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Childhood socioeconomic status and inflammation: Psychological moderators among Black and White Americans
- Source :
- Health Psychol
- Publication Year :
- 2020
- Publisher :
- American Psychological Association (APA), 2020.
-
Abstract
- OBJECTIVE The current study examined race differences in how childhood socioeconomic status (SES) predicted midlife inflammation. It also tested psychological resources (purpose in life, optimism, and conscientiousness) as moderators of the association between childhood SES and inflammation among Black and White adults. METHOD Data came from the biomarker subsamples of the Midlife in the United States Core and Refresher studies (n = 1,578 White and n = 395 Black participants). Childhood SES was operationalized as a composite of parental education, perceived financial status, and welfare status. Outcomes included circulating IL-6 and CRP. RESULTS Childhood SES did not predict IL-6 or CRP among Black or White adults in fully adjusted models. Among Black adults with low optimism, lower childhood SES predicted higher IL-6 and CRP. Among Black adults with low purpose in life, lower childhood SES predicted higher CRP (but not IL-6). Conscientiousness did not moderate childhood SES-inflammation associations among Black adults. Among White adults with low conscientiousness or low optimism, lower childhood SES predicted higher IL-6 (but not CRP). Purpose in life did not moderate associations among White adults. Effect sizes were small (≤1% variance explained) and comparable to effects of clinical risk factors in this sample (e.g., age, chronic conditions). CONCLUSIONS Race differences in the childhood SES and inflammation association were not apparent. Childhood SES was linked to inflammation more strongly among those with fewer psychological resources across both racial groups. Psychological resources may be important moderators of inflammation in the context of early life SES disadvantage. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
- Subjects :
- Adult
Male
media_common.quotation_subject
Context (language use)
PsycINFO
Article
White People
03 medical and health sciences
Optimism
Risk Factors
Humans
Medicine
Socioeconomic status
Applied Psychology
Aged
media_common
Aged, 80 and over
Inflammation
030505 public health
White (horse)
business.industry
Conscientiousness
Middle Aged
Explained variation
United States
Black or African American
Psychiatry and Mental health
Social Class
Female
0305 other medical science
business
Clinical risk factor
Demography
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 19307810 and 02786133
- Volume :
- 39
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Health Psychology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....50f6862e7c590fa70518068b3ee2d59f