Hidden Costs of Academic Success: Longitudinal Relations Between Adolescent Academic Performance and Adult Health

• In Event: Modeling Youth Development: Empirical and Conceptual Advances

Abstract

Robust health inequities exist across racial/ethnic groups in the United States. These inequities persist, and by some estimates widen, at higher levels of SES. Emerging evidence suggests that stress associated with achieving success in contexts of disadvantage may confer physiological repercussions that compromise physical health and thus contribute to these inequities. The current research considers whether prospective associations between adolescent academic success and adult physical health vary across race/ethnicity groups utilizing a nationally representative sample. Results suggest that the strength and the direction of these associations differ across groups. In order to explore the role of stress and marginalization in these associations, additional analyses will consider characteristics of the school environment as potential moderators of these associations.

Authors

• Jacqueline Sims, Boston College

• Rebekah Levine Coley, Boston College