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Musa GJ, Cheslack-Postava K, Svob C, Hernández D, Tang H, Duque-Villa Y, Keating W, Amsel L, Bresnahan M, Ryan M, Baccarelli AA, Prada D, Huang-Chiang P, Jardines C, Geronazzo-Alman L, Goodwin RD, Wicks J, Hoven CW. Mental Health of High-Risk Urban Youth: The Housing Subsidies Paradox. RACE AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS 2021; 13:22-33. [PMID: 34149954 PMCID: PMC8211093 DOI: 10.1007/s12552-021-09322-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/08/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Housing subsidies, including public housing and Section 8 vouchers, are key components of the social safety net, intended to promote family and child welfare. Studies evaluating the impact of housing subsidies on child and adolescent mental health, however, are generally inconclusive. This may reflect variation in the influence by type of subsidies to income, improved physical environment, increased access to resources, and improved perception of neighborhood safety. Further, most prior research focused on housing subsidies failed to simultaneously formally assess child psychopathology. In the present study, we examine, among adolescents (ages 9-17) from a low-income, urban minority area, the association of housing with psychiatric symptoms and disorders, as well as with their social functioning. The data were obtained from the Stress & Justice Study (S&J) baseline survey, an investigation designed to examine impact of parental criminal justice system involvement (CJSI) on their children's mental health. Housing type during the past year was categorized from parental report as public housing, section 8, both, or neither. Child mental health was assessed with the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC). Additionally, family resources and physical quality of the housing environment by housing type was assessed, and we tested whether these dimensions mediated associations of housing type with the adolescent's current mental health outcomes. We found that while internalizing and externalizing disorders and impairment were attenuated by individual characteristics (e.g., SES, CJSI), internalizing and externalizing symptom counts were significantly more prevalent among children in subsidized housing, compared to those in non-subsidized housing, after controlling for individual characteristics. These findings have the potential to inform whether, and through which mechanisms, housing subsidies are associated with adolescent mental health.
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Affiliation(s)
- George J. Musa
- Global Psychiatric Epidemiology Group, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University-New York State Psychiatric Institute, room 5217, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, 10032, USA
- Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, USA
| | - Keely Cheslack-Postava
- Global Psychiatric Epidemiology Group, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University-New York State Psychiatric Institute, room 5217, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, 10032, USA
| | - Connie Svob
- Global Psychiatric Epidemiology Group, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University-New York State Psychiatric Institute, room 5217, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, 10032, USA
| | - Diana Hernández
- Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, USA
| | - Huilan Tang
- Global Psychiatric Epidemiology Group, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University-New York State Psychiatric Institute, room 5217, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, 10032, USA
| | - Yuly Duque-Villa
- Global Psychiatric Epidemiology Group, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University-New York State Psychiatric Institute, room 5217, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, 10032, USA
| | - William Keating
- Global Psychiatric Epidemiology Group, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University-New York State Psychiatric Institute, room 5217, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, 10032, USA
| | - Lawrence Amsel
- Global Psychiatric Epidemiology Group, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University-New York State Psychiatric Institute, room 5217, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, 10032, USA
| | - Michaeline Bresnahan
- Global Psychiatric Epidemiology Group, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University-New York State Psychiatric Institute, room 5217, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, 10032, USA
- Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, USA
| | - Megan Ryan
- Global Psychiatric Epidemiology Group, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University-New York State Psychiatric Institute, room 5217, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, 10032, USA
| | - Andrea A. Baccarelli
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, USA
| | - Diddier Prada
- Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, USA
- Instituto Nacional de Cancerologia, Mexico City, Mexico
| | - Po Huang-Chiang
- Global Psychiatric Epidemiology Group, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University-New York State Psychiatric Institute, room 5217, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, 10032, USA
- National Health Research Institute, Taipei, Taiwan, R.O.C
| | - Christopher Jardines
- Global Psychiatric Epidemiology Group, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University-New York State Psychiatric Institute, room 5217, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, 10032, USA
| | - Lupo Geronazzo-Alman
- Global Psychiatric Epidemiology Group, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University-New York State Psychiatric Institute, room 5217, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, 10032, USA
| | - Renee D. Goodwin
- Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, USA
- Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Graduate School of Public Health & Health Policy, City University of New York, New York, USA
| | - Judith Wicks
- Global Psychiatric Epidemiology Group, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University-New York State Psychiatric Institute, room 5217, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, 10032, USA
| | - Christina W. Hoven
- Global Psychiatric Epidemiology Group, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University-New York State Psychiatric Institute, room 5217, 1051 Riverside Drive, New York, 10032, USA
- Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, USA
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