Toxic Schools?: How School and Neighborhood Exposures during Adolescence Influence Trajectories of Health

• In Event: 231 - Section on Sociology of Population Refereed Roundtable Session and Business Meeting
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 04. Social and Genetic Influences on Health of Youth and Adults

Abstract

While studies link attending high-poverty, predominately non-white schools to poorer academic outcomes, few studies assess the health effects of attending these schools. However, given high levels of violence and disorder, some scholars have suggested that these schools may pose as “toxic” environments, hazardous to students’ health. Utilizing multilevel regression models and nationally representative, longitudinal data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, this study examines whether and how schools “get under the skin” to affect biomarkers of physiological functioning. Further, we assess the school-, neighborhood-, and individual-level mechanisms underlying the link between school characteristics and health and disease risk. Preliminary results document a strong, lasting impact of school socioeconomic conditions and school racial composition on individual markers of immune and metabolic function. We find that as school SES increases, individual levels of C-reactive protein, metabolic dysregulation, and body mass index decrease. Further, as the percentage of non-white students in a school increases, levels of C-reactive protein and body mass index also increase. Future analyses will build on these preliminary models by further interrogating the mechanisms underlying the associations between school characteristics and health. By examining how school conditions may induce physiological stress response and affect physical health and well-being, this study will improve sociological understanding of the linkages between schools, socioeconomic conditions, stress, and health.

Authors

• Courtney Boen, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Karen Phelan Kozlowski, University of Southern Mississippi

• Karolyn Tyson, Univ. North Carolina-Chapel Hill