Skin-deep Resilience and Early Adolescence: Neighborhood Disadvantage, Executive Functioning, and Pubertal Development in Minority Youth.

Skin-deep resilience, in which youth overcome adversity and achieve success in psychological and academic domains but at a cost to their physiological well-being, has been documented in late adolescence and adulthood. However, its potential to emerge at earlier developmental stages is unknown. To address this gap, secondary data analyses were executed using waves 1 and 2 of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study (n = 7712; ages 9-10 years at baseline [mean: 9.92; SD = 0.63]; 47.1% female; 66.1% White, 13.4% Black, and 20.6% Hispanic). The results indicated high levels of executive functioning were associated with improved psychological and behavioral outcomes at one-year follow-up. However, for racial and ethnic minority (i.e., Black or Hispanic) youth from disadvantaged neighborhoods, high levels of executive functioning were also associated with accelerated pubertal development. No significant interaction was observed among White youth. The findings suggest the skin-deep resilience pattern may be evident in early adolescence.

The protective effects of perceived gratitude and expressed gratitude for relationship quality among African American couples.

The current study was designed to investigate the protective effects of gratitude in romantic relationships. Particular attention was given to differentiating the beneficial effects of perceived gratitude (i.e., gratitude from one's partner, or feeling appreciated) versus expressed gratitude (i.e., gratitude to one's partner, or being appreciative) in mitigating the negative effects of ineffective arguing and financial strain on multiple indicators of relationship quality, both concurrently and longitudinally. The sample comprised 316 African American couples with three waves of data spanning approximately 16 months. Results indicated higher levels of perceived gratitude - but not expressed gratitude - weakened the association between relationship stressors and worsened outcomes (i.e., less satisfaction and confidence, more instability) at both between-person and within-person levels. Concurrently, perceived gratitude exhibited protective effects with respect to ineffective arguing and financial strain; longitudinal protective effects were observed only with respect to ineffective arguing. Results highlight the ways in which perceiving gratitude from one's partner, both at a single instance and sustained over many months, can be protective for multiple facets of relationship quality. Collectively, findings underscore the importance of interpersonal gratitude for romantic relationships and its merit for increased attention in research and practice.

Childhood poverty, immune cell aging, and African Americans' insulin resistance: A prospective study.

The present study investigated developmental pathways that can contribute to chronic disease among rural African Americans. With a sample of 342 African American youth (59% female) from the southeastern United States followed for nearly two decades (2001-2019), we examined the prospective association between family poverty during adolescence (ages 11-18) and insulin resistance (IR) in young adulthood (ages 25-29) as well as underlying biological and psychosocial mechanisms. Results indicated family poverty during adolescence forecast higher levels of IR in young adulthood, with accelerated immune cell aging at age 20 partially mediating this association. Serial mediational models confirmed the hypothesized pathway linking family poverty, perceived life chances, cellular aging, and IR. Findings provide empirical support for theorized developmental precursors of chronic disease.

Adolescent Substance Use and Individual Beliefs That Drug Use Is Wrong: A Statewide Epidemiological Study.

OBJECTIVE: Informed by cognitive dissonance theory, the current study investigated the ability of youths' belief that drug use is wrong to predict likelihood of past year substance use abstinence as well as frequency of use at grades 8, 10, and 12. METHOD: Study analyses were executed from a statewide epidemiological survey of more than 125,000 youth using multi-group Zero-Inflated Poisson regression modeling. RESULTS: Personal belief that drug use is wrong demonstrated the largest magnitude of effect at each grade among the individual, family, and school-based factors under examination; this finding emerged with respect to predicting past year substance use abstinence as well as rates of substance use among individuals reporting past year use. Although differences across grades were evident for the magnitude of effect within various risk and protective factors, the rank ordering in magnitude of effect between factors was consistent across grades 8, 10, and 12. CONCLUSION: Current results underscore the salience of youths' belief that drug use is wrong in explaining likelihood of past year substance use at multiple time points during adolescence.Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10826084.2022.2034877 .

The complexities of family mealtimes in the 21st century: A latent profile analysis.

