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Abstract Ethnic–racial discrimination, the differential treatment of individuals based on ethnic or racial group membership, predicts poor mental health outcomes such as anxiety. This is supported by long-standing theories on the social determinants of health and minority stress. However, these theories are rarely expanded to neurobiological sciences, limiting our understanding of mechanisms underlying observed associations. One potential neurobiological pathway between ethnic–racial discrimination exposure 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 evaluated whether amygdala volume mediated associations between ethnic–racial discrimination exposure and anxiety symptoms in Latina girls, a group exhibiting heightened levels of untreated anxiety and disproportionately subjected to ethnic–racial discrimination. Thirty predominantly Mexican-identifying Latina girls residing in Southern California (MAge = 9.76,SD = 1.11 years) completed a T1-weighted structural MRI scan. Using thePerceptions of Racism in Children and Youth, participants self-reported the prevalence and severity of various discriminatory experiences. Participants also self-reported their anxiety symptoms via theScreen for Child Anxiety and Related Emotional Disorders.Controlling for total intracranial volume and annual household income, an indirect effect of ethnic–racial discrimination on anxiety symptoms via left amygdala volume was observed,β = −0.28,SE = 0.17, BC 95% CI [−0.690, −0.017]. The current findings suggest that the left amygdala is sensitive to racialized threats in childhood and that stress-related alterations may, in part, contribute to elevated anxiety in Latina girls. Our data elucidate a potential mechanism by which this form of sociocultural stress can adversely impact mental health, particularly in the transition from middle childhood to early adolescence, a period marked by a host of interlinked neurophysiological and social changes.
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A preliminary study of threat-anticipatory responding in Latina youth: associations with age, anxiety, and cortical thickness
Abstract Variation in prefrontal cortex neuroanatomy has been previously associated with elevated physiological responses to anticipated aversive events. The extent to which such associations extend beyond the specific ecology of treatment-seeking youth from upper-middle socioeconomic backgrounds is unknown. The current study tests the replicability of neuroanatomical correlates of anticipatory responding and the moderating roles of age and anxiety severity in a community sample of Latina girls, a historically underrepresented group exhibiting high levels of untreated anxiety. Forty pre-adolescent Latina girls (MAge = 10.01, s.d. = 1.25, range = 8–12 years) completed a structural magnetic resonance imaging scan. Participants also completed a differential threat and safety learning paradigm, during which skin conductance and subjective fear responding were assessed. Anxiety severity was assessed via the Screen for Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders. Ventromedial prefrontal cortex thickness was associated with reduced physiological responsivity to anticipated threat. Age- and anxiety-dependent associations emerged between dorsomedial prefrontal cortex thickness and individual differences in subjective fear responding to anticipated threat. This preliminary study extends work on neuroanatomical contributions to physiological threat responsivity to a community sample of Latina youth and highlights potential considerations for early identification efforts in this population when threat neurocircuitry is still developing.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2239067
- PAR ID:
- 10555858
- Publisher / Repository:
- Oxford University Press
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience
- Volume:
- 19
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 1749-5016
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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