Disproportionate School Punishment and Significant Life Outcomes: A Prospective Analysis of Black Youths

Patterns of adolescent perceived social support and inflammation in adulthood within major racial groups: Findings from a longitudinal, nationally representative sample

Inflammation, the body's protective response to injury and infection, plays a critical role in physical and mental health outcomes. Elevated chronic inflammation is implicated as a predictor of disease and all-cause mortality and is linked with several psychological disorders. Given that social support is associated with lower rates of mortality and psychopathology, the links between inflammation and social support are well-studied. However, there are many significant gaps related to both the specificity and generalizability of extant findings. There is a paucity of research on the association between social support and inflammation within different racial groups. Additionally, more research is warranted to understand whether social support from different sources uniquely contributes to inflammation, above and beyond other sources of support. Thus, the current study examined whether perceived emotional social support during adolescence predicted inflammation during adulthood within several racial groups. Participants (n = 3,390) were drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health), identified as either Asian, Black, Latinx, White, or Multiracial, and had complete data on study variables. Consistent with our hypotheses and previous research, greater perceived support during adolescence was associated with lower inflammation during adulthood, but only for White participants. Contrastingly, greater perceived support during adolescence was associated with higher inflammation during adulthood for individuals who identified as Asian, Latinx, Black, or Multiracial. Furthermore, patterns of social support and inflammation within each racial group varied by relationship type. These results highlight the importance of studying relationship processes and health outcomes within racial groups to understand their unique, lived experiences.

Racial Disparities in School Belonging and Prospective Associations With Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome

Importance

School belonging has important implications for academic, psychological, and health outcomes, but the associations between racial disparities in school belonging and health have not been explored to date.

Objective

To examine associations between school-level racial disparities in belonging and cardiometabolic health into adulthood in a national sample of Black and White children, adolescents, and young adults.

Design, Setting, and Participants

Prospective cohort study of a US national sample of 4830 Black and White students (National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health) followed up for 13 years. The study was conducted from 1994 to 1995 for wave 1 and in 2008 for wave 4. Data were analyzed from June 14 to August 13, 2021.

Main Outcomes and Measures

School-level racial disparities in belonging at baseline were calculated as the mean level of school belonging for Black students minus the mean level of school belonging for White students at the school that they attended when they were aged 12 to 20 years. Diabetes and metabolic syndrome were measured as outcomes for these same participants at 24 to 32 years of age.

Results

The study included 4830 students. For wave 1, mean (SD) age was 16.1 (1.7) years, and for wave 4, 29.0 (1.7) years. A total of 2614 (54.1%) were female, 2219 were non-Hispanic Black (45.9%), and 2611 were non-Hispanic White (54.1%). Among Black students, attending a school with a greater Black-White disparity in school belonging (more negative scores) was associated with an increased risk for diabetes (odds ratio, 0.66 [95% CI, 0.46-0.95]) and more risk factors for metabolic syndrome (rate ratio, 0.95 [95% CI, 0.90-1.00]) in adulthood 13 years later. These associations persisted above individual-level controls (age, sex, and body mass index) and school-level controls (school size, percentage of Black students, and percentage of Black teachers) and were not explained by either an individual's own perception of school belonging or the mean level of belonging across the whole school.

Conclusions and Relevance

In this prospective cohort study of US students, racial disparities in school belonging were associated with risks for diabetes and metabolic syndrome in Black students. Among students, fostering a more equal sense of school belonging across racial groups may have implications for health disparities in the cardiometabolic domain into adulthood.

A scalable empathic-mindset intervention reduces group disparities in school suspensions

Suspensions remove students from the learning environment at high rates throughout the United States. Policy and theory highlight social groups that face disproportionately high suspension rates-racial-minoritized students, students with a prior suspension, and students with disabilities. We used an active placebo-controlled, longitudinal field experiment (N_teachers = 66, N_students = 5822) to test a scalable "empathic-mindset" intervention, a 45- to 70-min online exercise to refocus middle school teachers on understanding and valuing the perspectives of students and on sustaining positive relationships even when students misbehave. In preregistered analyses, this exercise reduced suspension rates especially for Black and Hispanic students, cutting the racial disparity over the school year from 10.6 to 5.9 percentage points, a 45% reduction. Significant reductions were also observed for other groups of concern. Moreover, reductions persisted through the next year when students interacted with different teachers, suggesting that empathic treatment with even one teacher in a critical period can improve students' trajectories through school.

Resilience and Family Socialization Processes in Ethnic Minority Youth: Illuminating the Achievement-Health Paradox

Youth in marginalized communities who "strive" to rise above adversity, including systemic racism and poverty, are considered "resilient." African-American, Latinx, and Asian-American youth often achieve admirable academic success despite limited social capital and high early life stress by adopting a "striving persistent behavioral style" (SPBS). SPBS may be supported by family socialization processes that facilitate reliance on self-regulation processes. Unfortunately, a young person's resilience in one domain (i.e., academic) can come at a cost in other domains, including physical and mental health morbidities that are under-identified and under-treated. Indeed, research suggests a link between SPBS in the face of adversity and later health morbidities among ethnic minority youth. Herein, we describe SPBS as an adaptation to minority stress that not only promotes social mobility but may also stoke physical and mental health disparities. We review how family processes related to academic, emotional, and ethnic-racial socialization can facilitate the striving persistent behavioral style. We emphasize the double bind that ethnic minority families are caught in and discuss directions for future research and clinical implications for individual and family-level interventions. While needed, we argue that individual and family-level interventions represent a near-term work around. Solutions and factors that shape the need for SPBS and its cost must be addressed structurally.