Poster #5 - Ethnic Racial Discrimination Exposure and Anxiety in Latina Girls: Amygdala Volume as a Neurobiological Pathway

• In Event: Poster Session 06

Abstract

Objective: Ethnic racial discrimination (ERD), the differential treatment of individuals on the grounds of ethnic or racial group membership, is associated with poor mental health outcomes such as anxiety (Berger & Sarnyai, 2015; Priest et al., 2013). The mechanisms underlying these observed associations are inconclusive and only limited work examines ethnically minoritized youth. One potential neurobiological pathway between ERD experiences and anxiety is that ongoing exposure to racially charged encounters presents imminent threats that may modify stress-sensitive neurocircuitry like the amygdala. The current study evaluates whether associations between ERD exposure and anxiety symptoms in middle childhood/early adolescence are mediated by amygdala volume in Latina girls, a group exhibiting heightened levels of untreated anxiety (Ginsburg & Silverman, 1996) that is also disproportionately subjected to ERD (Vargas et al., 2015).

Methods: Thirty Latina girls residing in Southern California (MAge = 9.76, ± 1.11 years, 100% Mexican) completed a T1-weighted structural MRI scan, from which bilateral amygdala volumes were extracted using Freesurfer 6.0.0. Participants reported on their experiences of ERD via an adapted version of the Perceptions of Racism in Children and Youth (Pachter et al., 2010). Responses assessed the perceived prevalence (i.e., how often has this happened?) and severity (i.e., how much did this upset you?) of a range of discriminatory experiences. Participants also reported on their anxiety symptoms via the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (Birmaher et al., 1999). On average, the sample met clinically meaningful thresholds (> 25) for anxiety disorder (M = 36.87, ± 16.23).

Results: Mediation analyses were conducted in SPSS 27.0.0 using the PROCESS Macro (Hayes, 2013). The primary finding revealed that left amygdala volume, in particular, mediated the association between ERD severity (M = 19.03, ± 23.09) and anxiety symptoms, b = -.19, BC CI [-.436, -.006], controlling for total intracranial volume and annual household income. Greater ERD severity was associated with elevated child anxiety symptoms, r = .35, p = .055 and reduced left amygdala volume, r = -.35, p = .061, though results were marginal. These trends were not observed for either ERD prevalence or right amygdala volume.

Conclusions: The current findings suggest that the left amygdala is already highly sensitive to racialized threat in childhood and that stress-related alterations may, in part, explain elevated anxiety in Mexican-origin Latina girls. Our data elucidate a potential mechanism by which this form of sociocultural stress can adversely impact mental health, particularly in middle childhood/early adolescence, a period marked by a host of interlinked physiological and social transitions. Ongoing work tests whether the effects of ERD on anxiety via alterations in amygdala volume prospectively sensitize Latina girls’ threat systems and exacerbate anxiety symptoms. Together with other efforts, our investigation lays the initial groundwork for the development of culturally-informed intervention and prevention efforts aimed at reducing the burden of ethnic- and racial-based health disparities in youth.

Authors

• Jordan Mullins, University of California - Riverside
  Presenting Author

• Nikki Adhami, University of California, Riverside

• Dana Elizabeth Glenn, University of California - Riverside

• Kalina J Michalska, University of California - Riverside