Mechanisms upholding the persistence of stigma across 100 years of historical text.

Today, many social groups face negative stereotypes. Is such negativity a stable feature of society and, if so, what mechanisms maintain stability both within and across group targets? Answering these theoretically and practically important questions requires data on dozens of group stereotypes examined simultaneously over historical and societal scales, which is only possible through recent advances in Natural Language Processing. Across two studies, we use word embeddings from millions of English-language books over 100 years (1900-2000) and extract stereotypes for 58 stigmatized groups. Study 1 examines aggregate, societal-level trends in stereotype negativity by averaging across these groups. Results reveal striking persistence in aggregate negativity (no meaningful slope), suggesting that society maintains a stable level of negative stereotypes. Study 2 introduces and tests a new framework identifying potential mechanisms upholding stereotype negativity over time. We find evidence of two key sources of this aggregate persistence: within-group "reproducibility" (e.g., stereotype negativity can be maintained by using different traits with the same underlying meaning) and across-group "replacement" (e.g., negativity from one group is transferred to other related groups). These findings provide novel historical evidence of mechanisms upholding stigmatization in society and raise new questions regarding the possibility of future stigma change.

Threats to social safety and neuro-inflammatory mechanisms underlying sexual orientation disparities in depression symptom severity: A prospective cohort study of young adults.

Sexual minority individuals have a markedly elevated risk of depression compared to heterosexuals. We examined early threats to social safety and chronically elevated inflammation as mechanisms contributing to this disparity in depression symptoms, and compared the relative strength of the co-occurrence between chronic inflammation and depression symptoms for sexual minorities versus heterosexuals. To do so, we analyzed data from a prospective cohort of sexual minority and heterosexual young adults (n = 595), recruited from a nationally representative sample, that included assessments of early threats to social safety in the form of adverse childhood interpersonal events, three biomarkers of inflammation (i.e., CRP, IL-6, TNF-α) measured at two time points, and depression symptoms over four years. In pre-registered analyses, we found that sexual minorities experienced more adverse childhood interpersonal events, were more likely to display chronically elevated inflammation, and reported more severe depression symptoms than heterosexuals. Adverse childhood interpersonal events and chronically elevated inflammation explained approximately 23 % of the total effect of the association between sexual orientation and depression symptom severity. Further, there was an increased coupling of chronically elevated inflammation and depression symptoms among sexual minorities compared to heterosexuals. These results provide novel longitudinal, population-based evidence for the role of chronically elevated inflammation in linking threats to social safety during childhood with depression symptom severity in young adulthood, consistent with the primary tenets of the social signal transduction theory of depression. Our study extends this theory to the population level by finding that members of a stigmatized population (i.e., sexual minorities) experience a greater risk of depression because of their greater exposure to adverse childhood interpersonal events and the subsequent link to chronic inflammation, highlighting potential biopsychosocial intervention targets.

Structural stigma and LGBTQ+ health: a narrative review of quantitative studies.

Health disparities related to sexual orientation and gender identity exist across multiple outcomes. Scholarship has begun to evaluate whether structural stigma-ie, societal-level conditions, cultural norms, and institutional policies that constrain opportunities, resources, and wellbeing-contributes to health burdens among LGBTQ+ individuals. We conducted a comprehensive review of quantitative studies examining this hypothesis. We found 98 articles that linked objective (ie, non-self-reported) measures of structural stigma to mental (n=57), behavioural (ie, substance use; n=27; HIV/AIDS or sexually transmitted infection; n=20), and physical (n=20) health outcomes. There was generally consistent evidence that structural stigma increases risk of poor health among LGBTQ+ individuals. Several methodological strengths were identified, including the use of multiple measures (eg, laws or policies [59%, 58 of 98]), designs (eg, quasi-experiments [21%, 21 of 98]), and samples (eg, probability-based [56%, 55 of 98]). However, important gaps exist. Just over half of studies included area-level covariates or non-LGBTQ+ comparison groups, which are necessary to address alternative explanations for the observed associations. Additionally, while studies (n=90) have begun to identify candidate mechanisms, only nine (10%) formally tested mediation. We offer suggestions for future research to advance this literature, which has implications not only for the identification of structural determinants of LGBTQ+ health but also for the development of public health interventions that reduce LGBTQ+ health disparities.

Associations Between Structural Stigma and Allostatic Load Among Sexual Minorities: Results From a Population-Based Study.

