[Background:] A growing body of literature highlights that racial discrimination has negative impacts on child health, although most studies have been limited to an examination of direct forms of racism using cross-sectional data. We aim to provide further insights on the impact of early exposure to racism on child health using longitudinal data among Indigenous children in Australia and multiple indicators of racial discrimination. [Methods:] We used data on 1239 Indigenous children aged 5–10 years from Waves 1–6 (2008–2013) of Footprints in Time, a longitudinal study of Indigenous children across Australia. We examined associations between three dimensions of carer-reported racial discrimination (measuring the direct experiences of children and vicarious exposure by their primary carer and family) and a range of physical and mental health outcomes. Analysis was conducted using multivariate logistic regression within a multilevel framework. [Results:] Two-fifths (40%) of primary carers, 45% of families and 14% of Indigenous children aged 5–10 years were reported to have experienced racial discrimination at some point in time, with 28–40% of these experiencing it persistently (reported at multiple time points). Primary carer and child experiences of racial discrimination were each associated with poor child mental health status (high risk of clinically significant emotional or behavioural difficulties), sleep difficulties, obesity and asthma, but not with child general health or injury. Children exposed to persistent vicarious racial discrimination were more likely to have sleep difficulties and asthma in multivariate models than those with a time-limited exposure. [Conclusions:] The findings indicate that direct and persistent vicarious racial discrimination are detrimental to the physical and mental health of Indigenous children in Australia, and suggest that prolonged and more frequent exposure to racial discrimination that starts in the early lifecourse can impact on multiple domains of health in later life. Tackling and reducing racism should be an integral part of policy and intervention aimed at improving the health of Australian Indigenous children and thereby reducing health disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous children.

The impact of racial discrimination on the health of Australian Indigenous children aged 5-10 years: analysis of national longitudinal data

Evaluating measures of allostatic load in adolescents: A systematic review.

: Heart failure is a major health concern in the U.S., with billions of dollars spent annually on health care. The high number of re-hospitalizations significantly contributes to these rising health care costs. Traits of anger and hostility are psychological variables that have been associated with coronary heart disease morbidity and mortality. The present hypothesized that anger and hostility would show predictive utility for heart failure-related and all-cause hospitalizations in patients diagnosed with heart failure. Furthermore, it was hypothesized that depressive symptoms and cytokines will mediate the relationship between anger/hostility and hospitalizations. 150 heart failure patients were recruited from the Heart Failure Clinic at the University of Maryland Hospital in Baltimore, MD, at baseline participants were administered the ST AXI, the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory, and cytokines levels were collected. Hospitalization data was then collected for every participant for up to 36-months. Results indicated that only the Cook-Medley Hostility Scale significantly predicted all-cause hospitalizations and not heart failure related hospitalizations. Furthermore, analyses did not support the cytokine hypothesis or a mediating role of depression. However, results revealed that perceived heart failure symptoms were a significant mediator in the relationship between hostility and all-cause hospitalizations. These results indicate that hostility may predict hospitalizations, not by impacting heart failure directly, but instead by working to shape negative health behaviors that influence health in a global manner.

Anger, Hostility, and Re-hospitalizations in Patients with Heart Failure

Increased allostatic load is linked with racial discrimination exposure, providing a mechanism for the biological embedding of racism as a psychosocial stressor. We undertook an examination of how racial discrimination interacts with socioecological, environmental, and health conditions to affect multisystem dysregulation in a First Nations population. We conducted latent class analysis (LCA) using indicators of life stress, socioeconomic background, and physical and mental health from a nationally representative sample of Australian Aboriginal adults (N = 2056). We used LCA with distal outcomes to estimate the effect of the latent class variable on our derived allostatic load index and conducted a stratified analysis to test whether allostatic load varied based on exposure to racial discrimination across latent classes. Our psychosocial, environmental, and health measures informed a four-class structure; ‘Low risk’, ‘Challenged but healthy’, ‘Mental health risk’ and ‘Multiple challenges’. Mean allostatic load was highest in ‘Multiple challenges’ compared to all other classes, both in those exposed (4.5; 95% CI: 3.9, 5.0) and not exposed (3.9; 95% CI: 3.7, 4.2) to racial discrimination. Allostatic load was significantly higher for those with exposure to racial discrimination in the ‘Multiple challenges’ class (t = 1.74, p = .04) and significantly lower in the ‘Mental health risk’ class (t = − 1.67, p = .05). Racial discrimination may not always modify physiological vulnerability to disease. Social and economic contexts must be considered when addressing the impact of racism, with a focus on individuals and sub-populations experiencing co-occurring life challenges.

