Shannin N Moody, Jenny M Phan, Elizabeth A Shirtcliff, Wen Wang, Stacy Drury, Katherine Theall
{"title":"Transgenerational effect of Mothers' experiences of discrimination on Black youths' hormone coupling in response to laboratory stress.","authors":"Shannin N Moody, Jenny M Phan, Elizabeth A Shirtcliff, Wen Wang, Stacy Drury, Katherine Theall","doi":"10.1080/15427609.2023.2215130","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Exposure to pervasive racial discrimination of Black Americans is transgenerational in that mothers' experiences of discriminatory violence impacts their children. This study explored whether stress-related biomarkers reflect transgenerational racial stress by implementing a \"dual activation\" framework to probe how adrenal and gonadal hormones underlying adolescent development are co-regulated during a laboratory stressor. Data were collected from 120 Black families in the United States. Children completed the Trier Social Stress Task (TSST-C) and provided 4 saliva samples across 2 days that were assayed for cortisol (C), dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), and testosterone (T). Mothers reported their experiences of total discrimination and racial discrimination related to skin color/race. Thirty four percent reported experiences of discrimination and on average 46.7% reported experiences of discrimination due to their race or skin tone. Mothers' experiences of racial discrimination were associated with their child's hormonal reactivity to and recovery from the TSST-C. Youth showed stronger positive hormone coupling between C-T if their mother experienced greater discrimination. Mothers' experiences of racial discrimination influenced both C-T coupling and youths' cortisol recovery from the TSST-C. For youths with high testosterone, cortisol recovery was blunted. Results suggest that associations between racism and hormonal stress response may be transgenerational. Mothers' experiences of discrimination had a profound impact on their children's hormonal co-regulation.</p>","PeriodicalId":47096,"journal":{"name":"Research in Human Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.4000,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10358998/pdf/","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Research in Human Development","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/15427609.2023.2215130","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2023/5/22 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, DEVELOPMENTAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Exposure to pervasive racial discrimination of Black Americans is transgenerational in that mothers' experiences of discriminatory violence impacts their children. This study explored whether stress-related biomarkers reflect transgenerational racial stress by implementing a "dual activation" framework to probe how adrenal and gonadal hormones underlying adolescent development are co-regulated during a laboratory stressor. Data were collected from 120 Black families in the United States. Children completed the Trier Social Stress Task (TSST-C) and provided 4 saliva samples across 2 days that were assayed for cortisol (C), dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), and testosterone (T). Mothers reported their experiences of total discrimination and racial discrimination related to skin color/race. Thirty four percent reported experiences of discrimination and on average 46.7% reported experiences of discrimination due to their race or skin tone. Mothers' experiences of racial discrimination were associated with their child's hormonal reactivity to and recovery from the TSST-C. Youth showed stronger positive hormone coupling between C-T if their mother experienced greater discrimination. Mothers' experiences of racial discrimination influenced both C-T coupling and youths' cortisol recovery from the TSST-C. For youths with high testosterone, cortisol recovery was blunted. Results suggest that associations between racism and hormonal stress response may be transgenerational. Mothers' experiences of discrimination had a profound impact on their children's hormonal co-regulation.