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Bolstering academic motivation is a high priority in school settings, but some evidence suggests this could take a toll on students' physical health. To address this, this study compared the effects of an experimental manipulation of academic motivation alone (AM) to academic motivation enhanced with social support (SS + AM) on markers of inflammation in a sample of 80 high school 9th graders. Outcomes included low-grade inflammation: C-reactive protein (CRP) and interleukin-6 (IL-6); a motivation measure; and grade point average (GPA), taken at baseline and follow-up (beginning and end of school year, respectively). Students in the SS + AM condition had lower levels of inflammation at follow-up (covarying baseline levels) compared to those in the AM condition. The two groups were equivalent on motivation and GPA at follow-up. This preliminary study suggests that incorporating social support into academic motivation programs has the potential to benefit inflammatory markers in young people while allowing them to maintain positive academic outcomes., Author(s): Edith Chen [sup.1] [sup.2] [sup.4] , Régine Debrosse [sup.5] , Paula J. Ham [sup.6] , Lauren C. Hoffer [sup.1] [sup.2] [sup.4] , Adam K. K. Leigh [sup.1] [sup.2] [sup.4] [...]

A quarter of the global population meets diagnostic criteria for metabolic syndrome (MetS). MetS prevalence stratifies by socioeconomic status (SES), such that low SES is associated with higher MetS risk starting in childhood. Despite this trend, some low-SES children maintain good metabolic health across the life span, but the factors responsible for their resilience are not well understood. This study examined the role of threat vigilance as either a moderator or a mediator of the effects of low early life SES on adult metabolic risk. Three hundred twenty-five Canadians aged 15-55 participated (M = 36.4 years, SD = 10.7; 55.4% female). We coded parental occupational status between the ages of 0 and 5 to index early life SES. We used the International Diabetes Federation case definition for MetS based on waist circumference, blood pressure, triglyceride levels, HDL cholesterol, and glycosylated hemoglobin measures. Threat vigilance was assessed using the Weapons Identification Procedure, a visual discrimination paradigm that captures implicit perceptions of threat. Analyses supported the moderator hypothesis: low early life SES was associated with MetS diagnosis exclusively among those with high levels of threat vigilance. This suggests that low early life SES environments that heighten vigilance to threat might be particularly detrimental for metabolic health. Conversely, low threat vigilance may buffer against the metabolic risks associated with socioeconomic disadvantage.

ImportanceThis study was designed to determine whether a preventive intervention focused on enhancing supportive parenting could ameliorate the association between exposure to poverty and brain development in low socioeconomic status African American individuals from the rural South.ObjectiveTo determine whether participation in an efficacious prevention program designed to enhance supportive parenting for rural African American children will ameliorate the association between living in poverty and reduced hippocampal and amygdalar volumes in adulthood.Design, setting, and participantsIn the rural southeastern United States, African American parents and their 11-year-old children were assigned randomly to the Strong African American Families randomized prevention trial or to a control condition. Parents provided data used to calculate income-to-needs ratios when children were aged 11 to 13 years and 16 to 18 years. When the participants were aged 25 years, hippocampal and amygdalar volumes were measured using magnetic resonance imaging.ExposuresHousehold poverty was measured by income-to-needs ratios.Main outcomes and measuresYoung adults' whole hippocampal, dentate gyrus, and CA3 hippocampal subfields as well as amygdalar volumes were assessed using magnetic resonance imaging.ResultsOf the 667 participants in the Strong African American Families randomized prevention trial, 119 right-handed African American individuals aged 25 years living in rural areas were recruited. Years lived in poverty across ages 11 to 18 years forecasted diminished left dentate gyrus (simple slope, -14.20; standard error, 5.22; P = .008) and CA3 (simple slope, -6.42; standard error, 2.42; P = .009) hippocampal subfields and left amygdalar (simple slope, -34.62; standard error, 12.74; P = .008) volumes among young adults in the control condition (mean [SD] time, 2.04 [1.88] years) but not among those who participated in the Strong African American Families program (mean [SD] time, 2.61 [1.77] years).Conclusions and relevanceIn this study, we described how participation in a randomized clinical trial designed to enhance supportive parenting ameliorated the association of years lived in poverty with left dentate gyrus and CA3 hippocampal subfields and left amygdalar volumes. These findings are consistent with a possible role for supportive parenting and suggest a strategy for narrowing social disparities.

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Background: Low socioeconomic status (SES) is a risk factor for poor outcomes across development. Recent evidence suggests that, although psychosocial resilience among youth living in low‐SES households is common, such expressions of resilience may not extend to physical health. Questions remain about when these diverging mental and physical health trajectories emerge. The current study hypothesized that skin‐deep resilience – a pattern wherein socioeconomic disadvantage is linked to better mental health but worse physical health for individuals with John Henryism high‐effort coping – is already present in childhood. Methods: Analyses focus on 165 Black and Latinx children (Mage = 11.5) who were free of chronic disease and able to complete study procedures. Guardians provided information about their SES. Children reported on their John Henryism high‐effort coping behaviors. They also provided reports of their depressed and anxious mood, which were combined into a composite of internalizing symptoms. Children's cardiometabolic risk was captured as a composite reflecting high levels of systolic or diastolic blood pressure, waist circumference, HbA1c, triglycerides, and low high‐density lipoprotein cholesterol. Results: Among youth who reported using John Henryism high‐effort coping, SES risk was unrelated to internalizing symptoms and was positively associated with cardiometabolic risk. In contrast, for youth who did not engage in high‐effort coping, SES risk was positively associated with internalizing symptoms and was unrelated to cardiometabolic risk. Conclusions: For youth with high‐effort coping tendencies, socioeconomic disadvantage is linked to cardiometabolic risk. Public health efforts to support at‐risk youth must consider both mental and physical health consequences associated with striving in challenging contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Much is known about the effect of parent-child relationships on child health; less is known about how parent-child relationships influence parent health. To assess the association between aspects of the parent-child relationship and parent metabolic outcomes, and whether these associations are moderated by parent gender. Five metabolic outcomes (systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, total cholesterol and glycated hemoglobin) were assessed among 261 parents (45.83 ± 5.50 years) of an adolescent child (14.57 ± 1.072 years). Parents completed questionnaires assessing their child's hassles and the quality of their days with their child. Parents' perceptions of their child's hassles were associated with parent heart rate (B = 2.954, SE = 1.267, p = 0.021) and cholesterol (B = 0.028, SE = 0.011, p = 0.010), such that greater perceived child hassles were associated with higher heart rate and cholesterol levels, on average. These associations were not moderated by parent gender (all ps > 0.30). Parent report of their day with their child was not associated with parent metabolic outcomes (all ps > 0.20). Parent gender moderated the association between parent report of their day with their child and parent systolic blood pressure (B = 13.861, SE = 6.200, p = 0.026), such that less positive reports were associated with higher blood pressure readings among fathers, but not mothers. This study suggests that parent metabolic health may in part be influenced by aspects of the parent-child relationship., Author(s): Emily J. Jones [sup.1] , Edith Chen [sup.2] [sup.3] , Cynthia S. Levine [sup.2] [sup.3] , Phoebe H. Lam [sup.2] , Vivian Y. Liu [sup.2] , Hannah M. C. [...]