OBJECTIVE: Structural forms of stigma and discrimination are associated with adverse health outcomes across numerous stigmatized groups, including lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) individuals. However, the biological consequences of structural stigma among LGB populations are understudied. To begin to address this gap, we assessed associations between indicators of structural stigma (i.e., state-level policies) targeting LGB individuals and allostatic load (AL) indices representing physiological dysregulations. METHODS: Pooled data from the continuous 2001-2014 National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey were analyzed (LGB: n = 864; heterosexual: n = 20,310). Ten state-level LGB-related policies (e.g., employment nondiscrimination protections, same-sex marriage) were used to operationalize structural stigma. A sex-specific AL index representing 11 immune, metabolic, and cardiovascular biomarkers was estimated. Multilevel models were used to examine associations between structural stigma and AL, net of nine individual-level characteristics (e.g., education, race/ethnicity, age, and health behaviors). RESULTS: Sexual minority men living in states with low levels of structural stigma experienced significantly lower AL ( ß = -0.45, p = .02) compared with sexual minority men living in states with high structural stigma (i.e., fewer protective policies). There was no significant association between structural stigma and AL among sexual minority women. CONCLUSIONS: By demonstrating direct associations between structural stigma and indices of physiological dysregulation, our findings provide a mechanistic understanding of how the social environment can "get under the skin and skull" for sexual minority men in the United States. Future research should explore whether these mechanisms generalize to other marginalized groups exposed to structural stigma.

A research agenda for understanding how social inequality is linked to brain structure and function.

Consistent evidence documents powerful effects of social inequality on health, well-being and academic achievement. Yet research on whether social inequality may also be linked to brain structure and function has, until recently, been rare. Here we describe three methodological approaches that can be used to study this question-single site, single study; multi-site, single study; and spatial meta-analysis. We review empirical work that, using these approaches, has observed associations between neural outcomes and structural measures of social inequality-including structural stigma, community-level prejudice, gender inequality, neighbourhood disadvantage and the generosity of the social safety net for low-income families. We evaluate the relative strengths and limitations of these approaches, discuss ethical considerations and outline directions for future research. In doing so, we advocate for a paradigm shift in cognitive neuroscience that explicitly incorporates upstream structural and contextual factors, which we argue holds promise for uncovering the neural correlates of social inequality.

Does Implementation Matter? Associations Between Implementation of Maine's Anti- Bullying Law and Bullying Victimization Among High School Youth.

PURPOSE: To characterize the relationship between implementation of an antibullying law and bullying rates among high school youth. METHODS: School staff (administrators, counselors, and teachers) from public high schools in Maine completed a survey assessing: (1) the frequency with which they implemented 17 components of their district's antibullying policy as mandated by state law; and (2) confidence in implementing the law. Their responses were linked to data on bullying victimization among high school respondents to the Maine Integrated Youth Health Survey, which created a population-based dataset of 84 high schools with 29,818 student responses. RESULTS: Students in schools where administrators (adjusted odds ratio = 0.93; 95% CI: 0.89, 0.97) and counselors (adjusted odds ratio = 0.86; 95% CI: 0.81, 0.92) reported implementing more mandated components of the law experienced notable reductions in the odds of bullying, controlling for student-level characteristics (sex, race, grade) and for school-level bullying rates assessed prior to the passage of the law. With respect to specific implementation components, bullying was most consistently reduced in schools where staff reported increased referrals for counseling and other supports for targets of bullying and in schools where counselors and teachers were interviewed as part of bullying investigations. Students in schools where teachers reported increased confidence in implementing the antibullying law also had reduced odds of bullying. DISCUSSION: These data provide some of the first evidence that the efficacy of a state's antibullying law depends in part on the extent to which school personnel implement the law.

Building A Comprehensive, Longitudinal Dataset to Advance Research on the Efficacy of State-Level Anti-bullying Legislation: 1999 to 2017.

