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Differential relationships between social adversity and depressive symptoms by HIV status and racial/ethnic identity.

ABSTRACT: OBJECTIVE:Historically marginalized groups are likely to be exposed to social adversity, which predicts important mental health outcomes (e.g., depression). Despite the well-established relationship between adversity and poor health, few studies have examined how adversity differentially predicts mental health among people living with multiple, co-occurring marginalized identities or statuses. The current study fills this gap by examining whether relationships between social adversity and depressive symptoms differed between those living with or without a stigmatized disease (i.e., HIV) and/or marginalized racial/ethnic identity (i.e., African American). METHOD:A community sample of men and women (N = 149) completed questionnaires assessing demographics and depressive symptoms. Additionally, a composite index of social adversity was derived from measures of perceived discrimination, socioeconomic status, financial restriction to receiving medical care, and perceived neighborhood characteristics. Multiple regression was used to test whether relationships between adversity and depressive symptoms differed as a function of HIV status and racial/ethnic identity. RESULTS:A significant 3-way interaction between social adversity, HIV status, and racial/ethnic identity indicated that there was a direct relationship between adversity and depressive symptoms for HIV-positive (HIV+) African Americans but not for HIV-negative (HIV-) African Americans, HIV+ Caucasians, or HIV- Caucasians. Further, HIV+ African Americans evidenced a significantly greater relationship between adversity and depressive symptoms compared with HIV- African Americans, but not compared with other groups. CONCLUSIONS:The findings suggest that HIV+ African Americans may be at risk for higher depressive symptoms amid adversity, highlighting the importance of evaluating intersectional identities/statuses in the context of mental health. (PsycINFO Database Record

SUBMITTER: Williamson TJ

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5269451 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Differential relationships between social adversity and depressive symptoms by HIV status and racial/ethnic identity.

Williamson Timothy J TJ Mahmood Zanjbeel Z Kuhn Taylor P TP Thames April D AD

Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association 20161208 2

<h4>Objective</h4>Historically marginalized groups are likely to be exposed to social adversity, which predicts important mental health outcomes (e.g., depression). Despite the well-established relationship between adversity and poor health, few studies have examined how adversity differentially predicts mental health among people living with multiple, co-occurring marginalized identities or statuses. The current study fills this gap by examining whether relationships between social adversity an ...[more]

PMID: 27929330

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Project description:This study evaluates whether the associations between social integration, inflammation, and depressive symptoms vary by race/ethnicity in the United States. Our study includes 5,634 respondents age 40 and older from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey for 2005-2008. We fit multivariate logistic regression models with interactions between C-reactive protein (CRP) and race/ethnicity as well as social integration and race/ethnicity to test our hypotheses. We find that social integration and CRP operate independently in their associations with depressive symptoms by race/ethnicity. Higher levels of social integration are associated with lower predicted probability of depressive symptoms for White and Black populations. This association is not statistically significant for the Hispanic population. CRP is associated with depressive symptoms for the White population, but not the Black or Hispanic populations. Our results suggest that studying depressive symptoms, and other mental health outcomes, among the US population without considering variation by race/ethnicity may restrict scholarly understanding of health disparities. Population-based assessments of associations between physiological processes or social integration should consider whether these variables operate differently by race/ethnicity and work to explain why differences may emerge. Furthermore, interventions aimed at social integration may improve mental health among older adults in the United States; especially for the least socially integrated. Highlights • Social integration and inflammation operate independently in their associations with depressive symptoms.• Associations between mental health, inflammation, and social integration differ by race/ethnicity.• Inflammation is associated with depressive symptoms for non-Hispanic White but not for non-Hispanic Black or Hispanic populations.• Social integration protects against depressive symptoms for non-Hispanic White and Black populations but not for the Hispanic population.• Approaches to health disparities research should consider variations by subpopulations.

Dataset Information

Differential relationships between social adversity and depressive symptoms by HIV status and racial/ethnic identity.

Publications

Differential relationships between social adversity and depressive symptoms by HIV status and racial/ethnic identity.

Similar Datasets

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