Effects of early adversity and social discrimination on empathy for complex mental states: An fMRI investigation

Fourie, Melike M.; Stein, Dan J.; Solms, Mark; Gobodo-Madikizela, Pumla; Decety, Jean

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-49298-4

Cited by 27 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 116 publications

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“…For instance, different SDH, including the experiences of violence, discrimination, or isolation, are associated with enduring impacts on social and emotional cognitive processes 23,24 . Those experiences generate changes in stress responsivity impacting on neurocognitive processes, including emotional perception and regulation as well as empathic concern modulation [25][26][27] . In the opposite direction, impairments in specific SCS, such as individual predispositions for empathy and emotional recognition, can confer psychosocial risk, leading isolation, and dysfunctional coping styles that favor mental symptoms 28 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of social cognition skills and social determinants of health in predicting symptoms of mental illness

Santamaría-García

Báez²,

Gómez

et al. 2020

Transl Psychiatry

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Social factors, such as social cognition skills (SCS) and social determinants of health (SDH), may be vital for mental health, even when compared with classical psycho-physical predictors (demographic, physical, psychiatric, and cognitive factors). Although major risk factors for psychiatric disorders have been previously assessed, the relative weight of SCS and SDH in relation to classical psycho-physical predictors in predicting symptoms of mental disorders remains largely unknown. In this study, we implemented multiple structural equation models (SEM) from a randomized sample assessed in the Colombian National Mental Health Survey of 2015 (CNMHS, n = 2947, females: 1348) to evaluate the role of SCS, SDH, and psycho-physical factors (totaling 17 variables) as predictors of mental illness symptoms (anxiety, depression, and other psychiatric symptoms). Specifically, we assessed the structural equation modeling of (a) SCS (emotion recognition and empathy skills); (b) SDH (including the experience of social adversities and social protective factors); (c) and classical psycho-physical factors, including psychiatric antecedents, physical-somatic factors (chronic diseases), and cognitive factors (executive functioning). Results revealed that the emotion recognition skills, social adverse factors, antecedents of psychiatric disorders and chronic diseases, and cognitive functioning were the best predictors of symptoms of mental illness. Moreover, SCS, particularly emotion recognition skills, and SDH (experiences of social adversities, familial, and social support networks) reached higher predictive values of symptoms than classical psycho-physical factors. Our study provides unprecedented evidence on the impact of social factors in predicting symptoms of mental illness and highlights the relevance of these factors to track early states of disease.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of social cognition skills and social determinants of health in predicting symptoms of mental illness

Santamaría-García

Báez²,

Gómez

et al. 2020

Transl Psychiatry

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“…The third explanation for our finding is the high level of general, economic, and racial stress experienced in middle-class Black families' daily lives. As racial and ethnic discrimination affects various aspects of health (Chekroud, Everett, Bridge, & Hewstone, 2014;Clark, Miller, & Hegde, 2018;Fourie, Stein, Solms, Gobodo-Madikizela, & Decety, 2019;Han et al, 2020;Phelps et al, 2000;Wheeler & Fiske, 2005), and as high SES is a proxy of higher, not lower discrimination for non-White families (S. Assari, 2018b;Assari, Gibbons, et al, 2018b;Assari & Moghani Lankarani, 2018b;Assari, Preiser, et al, 2018;Hudson et al, 2012;Hudson et al, 2016;Hudson et al, 2013), middle-class racial minority Americans still report higher than an expected health risk.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Parental Education and Nucleus Accumbens Response to Reward Anticipation: Minorities’ Diminished Returns

Assari¹

2020

ASSC

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Background. Considerable research has documented the effects of race and Socioeconomic Status (SES) on reward-seeking behaviors; however, less is known about the multiplicative effects of race and family SES on brain response to reward anticipation. Minorities’ Diminished Returns (MDRs) suggest that family SES would show weaker effects on brain development of children in non-White families than in White families. Objective. To test race by SES variation in Nucleus Accumbens (NAcc) response to reward anticipation (NAcc-RA) among American children. Methods. For this cross-sectional analysis, data came from the Adolescents Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study which included 6,419,9-10 year old children. The independent variable was parental education. The moderator was race. The primary outcome was the right NAcc-RA. Age, sex, ethnicity, household income, and family structure were the covariates. We used mixed-effect regression models that adjusted for the nested nature of the ABCD data. Results. While high parental education was associated with a higher amount of right NAcc-RA, this effect was stronger for White than non-White children. This finding was evident in the observed interactions between race and parental education on the right NAcc-RA. Discussion. For American children, NAcc-RA is not shaped by race or family SES, but by their intersection. As a result of the interaction between race and SES (diminished return of SES for non-Whites), middle-class racial minority children may remain susceptible to high-risk behaviors. Disparities in high-risk behaviors in children should not be reduced to economic disparities. Structural inequalities may reduce the return of SES resources for non-White families.

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“…Emotion items included compassion (empathic concern), guilt, shame, anger, fear, and personal distress. Empathic concern was operationalized as compassion to ensure that participants understood its meaning (Fourie et al, 2019 ; Zaki & Cikara, 2015 ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 as Natural Intervention: Guilt and Perceived Historical Privilege Contributes to Structural Reform Under Conditions of Crisis

Fourie

Verwoerd

2021

Affec Sci

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The COVID-19 pandemic has been described as an unmasking of persistent racialized inequalities linked to South Africa’s oppressive past. However, such observations lack empirical support. Here we examined whether COVID-19 lockdown conditions encouraged greater perceptions of continuing structural racism together with motivational and behavioral support for social justice, and whether guilt or empathic concern undergirded such responses. A national sample of White South Africans’ data suggests that the pandemic served as a natural intervention, fostering greater acknowledgement of structural racism and support for redress through increased awareness of historical privilege and guilt in response to Black hardship. Guilt furthermore predicted a social justice motivation in relief efforts, whereas empathic concern predicted only charity motivation. These results suggest that “White guilt” is more consequential than empathic concern in contributing to structural reform but would require longer-term processes to support the translation of its motivational push into sustainable contributions to social justice. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s42761-021-00073-7.

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Effects of early adversity and social discrimination on empathy for complex mental states: An fMRI investigation

Cited by 27 publications

References 116 publications

The role of social cognition skills and social determinants of health in predicting symptoms of mental illness

The role of social cognition skills and social determinants of health in predicting symptoms of mental illness

Parental Education and Nucleus Accumbens Response to Reward Anticipation: Minorities’ Diminished Returns

COVID-19 as Natural Intervention: Guilt and Perceived Historical Privilege Contributes to Structural Reform Under Conditions of Crisis

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