Black Mothers in Racially Segregated Neighborhoods Embodying Structural Violence: PTSD and Depressive Symptoms on the South Side of Chicago

Abstract

This study employs multi-level and mixed-methods approaches to examine how structural violence affects the health of low-income, single Black mothers. We use multilevel regression models to examine how feeling “trapped” in racially segregated neighborhoods with high levels of violence on the South Side of Chicago affects mothers’ ( N = 69) reports of posttraumatic stress disorder and depressive symptoms. The relationship between feeling “trapped” and variations in expression of mRNA for the glucocorticoid receptor gene NR3C1 using microarray assays was also examined. The regression models revealed that feeling “trapped” significantly predicted increased mental distress in the form of PTSD, depressive symptoms, and glucocorticoid receptor gene regulation. The mothers’ voices revealed a nuanced understanding about how a lack of financial resources to move out of the neighborhood creates feelings of being “trapped” in dangerous situations.

The Neighborhood as Social Exposome: Black Mothers’ Narratives of Chronic Stress as a Consequence of Living in Racially Hypersegregated Neighborhoods on the South Side of Chicago

“…Their exposome is full of various forms of toxins that foster chronic stress and worry in ways that negatively shape health outcomes. Such chronic stress exposure, as evidenced by increased PTSD symptoms for mothers who feel trapped in their neighborhood, demonstrates the extent to which persistent exposure to racial trauma/oppression is detrimental to the very lives of Black mothers, their children, and their communities [3,29].…”

“…One in four Black women in the United States lives below the poverty line [4] and one third of urban Black women live in hypersegregated neighborhoods [5]. Women who live in hypersegregated neighborhoods experience higher levels of violence with more serious physical and mental health issues than women who do not reside in such communities [3,[6][7][8][9]. In Chicago, racialized health disparities are associated with a long history of racial trauma, including systematic hypersegregation.…”

“…), (2) the mothers' lack of money to leave these areas and (3) the weathering of their bodies, minds, and souls that they must endure. Prior research demonstrates how the neighborhood context can, at times, imprint itself in the women's hydrocorticol receptor levels and therefore becomes embodied by the individuals living in these neighborhoods [2,3]. This study seeks to elucidate the experiences of Black women navigating the relationship between social exposures within the neighborhood and their mental and physical health.…”

Commentary: Black Mothers in Racially Segregated Neighborhoods Embodying Structural Violence: PTSD and Depressive Symptoms on the South Side of Chicago

“…The study also provide possible mechanisms for how psychological stress gets "under the skin" to affect physical health as we also found that mothers who feel trapped in their neighborhood show a 50% reduction in the odds of high glucocorticoid receptor (GR) mRNA level (OR=0.50, p<0.001). (See Mendenhall et al, 2023 for full regression results). For future research we would like to include a control group, to better gauge the disparity for this population.…”