individuals carrying the short allele of the 5-HTTLPR will evince higher risk of depression than the long allele carriers in response to high crime neighborhoods, whereas they will show lower risk of depression than the long allele carriers in response to a safe neighborhood.…”

“…Although the link between neighborhood crime and depression is robust, many individuals who reside in disordered neighborhoods do not become antisocial or depressed (Lei et al, 2014). The present study attempts to explain this heterogeneity of response by specifying moderating genetic polymorphisms and mediating epigenetic processes operating in the link between neighborhood conditions and depression.…”