The impact of social disadvantage on autonomic physiology of latinx adolescents: The role of environmental risks

Abstract

The experience of poverty embodies complex, multidimensional stressors that may adversely affect physiological and psychological domains of functioning. Compounded by racial/ethnic discrimination, the financial aspect of family poverty typically coincides with additional social and physical environmental risks such as pollution exposure, housing burden, elevated neighborhood unemployment, and lower neighborhood education levels. In this study, we investigated the associations of multidimensional social disadvantage throughout adolescence with autonomic nervous system (ANS) functioning at 17 years. Two hundred and twenty nine low-income Mexican-American adolescents (48.6% female) and their parents were assessed annually between the ages of 10 and 16. Participants' census tracts were matched with corresponding annual administrative data of neighborhood housing burden, education, unemployment, drinking water quality, and fine particulate matter. We combined measures of adolescents' electrodermal response and respiratory sinuses arrhythmia at rest and during a social exclusion challenge (Cyberball) to use as ANS indices of sympathetic and parasympathetic activity, respectively. Controlling for family income-to-needs, youth exposed to greater cumulative water and air pollution from ages 10-16 displayed altered patterns of autonomic functioning at rest and during the social challenge. Conversely,

Cultural stress is toxic stress: An expanded cultural stress theory model for understanding mental health risk in Latinx immigrant youth.

“…Hernandez et al, 2015). For Latinx immigrant youth, exposure to environmental toxins and pathogens is particularly detrimental due to their developmental timing and demonstrated ability to alter key neurological processes (e.g., cell migration and proliferation, synaptogenesis, and neurotransmission) associated with youth mental health functioning (Lanphear, 2015; Ugarte et al, 2022).…”

“…For Latinx immigrants, this exposure risk is exacerbated by the limited sociospatial and upward economic mobility that they have experienced and by the fact that Latinx enclave communities are oftentimes located in areas where environmental toxin exposure is especially common (M. Hernandez et al, 2015). For Latinx immigrant youth, exposure to environmental toxins and pathogens is particularly detrimental due to their developmental timing and demonstrated ability to alter key neurological processes (e.g., cell migration and proliferation, synaptogenesis, and neurotransmission) associated with youth mental health functioning (Lanphear, 2015;Ugarte et al, 2022).…”

Introduction to the special issue: Environmental contaminants and child and adolescent development

“…Other articles in this issue focused on physiological indicators and inflammatory markers that may function as mechanisms linking contaminant exposures to negative outcomes among youth. The fifth article by Ugarte et al (2022) examined several aspects of environmental disadvantage, including water and air pollution, in relation to autonomic nervous system functioning among Mexican-American adolescents from primarily low-income backgrounds. Cumulative exposure to water and air pollution across adolescence was associated with altered autonomic functioning, both at rest and during social challenge.…”