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Racial discrimination and allostatic load among First Nations Australians: a nationally representative cross-sectional study.

To examine perceived stress in migrants guided by Bornstein’s Specificity Principle in Acculturation Science (BSPAS) theoretical framework.Using a cross-sectional study, we recruited English-langua...

Health literacy, resilience and perceived stress of migrants in Israel during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Migrant adolescents are exposed to a variety of risk factors that threaten their well-being. However, previous studies have often focused on one or several factors separately, ignoring the cumulative effect of risks. The current study adopted the cumulative risk (CR) model and examined the deleterious effect of CR on the three indices of subjective well-being (SWB) among early migrant adolescents in China. We further explored the moderating role of resilience and stress mindset on the above associations. A sample of 234 early migrant adolescents (45.7% girls) completed self-reported questionnaires in two waves (2016–2017), and the mean age of valid participants was 11.49 years (SD = 1.16) at T1. The multiple regression results indicated that CR negatively predicted adolescents’ life satisfaction one year later. Moreover, high resilience and a more stress-is-enhancing mindset buffered the deleterious effect of CR on the emotional components of SWB. Specifically, the negative effect of CR on positive affect was reduced as resilience increased, whereas the adverse effect of CR on negative affect was attenuated by holding a more stress-is-enhancing mindset. The present findings suggest that CR is a useful predictor for multiple risk factors to which migrant adolescents are exposed and that it has a robust effect on later SWB. These findings also contribute to a better understanding of the moderating roles of resilience and stress mindset to aid future intervention programs.

Cumulative Risk and Subjective Well-Being Among Rural-to-Urban Migrant Adolescents in China: Differential Moderating Roles of Stress Mindset and Resilience

Discrimination Increases the Association Between Parental and Adolescent Allostatic Load in Chinese Rural-to-Urban Migrants.

Many rural-to-urban migrant adolescents experience adversity and are vulnerable to emotional problems. Previous studies on migrant adolescents focused on the impact of a single type of risk exposure. The cumulative risk approach considers a number of risk factors, providing a new perspective for investigating the living environment of individuals exposed to multiple risks simultaneously. The current study examined the relationship between cumulative risk and hopelessness among rural-to-urban migrant adolescents and the potential protective roles of stress mindset and subjective social mobility on this relationship. A total of 251 Chinese rural-to-urban migrant adolescents aged 10 to 14 completed a series of self-reported questionnaires. The results showed that adolescents exposed to more risk factors simultaneously faced a higher risk of hopelessness. For those with a stress-is-enhancing mindset or the belief in the possibility of upward social mobility, the link between cumulative risk and hopelessness was nonsignificant. When the two moderators were considered simultaneously, only subjective social mobility acted as a moderator. The findings showed that both the stress-is-enhancing mindset and subjective social mobility may act as protective variables to decrease the negative influence of adverse circumstances on Chinese migrant adolescents, but the effect of the latter is stable. The practical implications for promoting the development of disadvantaged adolescents are discussed.

Yuan Tian

Papers

Cumulative Risk and Subjective Well-Being Among Rural-to-Urban Migrant Adolescents in China: Differential Moderating Roles of Stress Mindset and Resilience

Discrimination Increases the Association Between Parental and Adolescent Allostatic Load in Chinese Rural-to-Urban Migrants.

Cumulative Risk and Hopelessness among Chinese Rural-to-Urban Migrant Adolescents