Dataset Information

Race, Age, and Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status in Low Birth Weight Disparities Among Adolescent Mothers: An Intersectional Inquiry.

ABSTRACT: INTRODUCTION:Few studies examined socioeconomic contributors to racial disparities in low birth weight outcomes between African-American and Caucasian adolescent mothers. This cross-sectional study examined the intersections of maternal racial status, age, and neighborhood socioeconomic status in explaining these disparities in low birth weight outcomes across a statewide sample of adolescent mothers. METHODS:Using data from the North Carolina State Center of Health Statistics for 2010-2011, birth cases for 16,472 adolescents were geocoded by street address and linked to census-tract information from the 2010 United States Census. Multilevel models with interaction terms were used to identify significant associations between maternal racial status, age, and neighborhood socioeconomic status (as defined by census-tract median household income) and low birth weight outcomes across census tracts. RESULTS:Significant racial differences were identified in which African-American adolescents had greater odds of low birth weight outcomes than Caucasian adolescents (OR=1.88, 95% CI 1.64, 2.15). Although racial disparities in low birth weight outcomes remained significant in context of maternal age and neighborhood socioeconomic status, the greatest disparities were found between African-American and Caucasian adolescents that lived in areas of higher socioeconomic status (p<.001). Maternal age was not significantly associated with racial differences in low birth weight outcomes. CONCLUSION:These findings indicate that racial disparities in low birth weight outcomes among adolescent mothers can vary by neighborhood socioeconomic status. Further investigations using intersectional frameworks are needed for examining the relationships between neighborhood socioeconomic status and birth outcome disparities among infants born to adolescent mothers.

SUBMITTER: Coley SL

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5560161 | biostudies-literature | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Race, Age, and Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status in Low Birth Weight Disparities Among Adolescent Mothers: An Intersectional Inquiry.

Coley Sheryl L SL Nichols Tracy R TR

Journal of health disparities research and practice 20160101 4

<h4>Introduction</h4>Few studies examined socioeconomic contributors to racial disparities in low birth weight outcomes between African-American and Caucasian adolescent mothers. This cross-sectional study examined the intersections of maternal racial status, age, and neighborhood socioeconomic status in explaining these disparities in low birth weight outcomes across a statewide sample of adolescent mothers.<h4>Methods</h4>Using data from the North Carolina State Center of Health Statistics for ...[more]

PMID: 28824829

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Project description:BackgroundIn the United States, due to residential segregation, racial minorities and families with low socioeconomic status (SES) tend to live in less safe neighborhoods than their White and high SES counterparts. As such, in the US, race and SES closely correlate with neighborhood safety. Due to the high chronicity of stress in unsafe neighborhoods, perceived neighborhood safety may be a mechanism through which race and SES are linked to children's mental health. Simultaneously, race and SES may alter the effects of perceived neighborhood safety on children's mental health.AimTo explore racial and SES differences in the effects of neighborhood safety on children's internalizing symptoms, we compared racially and SES diverse groups of American children for the effects of parents' perceived neighborhood safety on children's internalizing symptoms.MethodsThis cross-sectional study included 10484 children from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. Mixed-effects regression was used for data analysis. The predictor variable was parents' perceived neighborhood safety which was treated as a continuous measure. The primary outcome was children's internalizing symptoms reported by children. Race, parental education, household income, and family structure were moderators.ResultsOverall, the parents' high neighborhood safety was associated with lower levels of internalizing symptoms in children. Race and household income showed statistically significant interactions with subjective neighborhood safety on children's internalizing symptoms. Parents' perceived neighborhood safety showed a stronger inverse association with children's internalizing symptoms for Black than White families. Parents' perceived neighborhood safety showed a stronger inverse association with children's internalizing symptoms for high income than low-income families. Parental education or family structure did not show any significant interaction with parents' perceived neighborhood safety on children's internalizing symptoms.ConclusionThe degree to which neighborhood safety may be associated with children's internalizing symptoms may depend on race and household income. Some of the effects of race and SES on children's mental health outcomes may be due to interactions with contextual factors such as neighborhood safety. More research is needed on why and how diverse racial and SES groups differ in the association between perceived neighborhood safety and children's well-being.

Dataset Information

Race, Age, and Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status in Low Birth Weight Disparities Among Adolescent Mothers: An Intersectional Inquiry.

Publications

Race, Age, and Neighborhood Socioeconomic Status in Low Birth Weight Disparities Among Adolescent Mothers: An Intersectional Inquiry.

Similar Datasets

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