Adolescent Girls’ Multidimensional Discrimination Distress and Obesity-Related Health: Parents as Safe Havens

• In Event: Parent-Child Interactions and Marginalized Contexts: The Role of Race, Gender, and Discrimination Experiences

Abstract

Introduction: Chronic stress in childhood erodes health, conferring risks for obesity-related diseases via alterations to stress-response systems and health behaviors (Gundersen et al., 2011; Vamosi et al., 2010). Discrimination is one potent stressor, which may account for social inequalities in obesity-related health (Nelson et al., 2018) Adolescence is a sensitive period when youth perceive more discrimination (Spears-Brown & Bigler, 2005) and are particularly at-risk for having these experiences embedded in physiology (Adam et al., 2015), yet full-blown obesity-related disease has not yet developed. Therefore, identifying protective factors during adolescence may help promote adult health and reduce disparities. Accordingly, this study explores how parent-child relationships may protect adolescent girls from discrimination-related health risks.

Hypotheses: Guided by attachment theory, we propose that parents’ safe haven behaviors (comfort provision in response to threat; Bowlby 1969) during a dyadic discussion of adolescents’ discrimination experiences will buffer offspring from associations between discrimination and obesity-related health (adiposity and metabolic syndrome).

Study Population: Participants included 75 female adolescents (13-17 years, Mage = 15.3; 36% non-Hispanic White, 39% Hispanic/Latina, 25% Black/African American; 25% low income) and their caregivers (93% female).

Methods: Adolescents reported their degree of distress due to multidimensional discrimination (DMD) based on a range of identities, using a modified Multidimensional Perceived Discrimination Scale (Kazmierski et al., 2022; Rasmussen et al., 2018) and identified one discrimination experience to discuss with their caregiver. Dyads completed 10-minute unstructured conversations, which were coded for parental safe haven behaviors (SH, mean of coded validation of child’s experience, reassurance of child’s present or future safety and thriving, and valuing of the derogated characteristic or child overall; ICC = 0.68-0.86). Adolescents completed obesity-related health assessments, including adiposity (a standardized composite of BMI, waist circumference, trunk fat, body fat, and visceral fat) and risk for metabolic syndrome (standardized composite of BMI, waist circumference, glucose, triglycerides, inverse high-density lipoprotein cholesterol). Moderation was modeled using hierarchical regressions, adjusting for age, low-income status, and dummy-coded race/ethnicity. Interactions were probed at M+/-1SD.

Results: Adolescent DMD and SH interacted to predict adolescent adiposity (b = -.05, SE = .02, p = .01), such that when parents exhibited low levels of SH, more DMD was associated with higher adiposity (b = .04, SE = .01, p = .006), but this association was non-significant at high levels of SH (b = -.01, SE = .01 p = .49). Similarly, DMD and SH interacted to predict adolescent risk for metabolic syndrome (b = -.04, SE = .01, p = .02), such that at low levels of SH, DMD was associated with more metabolic syndrome risk (b = .03, SE = .01, p = .006) but this association was non-significant when SH was high (b < -.01, SE = .01, p = .67). Results are displayed in Table 1 and Figure 1.

Findings constitute a preliminary step towards applying attachment frameworks to discrimination and health. Although discrimination poses an intractable public health problem, fostering caregivers’ abilities to respond to adolescents’ discrimination distress with SH may protect youth from the health toll of discrimination.

Authors

• Kelly Kazmierski
  Presenting Author

• Jessica L Borelli, University of California - Irvine

• Larissa Wong

• Kallie Brown

• Jocelyn Lai, University of California - Irvine

• Zahra Mousavi

• Jianmin Shao

• Uma Rao