TY - JOUR
T1 - Smaller Hippocampal Volume Among Black and Latinx Youth Living in High-Stigma Contexts
AU - Hatzenbuehler, Mark L.
AU - Weissman, David G.
AU - McKetta, Sarah
AU - Lattanner, Micah R.
AU - Ford, Jessie V.
AU - Barch, Deanna M.
AU - McLaughlin, Katie A.
N1 - Funding Information:
Support for this research came from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) grants R01-MH103291 , R01-MH106482 , R56-MH119194 , R37-MH119194 , and T32-MH013043 . The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Funding Information:
Support for this research came from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) grants R01-MH103291, R01-MH106482, R56-MH119194, R37-MH119194, and T32-MH013043. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Disclosure: Dr. Hatzenbuehler has received grant or research support from NIMH, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the William T. Grant Foundation. He was on a consensus committee at the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. Dr. Weissman has received a research grant from the Sackler Scholar Programme in Psychobiology. Dr. Barch has received grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and NIMH. Drs. McKetta, Lattanner, Ford, and McLaughlin have reported no biomedical financial interests or potential conflicts of interest.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
PY - 2022/6
Y1 - 2022/6
N2 - Objective: To determine whether structural and individual forms of stigma are associated with neurodevelopment in children. Method: Stigma related to gender, race, and Latinx ethnicity was measured at the structural level using objective state-level indicators of social policies and prejudicial attitudes and at the individual level using self-reports of perceived discrimination. Respective associations of stigma with hippocampal volume and amygdala reactivity to threat were examined using data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (N = 11,534, mean age 9.9 years), the first multisite neuroimaging study that provided substantial variability in sociopolitical contexts and that included individual-level measures of stigma among youth. Results: In a preregistered analysis, Black (B = −58.26, p =.023) and Latinx (B = −40.10, p =.044) youths in higher (vs lower) structural stigma contexts were found to have smaller hippocampal volume, controlling for total intracranial volume, demographics, and family socioeconomic status. This association was also observed at a trend-level among girls (p =.082). The magnitude of the difference in hippocampal volume between high and low structural stigma states was equivalent to the predicted impact of a $20,000 difference in annual family income in this sample. As hypothesized, structural stigma was not associated with hippocampal volume in nonstigmatized youths, providing evidence of specificity. Perceived discrimination was unrelated to hippocampal volume in stigmatized groups. No associations between perceived discrimination or structural stigma and amygdala reactivity to threat were observed. Conclusion: This study provides novel evidence that an objective measure of structural stigma may be more strongly related to hippocampal volume than subjective perceptions of stigma, suggesting that contextual approaches to stigma could yield new insights into neurodevelopment among marginalized youth.
AB - Objective: To determine whether structural and individual forms of stigma are associated with neurodevelopment in children. Method: Stigma related to gender, race, and Latinx ethnicity was measured at the structural level using objective state-level indicators of social policies and prejudicial attitudes and at the individual level using self-reports of perceived discrimination. Respective associations of stigma with hippocampal volume and amygdala reactivity to threat were examined using data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (N = 11,534, mean age 9.9 years), the first multisite neuroimaging study that provided substantial variability in sociopolitical contexts and that included individual-level measures of stigma among youth. Results: In a preregistered analysis, Black (B = −58.26, p =.023) and Latinx (B = −40.10, p =.044) youths in higher (vs lower) structural stigma contexts were found to have smaller hippocampal volume, controlling for total intracranial volume, demographics, and family socioeconomic status. This association was also observed at a trend-level among girls (p =.082). The magnitude of the difference in hippocampal volume between high and low structural stigma states was equivalent to the predicted impact of a $20,000 difference in annual family income in this sample. As hypothesized, structural stigma was not associated with hippocampal volume in nonstigmatized youths, providing evidence of specificity. Perceived discrimination was unrelated to hippocampal volume in stigmatized groups. No associations between perceived discrimination or structural stigma and amygdala reactivity to threat were observed. Conclusion: This study provides novel evidence that an objective measure of structural stigma may be more strongly related to hippocampal volume than subjective perceptions of stigma, suggesting that contextual approaches to stigma could yield new insights into neurodevelopment among marginalized youth.
KW - hippocampal volume
KW - neurodevelopment
KW - population neuroscience
KW - stigma
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85116743834&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.jaac.2021.08.017
DO - 10.1016/j.jaac.2021.08.017
M3 - Article
C2 - 34481917
AN - SCOPUS:85116743834
SN - 0890-8567
VL - 61
SP - 809
EP - 819
JO - Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
JF - Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
IS - 6
ER -