Bullying is one of the most common forms of youth violence and is associated with myriad adverse consequences over the life course. There has been increasing interest in examining whether anti-bullying legislation is effective in preventing bullying victimization and its negative effects. However, a lack of data structures that comprehensively and longitudinally assess anti-bullying legislation and its provisions has hampered this effort. We provide 18 years of data (1999-2017) on anti-bullying legislation and amendments across 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia, which we are making publicly available at LawAtlas.org. This article describes how the legal content analysis was conducted, provides information on the reliability of the coding, and details provisions of the legislation that were coded, such as funding provisions and enumerated groups (a total of 122 individual codes are provided). Over 90% of states had at least one amendment to their legislation during this 18-year period (range: 0-22; Mean = 6.1), highlighting both the evolving content of anti-bullying statutes and the importance of tracking these changes with longitudinal data. Additionally, we offer illustrative examples of the kinds of research questions that might be pursued with these new data. For instance, using survival analyses, we show that a variety of state characteristics (e.g., political leaning of state legislatures) predict time to adoption of key provisions of anti-bullying legislation (e.g., the comprehensiveness of legal provisions). Finally, we end with a discussion of how the dataset might be used in future research on the efficacy of anti-bullying legislation.

State same-sex marriage policies and pre-exposure prophylaxis implementation among men who have sex with men in the United States.

INTRODUCTION: More than 70% of new HIV diagnoses in the United States were among men who have sex with men (MSM) in 2019. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a transformative innovation for reducing human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infections. Structural stigma against sexual minorities, including in the form of state-level policies, may affect PrEP implementation. We evaluated whether lower structural stigma reflected by earlier year of state same-sex marriage legalization was associated with increased male PrEP prescriptions and male PrEP-to-need ratio (PnR), a ratio of PrEP prescriptions to new HIV diagnoses. METHODS: We used 2012-2019 AIDSVu data on male PrEP prescriptions and male PnR in each US state and year. We used generalized estimating equations to evaluate the relationship between the timing of implementing state same-sex marriage policies and the outcomes of male PrEP prescriptions per 100,000 people and the male PnR. We adjusted for calendar year, Medicaid expansion and the political party of the governor in each state. RESULTS: State implementation of same-sex marriage policies in earlier, relative to later, periods was associated with increases in the rate of male PrEP prescriptions and in the male PnR. Specifically, implementing state same-sex marriage policies between 2004 and 2011 and between 2012 and 2013 were each associated with greater rates of male PrEP prescriptions relative to implementing same-sex marriage policies between 2014 and 2015. Implementing state same-sex marriage policies between 2004 and 2011 as well as between 2012 and 2013 were both significantly associated with a greater male PnR relative to implementing same-sex marriage policies between 2014 and 2015. By 2019, the difference in male PrEP prescriptions was 137.9 (97.3-175.5) per 100,000 in states that implemented same-sex marriage in 2004-2011 and 27.2 (23.3-30.5) per 100,000 in states that implemented same-sex marriage from 2012 to 2013, relative to states that implemented same-sex marriage in 2014-2015. CONCLUSIONS: Earlier implementation of state same-sex marriage policies was associated with greater rates of male PrEP prescriptions. Reducing state-level structural stigma may improve HIV prevention among MSM in the United States.

Associations Between Structural Stigma and Psychopathology Among Early Adolescents.

OBJECTIVE: Ample evidence demonstrates that structural stigma - defined as societal-level conditions, cultural norms, and institutional policies and practices that constrain opportunities, resources, and well-being of stigmatized populations - is associated with psychopathology in adults from marginalized groups. Yet there is limited research on whether structural stigma is similarly associated with internalizing and externalizing symptoms among youth. METHOD: Structural stigma related to sex, sexual orientation, race, and Latinx ethnicity was measured using indicators of state-level policy and aggregated attitudes. Using data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study (N = 10,414; M age = 12 years, SD = 0.66; 48% female, 6.8% lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB), 13.4% Black, 20% Latinx), we examined associations of structural stigma with internalizing and externalizing symptoms among female, LGB, Black, and Latinx youth. RESULTS: LGB youth living in higher (vs. lower) structural stigma states had elevated levels of internalizing and externalizing symptoms. In lower structural stigma states, there were no differences in externalizing symptoms between LGB and heterosexual youth. Similarly, Latinx youth and females living in higher (vs. lower) structural stigma states had elevated levels of externalizing symptoms. In lower structural stigma states, there were no differences in externalizing symptoms between Latinx youth and non-Latinx White youth. Structural stigma related to race was unrelated to internalizing or externalizing symptoms for Black youth. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides novel evidence that macro-level social environments, in the form of structural stigma, contribute to adverse mental health outcomes for marginalized youth and partly explain disparities in externalizing symptoms.

State-Level Anti-Immigrant Sentiment and Policies and Health Risks in US Latino Children.