The goal of the present study was to characterize more than 500 families regarding family mealtime organization patterns. Family profiles were developed based on patterns detected across a set of sociological and psychological variables. Latent profile analyses indicated three distinct subgroups of families: Food Secure and Organized (55% of the sample), Very Low Food Security and Disorganized (27%), and Low Food Security and Organized (18%). Examination of group membership correlates revealed significant differences related to family mealtime behaviors and food preparation strategies, but not food shopping location or areas of requested change around family mealtimes. Findings highlight homogenous subgroups of families on the basis of co-occurring psychological and sociological factors pertinent to family mealtimes, with those families possessing the highest levels of risk in multiple domains also reporting family mealtime organization patterns associated with less healthy eating. Findings provide a snapshot into the organization, and complexities, of family meals for the American family today, highlighting the need for researchers and practitioners interested in promoting healthy food intake within American families to consider both psychological and sociological factors that influence family mealtime organization.

Can Interventions that Strengthen Couples' Relationships Confer Additional Benefits for their Health? A Randomized Controlled Trial with African American Couples.

This study examined the effects of the Protecting Strong African American Families (ProSAAF) prevention program on adults' self-reported health outcomes 25 months after enrollment. ProSAAF is a couple-focused prevention program specifically designed to meet the needs of African-American families residing in the rural South. African-American couples (N = 346) with an early adolescent child participated in a randomized controlled trial of the program. Dyadic data analyses indicated significant direct effects on changes in couple functioning post-intervention as well as significant indirect effects of ProSAAF on changes in health through post-intervention improvements in couple functioning. These benefits were documented for men's and women's general health, depressive symptoms, and problematic sleep. There were no significant direct effects of ProSAAF participation on changes in health. Findings provide tempered optimism regarding the potential benefits of couple-focused programming for adults' physical, mental, and behavioral health.

Trajectories of relationship and individual functioning among waitlisted couples for an online relationship intervention.

To inform research and practice with distressed couples, the current study was designed to examine patterns of change among distressed, help-seeking couples prior to receiving an intervention. Data from this study originate from 221 couples assigned to the waitlist control condition of a randomized controlled trial for couples seeking online help for their relationship. All couples self-selected into the online program and agreed to withhold seeking additional services for their relationship during the waitlist period. In contrast with prior findings, results from the current study indicated a general pattern of mean improvement in both self-reported relationship functioning (e.g., increased relationship satisfaction, partner emotional support) and self-reported individual functioning (i.e., decreased psychological distress, anger) over the six-month waitlist period. Nonetheless, the majority of couples continued to remain relationally distressed despite these improvements. Findings from the study indicate that distressed couples can, in fact, exhibit some degree of improvement absent of intervention. At the same time, overall levels of distress remained elevated, indicating that these improvements are not sufficient to result in high levels of functioning and suggesting that many distressed couples may benefit from empirically supported programs to realize greater gains. These results also highlight and underscore the importance of including control conditions in studies examining the efficacy of relationship interventions with distressed couples to ensure that any observed improvements in relationship functioning are attributable to the intervention rather than to naturally occurring changes.

Con el fin de orientar la investigación y la práctica con parejas con distrés, se diseñó el presente estudio para analizar patrones de cambio entre parejas con distrés que buscan ayuda antes de recibir una intervención. Los datos de este estudio surgen de 221 parejas asignadas al grupo comparativo de lista de espera de un ensayo controlado aleatorizado para parejas que buscaban ayuda virtual para su relación. Todas las parejas eligieron ellas mismas estar en el programa virtual y acordaron dejar de buscar otros servicios para su relación durante el periodo de lista de espera. A diferencia de los resultados anteriores, los de este estudio indicaron un patrón general de mejoría promedio tanto en el funcionamiento relacional autoinformado (p. ej.: mayor satisfacción con la relación y apoyo emocional de la pareja) como en el funcionamiento individual autoinformado (p. ej.: menos distrés psicológico y enfado) durante el periodo de seis meses en lista de espera. Sin embargo, a pesar de estas mejorías, la mayoría de las parejas continuó teniendo distrés relacional. Los resultados del estudio indican que las parejas con distrés pueden, de hecho, mostrar algún grado de mejoría sin intervención. Al mismo tiempo, los niveles generales de distrés se mantuvieron elevados, lo cual indica que estas mejorías no son suficientes para dar como resultado niveles altos de funcionamiento, y sugiere que muchas parejas con distrés pueden beneficiarse de programas basados en la experiencia para lograr mayores avances. Estos resultados también destacan y subrayan la importancia de incluir grupos comparativos en los estudios que analizan la eficacia de las intervenciones en las relaciones de parejas con distrés a fin de garantizar que las mejorías observadas en el funcionamiento relacional sean atribuibles a la intervención en lugar de a los cambios que se producen naturalmente.

Why now? Examining antecedents for substance use initiation among African American adolescents.

