Peer support as moderator of association between socioeconomic status and low-grade inflammation in adolescents

Socioeconomic Disadvantage, Neighborhood Belonging, and Inflammation Among Adolescents

OBJECTIVE

Childhood socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with a host of adverse health outcomes across the lifespan. However, there is increasing interest in identifying factors that may promote resilience to disadvantage's effects on health. One promising candidate in this regard is a sense of neighborhood belonging, which could offset health risks by providing a sense of connection to others, as well as a sense of belonging to a community larger than oneself.

METHODS

In a sample of 245 adolescents (age: mean [standard deviation] = 15.98 [0.54] years; sex: 64.1% female; race: 41.6% White, 37.6% Black/African American, 9.8% Other; ethnicity: 68.6% non-Hispanic), we examined neighborhood belonging as a moderator of the relationship between socioeconomic disadvantage (measured on a 0- to 5-point scale, mean [standard deviation] = 1.21 [1.36]) and low-grade inflammation (measured via a composite of circulating inflammatory biomarkers including IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, TNF-α, CRP, and suPAR). Covariates included age, sex, race/ethnicity, and pubertal status.

RESULTS

Neighborhood belonging buffered the relationship between socioeconomic disadvantage and low-grade inflammation, a key mechanistic pathway to multiple chronic diseases. Specifically, there was a positive relationship between socioeconomic disadvantage and low-grade inflammation among individuals with low neighborhood belonging, but not among individuals with high neighborhood belonging.

CONCLUSIONS

These findings suggest that neighborhood belonging is one type of social connection factor that can mitigate the relationship between socioeconomic disadvantage and low-grade inflammation in youth.

Peer support as moderator of association between socioeconomic status and low-grade inflammation in adolescents

OBJECTIVE

Individuals who grow up in low-socioeconomic status (SES) families are at an increased risk of health problems across the lifespan. Although supportive social relationships are postulated to be a protective factor for the health of these individuals, the role of friend support in adolescence is not well understood. Given that low-grade inflammation is one key biological mechanism proposed to explain links between family SES and health outcomes, we examined whether adolescents' friend support buffers the association between family SES and low-grade inflammation among adolescents.

METHOD

277 dyads of adolescents (63.5% female; 39.4% White, 38.3% Black, and 32.1% Hispanic; Mage = 13.92 years) and one of their parents participated in this longitudinal study (two waves approximately 2 years apart). Parents reported family objective SES (i.e., income, savings, and education) and family subjective SES (i.e., subjective social status). Adolescents reported perceived friend support. Fasting antecubital blood was drawn from adolescents at both visits. Low-grade inflammatory activity was represented by a composite of inflammatory biomarkers and numbers of classical monocytes.

RESULTS

Adolescents' friend support moderated the associations of family subjective SES with both the inflammation composite and classical monocyte counts across cross-sectional, longitudinal, and prospective change (only significant for the inflammation composite) analyses. Specifically, lower family subjective SES was associated with higher levels of low-grade inflammation only among adolescents lower, but not higher, in friend support. No moderation was observed for objective SES.

CONCLUSION

Supportive peer relationships buffer the link between family subjective, but not objective, SES and low-grade inflammation in adolescence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).