Perceived neighborhood disorder and psychological distress among Latino adults in the United States: Considering spousal/partner relationship

Abstract

It has been well‐established that neighborhood disorder and disadvantage are detrimental to mental health and psychological well‐being. There has been growing research interest in minority stress issues, however, less is known about how perceived neighborhood disorder matters for psychological well‐being among Latino adults in the United States. Analyzing data from National Latino Asian American Study, 2002–2003, the present study investigates the relationships among perceived neighborhood disorder, spousal/partner relationships (i.e., spousal/partner strain and support), and psychological distress. The findings indicated that perceived neighborhood disorder and spousal/partner strain were positively associated with increased psychological distress, whereas spousal/partner support had no protective effect against psychological distress. Moreover, mediation analysis showed that the association between perceived neighborhood disorder and psychological distress was partially mediated by spousal/partner strain (i.e., 15.13%), not spousal support. Finally, moderation analysis revealed that the presence of spousal/partner strain exacerbated the relationship between perceived neighborhood disorder and psychological distress. Conversely, the absence of spousal/partner strain appeared to buffer the adverse impact of neighborhood disorder on psychological distress. These findings highlighted the ill effect of problematic neighborhood environments on the quality of the spousal/partner relationship and subsequently Latino's psychological well‐being.

Neighborhood disadvantage has an indirect effect on problem drinking through increased psychological distress.

“…Despite that, people residing in more disadvantaged neighborhoods appeared to be on an upward trajectory in terms of psychological distress. At a basic level, this finding aligns with other studies in the literature showing positive associations between neighborhood disadvantage and psychological distress (e.g., Kwon, 2020;York Cornwell & Goldman, 2020), the majority of which have demonstrated the effect concurrently. However, what is somewhat unique about the pattern of the neighborhood disadvantage-distress association documented in this investigation is the upward trajectory in distress among those in more disadvantaged neighborhoods.…”

“…Aside from environmental factors such as greater exposure to violence, pollution, and toxins, the cumulative effects of psychological stress, coupled with dysfunctional health behaviors, both appear to play important roles in degraded health-related quality of life associated with living in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Living in conditions of neighborhood disorder poses a significant risk for depression, anxiety, loneliness, and other forms of psychological distress (Hackman et al, 2019; Kwon, 2020; Matthews et al, 2019). Furthermore, a substantial body of research shows that neighborhood disadvantage is often associated with elevated alcohol and other forms of substance use and misuse (e.g., Bernhardt & King, 2022; Karriker-Jaffe et al, 2017; Rhew et al, 2020).…”