BACKGROUND: Although systemic inequities, broadly defined, are associated with health disparities in adults, there is a dearth of research linking contextual measures of exclusionary policies or prejudicial attitudes to health impairments in children, particularly among Latino populations. In this study, we examined a composite measure of systemic inequities in relation to the cooccurrence of multiple health problems in Latino children in the United States. METHODS: Participants included 17 855 Latino children aged 3 to 17 years from the National Survey of Children's Health (2016-2020). We measured state-level systemic inequities using a factor score that combined an index of exclusionary state policies toward immigrants and aggregated survey data on prejudicial attitudes toward immigrants and Latino individuals. Caregivers reported on 3 categories of child health problems: common health difficulties in the past year, current chronic physical health conditions, and current mental health conditions. For each category, we constructed a variable reflecting 0, 1, or 2 or more conditions. RESULTS: In models adjusted for sociodemographic covariates, interpersonal discrimination, and state-level income inequality, systemic inequities were associated with 1.13 times the odds of a chronic physical health condition (95% confidence interval: 1.02-1.25) and 1.24 times the odds of 2 or more mental health conditions (95% confidence interval: 1.06-1.45). CONCLUSIONS: Latino children residing in states with higher levels of systemic inequity are more likely to experience mental health or chronic physical health conditions relative to those in states with lower levels of systemic inequity.

Identifying and predicting stereotype change in large language corpora: 72 groups, 115 years (1900-2015), and four text sources.

The social world is carved into a complex variety of groups each associated with unique stereotypes that persist and shift over time. Innovations in natural language processing (word embeddings) enabled this comprehensive study on variability and correlates of change/stability in both manifest and latent stereotypes for 72 diverse groups tracked across 115 years of four English-language text corpora. Results showed, first, that group stereotypes changed by a moderate-to-large degree in manifest content (i.e., top traits associated with groups) but remained relatively more stable in latent structure (i.e., average cosine similarity of top traits' embeddings and vectors of valence, warmth, or competence). This dissociation suggests new insights into how stereotypes and their consequences may endure despite documented changes in other aspects of group representations. Second, results showed substantial variability of change/stability across the 72 groups, with some groups revealing large shifts in manifest and latent content, but others showing near-stability. Third, groups also varied in how consistently they were stereotyped across texts, with some groups showing divergent content, but others showing near-identical representations. Fourth, this variability in change/stability across groups was predicted from a combination of linguistic (e.g., frequency of mentioning the group; consistency of group stereotypes across texts) and social (e.g., the type of group) correlates. Groups that were more frequently mentioned in text changed more than those rarely mentioned; sociodemographic groups changed more than other group types (e.g., body-related stigmas, mental illnesses, occupations), providing the first quantitative evidence of specific group features that may support historical stereotype change. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Sexual Violence-Related Stigma, Mental Health, and Treatment-Seeking: A Multimodal Assessment in a Population-Based Study of Young Adults.

Sexual violence (SV) is a stigmatized form of trauma, yet the stigma experiences of those reporting SV are often assumed rather than explicitly measured. We adapted a measure that quantified three key features of SV stigma across three levels: negative self-image (individual), disclosure concerns (interpersonal), and concerns about public attitudes (structural). We administered this measure to a population-based sample of Swedish young adults (N = 453) who reported a history of either sexual assault (SA) or intimate partner sexual violence (IPSV). Among both groups, 89% endorsed at least one item on the stigma scale. Experiences of SV-related stigma were associated with significantly higher symptoms of generalized anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress disorder, with greater perceived need for mental health treatment, and with more shame (measured implicitly via a reaction-time task). Experiences of stigma were negatively associated with symptoms of alcohol misuse. Results suggest that exposure to SV stigma may be a critical, but often overlooked, correlate of post-assault recovery.

Self-schemas and information processing biases as mechanisms underlying sexual orientation disparities in depressive symptoms: Results from a longitudinal, population-based study.

