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Stress and Resource Pathways Connecting Early Socioeconomic Adversity to Young Adults’ Physical Health Risk

  • Empirical Research
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Abstract

Although research has established the impact of early stress, including stressful life contexts, and early resources, such as educational attainment, on various adolescent health outcomes, previous research has not adequately investigated “integrative models” incorporating both stress and resource mediational pathways to explain how early socioeconomic adversity impacts physical health outcomes, particularly in early life stages. Data on early childhood/adolescent stress and socioeconomic resources as well as biomarkers indicating physical health status in young adulthood were collected from 11,798 respondents (54 % female) over a 13-year period from youth participating in the National Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health). Physical health risk in young adulthood was measured using a composite index of nine regulatory biomarkers of cardiovascular and metabolic systems. Heterogeneity in stress and socioeconomic resource pathways was assessed using latent class analysis to identify clusters, or classes, of stress and socioeconomic resource trajectories. The influence of early socioeconomic adversity on young adults’ physical health risk, as measured by biomarkers, was estimated, and the role of stress and socioeconomic resource trajectory classes as linking mechanisms was assessed. There was evidence for the influence of early socioeconomic adversity on young adults’ physical health risk directly and indirectly through stress and socioeconomic resource trajectory classes over the early life course. These findings suggest that health models should be broadened to incorporate both stress and resource experiences simultaneously. Furthermore, these findings have prevention and intervention implications, including the importance of early socioeconomic adversity and key intervention points for “turning” the trajectories of at-risk youth.

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Acknowledgments

This research uses data from Add Health, a program project directed by Kathleen Mullan Harris and designed by J. Richard Udry, Peter S. Bearman, and Kathleen Mullan Harris at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and funded by grant P01-HD31921 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, with cooperative funding from 23 other federal agencies and foundations. Special acknowledgment is due Ronald R. Rindfuss and Barbara Entwisle for assistance in the original design. Information on how to obtain the Add Health data files is available on the Add Health website (http://www.cpc.unc.edu/addhealth). No direct support was received from grant P01-HD31921 for this analysis.

Author contributions

K.A.S.W. conceived of the study, conducted the preliminary analyses, and drafted the manuscript; L.T.K. participated in the data analysis; C.W.O. helped with the interpretation of the findings and manuscript writing and preparation. J.K. assisted with reviewing previous literature. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. 103 Family Science Center I, Department of Human Development and Family Science, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    Kandauda (K. A. S.) Wickrama, Tae Kyoung Lee & Josephine A. Kwon

  2. 261 Dawson Hall, Department of Human Development and Family Science, The University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    Catherine Walker O’Neal

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  1. Kandauda (K. A. S.) Wickrama
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  2. Tae Kyoung Lee
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  4. Josephine A. Kwon
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Correspondence to Catherine Walker O’Neal.

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Wickrama, K., Lee, T.K., O’Neal, C.W. et al. Stress and Resource Pathways Connecting Early Socioeconomic Adversity to Young Adults’ Physical Health Risk. J Youth Adolescence 44, 1109–1124 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-014-0207-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-014-0207-7

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