Current adolescent substance use risk models have inadequately predicted use for African Americans, offering limited knowledge about differential predictability as a function of developmental period. Among a sample of 500 African American youth (ages 11-21), four risk indices (i.e., social risk, attitudinal risk, intrapersonal risk, and racial discrimination risk) were examined in the prediction of alcohol, marijuana, and cigarette initiation during early (ages 11-13), mid (ages 16-18), and late (ages 19-21) adolescence. Results showed that when developmental periods were combined, racial discrimination was the only index that predicted initiation for all three substances. However, when risk models were stratified based on developmental period, variation was found within and across substance types. Results highlight the importance of racial discrimination in understanding substance use initiation among African American youth and the need for tailored interventions based on developmental stage.

If You Host It Online, Who Will (and Will Not) Come? Individual and Partner Enrollment in a Web-Based Intervention for Distressed Couples.

Given the increasing utilization of online recruitment and delivery for prevention programming, the current study was designed to examine the ways in which recruitment and eligibility factors affect the resulting size and composition of participants in an online intervention. Study hypotheses were tested from a sample of 2512 low-income individuals who sought to enroll in OurRelationship, a web-based intervention for distressed couples. Results indicated that more than half of the sample (62%) learned about the OurRelationship program from results of an online search engine. Differences in participant characteristics were observed on the basis of recruitment source, with individuals recruited from an online search and from social media being characterized by higher levels of relationship distress and personal psychological distress relative to those who learned about the program through other means. Partner participation requirements also had a significant effect on the final sample of participants, as more than half of help-seeking individuals (52%) had partners who did not complete the screening enrollment form and were thus ineligible to receive services. Furthermore, compared with individuals whose partners completed the enrollment form, individuals whose partners did not participate were characterized by greater levels of break-up potential, physical aggression, communication conflict, psychological distress, and anger. Findings from the study suggest that some, but not all, online sources recruit more at-risk populations as well as illustrate the ways in which partner participation requirements can screen out interested individuals that appear in most need of services. Implications for prevention researchers and practitioners are discussed.

The Protective Effects of Supportive Parenting on the Relationship Between Adolescent Poverty and Resting-State Functional Brain Connectivity During Adulthood.

Children growing up in poverty are vulnerable to negative changes in the developing brain; however, these outcomes vary widely. We tested the hypothesis that receipt of supportive parenting would offset the association between living in poverty during adolescence and the connectivity of neural networks that support cognition and emotion regulation during young adulthood. In a sample of African American youths (N = 119) living in the rural South, poverty status and receipt of supportive parenting were assessed when youths were 11 to 13 and 16 to 18 years old. At age 25, resting-state functional connectivity of the central-executive and emotion-regulation neural networks was assessed using functional MRI. The results revealed that more years spent living in poverty presaged less connectivity in both neural networks among young adults who received low levels of supportive parenting but not among those who received high levels of such parenting.

A Family Focused Intervention Influences Hippocampal-Prefrontal Connectivity Through Gains in Self-Regulation.

The stressors associated with poverty increase the risks for externalizing psychopathology; however, specific patterns of neurobiology and higher self-regulation may buffer against these effects. This study leveraged a randomized control trial, aimed at increasing self-regulation at ~11 years of age. As adults, these same individuals completed functional MRI scanning (Mage  = 24.88 years; intervention n = 44; control n = 49). Functional connectivity between the hippocampus and ventromedial prefrontal cortex was examined in relation to the intervention, gains in self-regulation, and present-day externalizing symptoms. Increased connectivity between these brain areas was noted in the intervention group compared to controls. Furthermore, individual gains in self-regulation, instilled by the intervention, statistically explained this brain difference. These results begin to connect neurobiological and psychosocial markers of risk and resiliency.

Childhood poverty, catecholamines, and substance use among African American young adults: The protective effect of supportive parenting.

From a sample of African American families living in the rural South, this study tested the hypothesis that growing up in poverty is associated with heightened biological stress levels in youth that, in turn, forecast elevations in drug use in young adulthood. Supportive parenting during adolescence was hypothesized to protect youth's biological stress levels from rising in the context of poverty. African American youth and their primary caregivers from 385 families participated in a 14-year prospective study that began when youth were 11 years of age. Data were collected from 2001 to 2016. All families lived in impoverished communities in the rural South. Linear regression models and conditional indirect effect analyses were executed in 2016 to test the study hypotheses. High number of years living in poverty across adolescence was associated with high catecholamine levels, but only among those youth who received low levels of supportive parenting. Youth catecholamine levels at age 19 forecast an increase in substance use from age 19 to age 25. Conditional indirect effects confirmed a developmental cascade linking family poverty, youth catecholamine levels, and increases in substance use for youth who did not receive high levels of supportive parenting. Current results suggest that, for some African American youth, substance use vulnerability may develop "under the skin" from stress-related biological weathering years before elevated drug use. Receipt of supportive parenting, however, can protect rural African American youth from biological weathering and its subsequent effects on increases in substance use during adulthood.