Sexual minority individuals experience higher prevalence of major depression and more frequent depressive symptoms compared to heterosexual individuals. Although existing theories have suggested cognitive mechanisms that may explain these disparities, empirical tests are limited by a reliance on cross-sectional designs, self-reported measures, and nonprobability samples. We analyzed data from a longitudinal, population-based study of young adults (N = 1,065; n = 497 sexual minority) who completed validated measures of depressive symptoms over a 3-year period; at Wave 2, participants completed the self-referent encoding task, a behavioral task assessing self-schemas and information processing biases. Self-schemas were measured with the drift rate, which was estimated via the composite of endorsement of positive or negative words as self-referential (or not) and the reaction time for these decisions. Information processing biases were operationalized as the total number of negative words that were both endorsed as self-referential and recalled after the task, divided by the total number of words endorsed and recalled. Compared to heterosexuals, sexual minorities displayed significantly higher negative self-schemas and recalled a significantly higher proportion of negative words endorsed as self-referential, relative to total number of words. In turn, these differences in self-schemas and information processing biases mediated the sexual orientation disparity in depressive symptoms. Moreover, among sexual minorities, perceived discrimination predicted greater negative self-schemas and information processing biases, which mediated the prospective association between discrimination and depressive symptoms. These findings provide the strongest evidence to date for cognitive risk factors that underlie sexual orientation disparities in depression, highlighting potential intervention targets. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

State-level macro-economic factors moderate the association of low income with brain structure and mental health in U.S. children.

Macrostructural characteristics, such as cost of living and state-level anti-poverty programs relate to the magnitude of socioeconomic disparities in brain development and mental health. In this study we leveraged data from the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD) study from 10,633 9-11 year old youth (5115 female) across 17 states. Lower income was associated with smaller hippocampal volume and higher internalizing psychopathology. These associations were stronger in states with higher cost of living. However, in high cost of living states that provide more generous cash benefits for low-income families, socioeconomic disparities in hippocampal volume were reduced by 34%, such that the association of family income with hippocampal volume resembled that in the lowest cost of living states. We observed similar patterns for internalizing psychopathology. State-level anti-poverty programs and cost of living may be confounded with other factors related to neurodevelopment and mental health. However, the patterns were robust to controls for numerous state-level social, economic, and political characteristics. These findings suggest that state-level macrostructural characteristics, including the generosity of anti-poverty policies, are potentially relevant for addressing the relationship of low income with brain development and mental health.

Neighborhood Opportunity and Mortality Among Children and Adults in Their Households.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Research has linked neighborhood opportunity to health outcomes in children and adults; however, few studies have examined neighborhood opportunity and mortality risk among children and their caregivers. The objective of this study was to assess associations of neighborhood opportunity and mortality risk in children and their caregivers over 11 years. METHODS: Participants included 1 025 000 children drawn from the Mortality Disparities in American Communities study, a cohort developed by linking the 2008 American Community Survey to the National Death Index and followed for 11 years. Neighborhood opportunity was measured using the Child Opportunity Index, a measure designed to capture compounding inequities in access to opportunities for health. RESULTS: Using hazard models, we observed inverse associations between Child Opportunity Index quintile and deaths among child and caregivers. Children in very low opportunity neighborhoods at baseline had 1.30 times the risk of dying over follow-up relative to those in very high opportunity neighborhoods (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.15-1.45), and this excess risk attenuated after adjustment for household characteristics (hazard ratio, 1.15; 95% CI, 0.98-1.34). Similarly, children in very low opportunity neighborhoods had 1.57 times the risk of experiencing the death of a caregiver relative to those in very high opportunity neighborhoods (95% CI, 1.50-1.64), which remained after adjustment (hazard ratio, 1.30; 95% CI, 1.23-1.38). CONCLUSIONS: Our analyses advance understanding of the adverse consequences of inequitable neighborhood contexts for child well-being and underscore the potential importance of place-based policies for reducing disparities in child and caregiver mortality.

Moderators of LGBQ-affirmative cognitive behavioral therapy: ESTEEM is especially effective among Black and Latino sexual minority men.

OBJECTIVE: Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ)-affirmative cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) focused on minority stress processes can address gay and bisexual men's transdiagnostic mental and behavioral health concerns. Identifying moderators of treatment outcomes may inform the mechanisms of LGBQ-affirmative CBT and subpopulations who may derive particular benefit. METHOD: Data were from a clinical trial in which gay and bisexual men with mental and behavioral health concerns were randomized to receive Effective Skills to Empower Effective Men (ESTEEM; an LGBQ-affirmative transdiagnostic CBT; n = 100) or one of two control conditions (n = 154): LGBQ-affirmative community mental health treatment (CMHT) or HIV counseling and testing (HCT). The preregistered outcome was a comorbidity index of depression, anxiety, alcohol/drug problems, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission risk behavior at 8-month follow-up (i.e., 4 months postintervention). A two-step exploratory machine learning process was employed for 20 theoretically informed baseline variables identified by study therapists as potential moderators of ESTEEM efficacy. Potential moderators included demographic factors, pretreatment comorbidities, clinical facilitators, and minority stress factors. RESULTS: Racial/ethnic minority identification, namely as Black or Latino, was the only statistically significant moderator of treatment efficacy (B = -3.23, 95% CI [-5.03, -1.64]), t(197) = -3.88, p < .001. Racially/ethnically minoritized recipients (d = -0.71, p < .001), but not White/non-Latino recipients (d = 0.22, p = .391), had greater reductions in comorbidity index scores in ESTEEM compared to the control conditions. This moderation was driven by improvements in anxiety and alcohol/drug use problems. DISCUSSION: Black and Latino gay and bisexual men experiencing comorbid mental and behavioral health risks might particularly benefit from a minority stress-focused LGBQ-affirmative CBT. Future research should identify mechanisms for this moderation to inform targeted treatment delivery and dissemination. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Incorporating macro-social contexts into emotion research: Longitudinal associations between structural stigma and emotion processes among gay and bisexual men.

