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Worried Sick? The Transition to Adulthood and Its Toll on African American Mothers’ Health

Tue, August 15, 2:30 to 4:10pm, Palais des congrès de Montréal, Floor: Level 5, 513A

Abstract

For many African American youth, the joint influences of economic and racial marginalization render the transition to stable adult roles challenging. We have gained much insight into how these challenges affect future life chances, yet we lack an understanding of what these challenges mean in the context of “linked lives.” In particular, we do not know the extent to which challenges faced by young adult children impact the well-being of their parents, who are largely responsible for guiding them through the increasingly extended transition to adulthood. Drawing upon a life course framework, this study examines how young African Americans’ experiences across a variety of domains during the transition to adulthood impact their mothers’ health. Results suggest that stressors experienced by African Americans during the transition to adulthood (e.g. unemployment, troubled romantic relationships, arrest) heighten their mothers’ cumulative biological risk for chronic diseases, or allostatic load, independent of earlier measures of maternal health and other factors that may increase the likelihood of a difficult transition to adulthood. This apparent stress contagion is heightened for mothers of young men, mothers whose children experience challenges at older ages, and mothers who have a lower quality relationship with their young adult child. Further, the directionality of this contagion from young adult children to mothers is further supported by cross-lagged models examining mothers’ psychological distress and self-reported health.

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