The Protecting Strong African American Families Program: a Randomized Controlled Trial with Rural African American Couples.

This study presents results from a randomized controlled trial of the Protecting Strong African American Families (ProSAAF) program, a family-centered intervention designed to promote strong couple, coparenting, and parent-child relationships in two-parent African American families. A total of 346 African American couples with an early adolescent child participated; all families lived in rural, low-income communities in the southern USA. Intent-to-treat growth curve analyses involving three waves and spanning 17 months indicated that ProSAAF participants, compared with control participants, reported greater improvements in relationship communication, confidence, satisfaction, partner support, coparenting, and parenting. More than 80% of the couples attended all six of the in-home, facilitator-led sessions; costs to implement the program averaged $1739 per family. The findings inform the ongoing debate surrounding prevention programs for low-income and ethnic minority couples.

Youth temperament, harsh parenting, and variation in the oxytocin receptor gene forecast allostatic load during emerging adulthood.

An association has been found between receipt of harsh parenting in childhood and adult health problems. However, this research has been principally retrospective, has treated children as passive recipients of parental behavior, and has overlooked individual differences in youth responsivity to harsh parenting. In a 10-year multiple-wave prospective study of African American families, we addressed these issues by focusing on the influence of polymorphisms in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR), variants of which appear to buffer or amplify responses to environmental stress. The participants were 303 youths, with a mean age of 11.2 at the first assessment, and their parents, all of whom were genotyped for variations in the rs53576 (A/G) polymorphism. Teachers rated preadolescent (ages 11 to 13) emotionally intense and distractible temperaments, and adolescents (ages 15 and 16) reported receipt of harsh parenting. Allostatic load was assessed during young adulthood (ages 20 and 21). Difficult preadolescent temperament forecast elevated receipt of harsh parenting in adolescence, and adolescents who experienced harsh parenting evinced high allostatic load during young adulthood. However, these associations emerged only among children and parents who carried A alleles of the OXTR genotype. The results suggest the oxytocin system operates along with temperament and parenting to forecast young adults' allostatic load.

Parenting, Socioeconomic Status Risk, and Later Young Adult Health: Exploration of Opposing Indirect Effects via DNA Methylation.

A sample of 398 African American youth, residing in rural counties with high poverty and unemployment, were followed from ages 11 to 19. Protective parenting was associated with better health, whereas elevated socioeconomic status (SES) risk was associated with poorer health at age 19. Genome-wide epigenetic variation assessed in young adulthood (age 19), was associated with both SES risk and protective parenting. Three categories of genes were identified whose methylation was associated with parenting, SES risk, and young adult health. Methylation was a significant mediator of the impact of parenting and SES risk on young adult health. Variation in mononuclear white blood cell types was also examined and controlled, showing that it did not account for observed effects of parenting and SES risk on health.

Exploring genetic moderators and epigenetic mediators of contextual and family effects: From Gene × Environment to epigenetics.

In the current manuscript, we provide an overview of a research program at the University of Georgia's Center for Family Research designed to expand upon rapid and ongoing developments in the fields of genetics and epigenetics. By placing those developments in the context of translational research on family and community determinants of health and well-being among rural African Americans, we hope to identify novel, modifiable environments and biological processes. In the first section of the article, we review our earlier work on genotypic variation effects on the association between family context and mental and physical health outcomes as well as differential responses to family-based intervention. We then transition to discuss our more recent research on the association of family and community environments with epigenetic processes. In this second section of the article, we begin by briefly reviewing terminology and basic considerations before describing evidence that early environments may influence epigenetic motifs that potentially serve as mediators of long-term effects of early family and community environments on longer term health outcomes. We also provide evidence that genotype may sometimes influence epigenetic outcomes. Finally, we describe our recent efforts to use genome-wide characterization of epigenetic patterns to better understand the biological impact of protective parenting on long-term shifts in inflammatory processes and its potential implications for young adult health. As will be clear, research on epigenetics as a mediator of the connections between family/community processes and a range of health outcomes is still in its infancy, but the potential to develop important insights regarding mechanisms linking modifiable environments to biological processes and long-term health outcomes already is coming into view.