Research into correlates and predictors of emotion regulation has focused almost exclusively on individual differences and the immediate situation. Here, we consider whether features of macro-social contexts may also shape emotion regulation. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a longitudinal study of 502 gay and bisexual men living in 269 U.S. counties that varied in the level of stigma surrounding sexual minorities. We find that gay and bisexual men living in higher- (vs. lower-) stigma counties consistently reported more suppression, which consequently explained longitudinal increases (vs. decreases) in their lack of emotional clarity over 24 months. Results were robust to demographic characteristics, stigma at the interpersonal level (i.e., sexual orientation-related discrimination), and another form of social inequality (i.e., county-level income inequality). These findings suggest that broadening the lens of emotion regulation research to include characteristics of the macro-social environment may yield new insights into determinants of emotion regulation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Collateral consequences of the school-to-prison pipeline: Adolescent substance use and developmental risk.

OBJECTIVE: The adolescent health consequences of the school-to-prison pipeline remain underexplored. We test whether initiating components of the school-to-prison pipeline-suspensions, expulsions, and school policing-are associated with higher school-average levels of student substance use, depressed feelings, and developmental risk in the following year. METHOD: We linked 2003-2014 data from the California Healthy Kids Survey and the Civil Rights Data Collection from over 4,800 schools and 4,950,000 students. With lagged multi-level models, we estimated relationships between the school prevalence of total discipline, out-of-school discipline, and police-involved discipline, and standardized school-average levels of 6 substance use measures and 8 measures of developmental risk, respectively. RESULTS: The prevalence of school discipline predicted subsequent school-mean substance use and developmental risk. A one-unit higher prevalence of total discipline predicted higher school levels (in standard deviations) of binge drinking alcohol (0.14, 95% CI: 0.11, 0.17), drinking alcohol (0.15, 95% CI: 0.12, 0.18), smoking tobacco (0.09, 95% CI: 0.06, 0.12), using cannabis (0.16, 95% CI: 0.14, 0.19), using other drugs (0.17, 95% CI: 0.14, 0.21), and violence/harassment (0.16, 95% CI: 0.12, 0.2). Total discipline predicted lower levels of reported community support (-0.07, 95% CI: -0.1, -0.05), feeling safe in school (-0.12, 95% CI: -0.16, -0.09), and school support (-0.16, 95% CI: -0.19, -0.12). Associations were greater in magnitude for more severe out-of-school discipline. Findings were inconsistent for police-involved discipline. CONCLUSION: Exclusionary school discipline and school policing-core elements of the school-to-prison pipeline-are previously unidentified population predictors of adolescent substance use and developmental risk.

Community-level explicit racial prejudice potentiates whites' neural responses to black faces: A spatial meta-analysis.

We evaluated the hypothesis that neural responses to racial out-group members vary systematically based on the level of racial prejudice in the surrounding community. To do so, we conducted a spatial meta-analysis, which included a comprehensive set of studies (k = 22; N = 481). Specifically, we tested whether community-level racial prejudice moderated neural activation to Black (vs. White) faces in primarily White participants. Racial attitudes, obtained from Project Implicit, were aggregated to the county (k = 17; N = 10,743) in which each study was conducted. Multi-level kernel density analysis demonstrated that significant differences in neural activation to Black (vs. White) faces in right amygdala, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex were detected more often in communities with higher (vs. lower) levels of explicit (but not implicit) racial prejudice. These findings advance social-cognitive neuroscience by identifying aspects of macro-social contexts that may alter neural responses to out-group members.