Biological Embedding of Chronic Stress Across Two Generations Within Marginalized Communities

Abstract

Significant racial health disparities in infant mortality, preterm birth, and infant neurodevelopment exist in the United States. These disparities highlight a critical public health problem: Children of color are at a developmental disadvantage before birth. In this article, we describe how pregnant women from marginalized communities are disproportionately more likely to experience chronic stress in the form of discrimination, historical trauma, and acculturation. We integrate these understudied forms of chronic stress into allostatic load and prenatal programming models to describe how they can affect the health of two generations: the pregnant woman and her child. We describe psychophysiological ramifications of this early‐life stress in infants of color. The prenatal programming field has largely ignored the experiences of women of color, and we highlight the need for researchers to include, or focus exclusively on, diverse samples in their research to reduce disparities that are evident at birth.

Racial Discrimination is Associated with Acute Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms and Predicts Future Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Severity in Trauma‐Exposed Black Adults in the United States

“…Although we focused on the experiences of Black participants, it is important to acknowledge that discrimination is pervasive (Bor et al, 2018) throughout the lives of other marginalized racial and ethnic groups, as evidenced by a recent study in which 75% of Black, Hispanic, and Asian participants reported experiencing discrimination (R. Lee et al, 2019). The systemic discrimination racially marginalized individuals encounter is rooted in racism, and these experiences influence and add to their cumulative stress burden, adversely impacting both physical and mental health outcomes (Conradt et al, 2020;Thomas et al, 2019). The importance of these findings is even more amplified given the recent civil unrest following the murders of innumerable unarmed Black Americans at the hands of police and the disproportional impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Black and Brown communities (Dreyer et al 2020;Leitch et al, 2020).…”

Preconception maternal posttraumatic stress and child negative affectivity: Prospectively evaluating the intergenerational impact of trauma

“…Further, the multifaceted diversity of the study sample is a notable strength. The women in the study sample came from racial, ethnic, geographical, and socioeconomic backgrounds which are underrepresented in maternal and child health research (e.g., over a third of women identified as Latina or Hispanic and approximately a third of women identified as African American or Black) (Conradt et al, 2020). Another key advantage of the current study is the use of multiple assessment timepoints.…”

Racial and ethnic disparities in posttraumatic psychopathology among postpartum women

“…Furthermore, PTSD during the prenatal period is associated with adverse birth outcomes (Cook et al, 2018;Rogal et al, 2007;Yonkers et al, 2014), which disproportionately afflict women of color (Martin et al, 2019). The chronic and traumatic stressors that excessively or exclusively impact these women, including discrimination, acculturative stress, and racial trauma, may contribute to disparities before and after birth (Conradt et al, 2020;Lehrner and Yehuda, 2018). The perinatal period is a transitory time involving numerous physiological and psychological changes, and trauma-related psychopathology during this time may confer unique risk.…”