Decreasing Substance use Risk among African American Youth: Parent-based Mechanisms of Change.

African American couples (N = 139; 67.7 % married; with children between the ages of 9 and 14) were randomly assigned to (a) a culturally sensitive, couple- and parenting-focused program designed to prevent stress-spillover (n = 70) or (b) an information-only control condition in which couples received self-help materials (n = 69). Eight months after baseline, youth whose parents participated in the program, compared with control youth, reported increased parental monitoring, positive racial socialization, and positive self-concept, as well as decreased conduct problems and self-reported substance use. Changes in youth-reported parenting behavior partially mediated the effect of the intervention on conduct problems and fully mediated its impact on positive self-concept, but did not mediate effects on lifetime substance use initiation. Results suggest the potential for a culturally sensitive family-based intervention targeting adults' couple and parenting processes to enhance multiple parenting behaviors as well as decrease youths' substance use onset and vulnerability.

Father Involvement and Young, Rural African American Men's Engagement in Substance Misuse and Multiple Sexual Partnerships.

This study was designed to examine the associations of biological father and social father involvement during childhood with African American young men's development and engagement in risk behaviors. With a sample of 505 young men living in the rural South of the United States, a dual mediation model was tested in which retrospective reports of involvement from biological fathers and social fathers were linked to young men's substance misuse and multiple sexual partnerships through men's relational schemas and future expectations. Results from structural equation modeling indicated that levels of involvement from biological fathers and social fathers predicted young men's relational schemas; only biological fathers' involvement predicted future expectations. In turn, future expectations predicted levels of substance misuse, and negative relational schemas predicted multiple sexual partnerships. Biological fathers' involvement evinced significant indirect associations with young men's substance misuse and multiple sexual partnerships through both schemas and expectations; social fathers' involvement exhibited an indirect association with multiple sexual partnerships through relational schemas. Findings highlight the unique influences of biological fathers and social fathers on multiple domains of African American young men's psychosocial development that subsequently render young men more or less likely to engage in risk behaviors.

The effect of communication change on long-term reductions in child exposure to conflict: impact of the promoting strong African American families (ProSAAF) program.

African American couples (n = 331) with children, 89% of whom were married, were assigned to either (a) a culturally sensitive couple- and parenting-enhancement program (ProSAAF) or (b) an information-only control condition in which couples received self-help materials. Husbands averaged 41 years of age and wives averaged 39 years. We found significant effects of program participation in the short term on couple communication, which was targeted by the intervention, as well as over the long term, on self-reported arguing in front of children. Long-term parenting outcomes were fully mediated by changes in communication for wives, but not for husbands. For husbands, positive change depended on amount of wife reported change. We conclude that wives' changes in communication from baseline to posttest may be more pivotal for the couples' long-term experience of decreased arguing in front of children than are husbands' changes, with wives' changes leading to changes in both partners' reports of arguments in front of children.

Trajectories of Perceived Gratitude and Change Following Relationship Interventions: A Randomized Controlled Trial With Lower-Income, Help-Seeking Couples.

The current study was designed to advance basic and applied research on perceived gratitude from one's partner in established couple relationships. From a three-arm randomized controlled trial involving 615 lower-income, help-seeking couples (N = 1,224 individuals), study analyses examined (a) the trajectory of perceived gratitude from one's partner among couples assigned to the wait-list condition (i.e., absent of any intervention), and (b) changes in perceived gratitude for individuals assigned to either the OurRelationship (OR) or ePREP relationship intervention condition. With respect to the first aim, levels of perceived gratitude among wait-listed couples demonstrated no significant mean increase over the 6-month period; this rate of change was significantly different from rates of change observed in other relationship constructs (e.g., satisfaction, communication, support) during the wait-list period. Being married, female, and having more children were all associated with lower initial levels of perceived gratitude. For the second aim, individuals assigned to either the OR or ePREP treatment condition demonstrated significant improvements in levels of perceived partner gratitude compared to wait-listed couples. The magnitude of program effect sizes for gratitude (d = 0.33), however, was 3%-48% smaller compared to the magnitude of program effects of other relationship constructs (0.34 < d < 0.64). Results indicated that perceived gratitude is a distinct component of couple relationships, generally lower in more established relationships, and can be improved by participating in OR or ePREP relationship interventions. Implications for research and practice related to gratitude in couple relationships are discussed.