Conceptualizing the Influence of Social and Structural Determinants of Neurobiology and Mental Health: Why and How Biological Psychiatry Can Do Better at Addressing the Consequences of Inequity

Assessing Children's Autonomic Nervous System Activity During Structured Tasks: A Feasibility and Reliability Study in Ghana

The significance of physiological regulation in relation to behavioral and emotional regulation is well documented, but primarily in economically advantaged contexts. Few studies have been conducted in low- and middle-income countries. We investigated the feasibility and reliability of measuring autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity and behavior during challenge tasks in 30 children aged 8-10 years in Ghana during two visits, 1 week apart. Completeness of ANS data ranged from 80% to 100% across all tasks. There was low-to-moderate test-retest reliability of video mood induction (VMI) emotion ratings and balloon analog risk task (BART) pumps (r = 0.34-0.52). VMI elicited higher targeted emotion ratings in Visit 2 than Visit 1. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA) was higher, and pre-ejection period (PEP) was longer at Visit 2 than Visit 1 for baseline and both tasks. RSA was higher at baseline than during the VMI anger scene at Visit 1, whereas PEP was shorter at baseline than during all VMI emotion scenes at Visit 2. RSA was higher at baseline than during BART at both visits. In conclusion, ANS data collection within evocative and arousing challenge tasks was feasible in Ghana, and the tasks were generally reliable and effective in eliciting target emotions and risk-taking behavior in this sample.

Greater lifetime stressor exposure is associated with poorer mental health among sexual minority people of color

BACKGROUND

Research has shown that sexual minority people of color experience pervasive and sometimes severe life stressors that increase their risk of experiencing mental health problems, and that can contribute to lifelong health disparities. However, no studies in this population have investigated stressor exposure occurring over the entire lifespan. Moreover, it remains unknown whether these stressor-health effects differ based on the timing or types of stressors experienced.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study is to examine how cumulative lifetime stressor exposure is associated with mental health among Black, Latinx, and biracial Black-Latinx sexual minority persons.

METHOD

Participants were 285 ethnic/racial minority young adults (Mage  = 25.18 years old, SD = 1.94, age range = 19-29 years), who completed the Stress and Adversity Inventory for Adults to assess for retrospective reports of lifetime stressor count and severity. The Brief Symptom Inventory was used to assess participants' symptoms of anxiety, depression, and somatization, which were the main outcomes. Most participants identified as cisgender male (94.7%) and gay (74.2%), with the remaining participants identifying as transgender or genderqueer/nonbinary for gender and bisexual/pansexual, queer, or another sexual orientation.

RESULTS

Multiple regression analyses indicated that experiencing more-and more severe-stressors across the lifespan was related to greater anxiety, depressive, and somatization symptoms. These effects were robust while controlling for race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, education, and employment status, and they differed based on stressor exposure timing, type, primary life domain, and core social-psychological characteristic.

CONCLUSION

Greater cumulative lifetime stressor exposure is related to poorer mental health among sexual minority people of color. Screening for lifetime stressors may thus help identify at-risk persons and provide an opportunity to intervene to help mitigate or prevent mental health disparities in multiply stigmatized adults.

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

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, youth living in areas with higher housing burden displayed healthy patterns of autonomic functioning. Altogether, results suggest that toxin exposure in youths' physical environments disrupts the ANS, representing a plausible mechanism by which pollutants and social disadvantage influence later physical and mental health.