Pathways linking adverse environments to emerging adults’ substance abuse and depressive symptoms: A prospective analysis of rural African American men

For African American emerging adult men, developmental challenges are evident in their escalating substance abuse and depressive symptoms; this is particularly true for men from low-resource communities. The present study tests a developmental model linking childhood adversity and contemporaneous co...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Development and psychopathology 2021-10, Vol.33 (4), p.1496-1506
Main Authors: Kogan, Steven M., Bae, Dayoung, Cho, Junhan, Smith, Alicia K., Nishitani, Shota
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Addictive behaviors
Adult
Adverse childhood experiences
Adverse Childhood Experiences - ethnology
African Americans
Child development
Children
Community support
Depression
DNA Methylation
Drug abuse
Drug use
Families & family life
Humans
Influence
Male
Mental depression
Mental health
Oxytocin
Race
Racial discrimination
Receptors, Oxytocin - genetics
Regular Articles
Risk Factors
Rural Population
Social Environment
Substance use
Substance-Related Disorders - epidemiology
Substance-Related Disorders - ethnology
Young Adult
Young adults
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Summary:For African American emerging adult men, developmental challenges are evident in their escalating substance abuse and depressive symptoms; this is particularly true for men from low-resource communities. The present study tests a developmental model linking childhood adversity and contemporaneous contextual stressors to increases in emerging adults’ substance use and depressive symptoms, indirectly, via increases in defensive/hostile relational schemas and social developmental risk factors (e.g., risky peers and romantic partners, lack of involvement in school or work). We also advance exploratory hypotheses regarding DNA methylation in the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR) as a moderator of the effects of stress on relational schemas. Hypotheses were tested with three waves of data from 505 rural African American men aged 19–25 years. Adverse childhood experiences predicted exposure to emerging adult contextual stressors. Contextual stressors forecast increases in defensive/hostile relational schemas, which increased social developmental risk factors. Social developmental risk factors proximally predicted increases in substance abuse and depressive symptoms. OXTR DNA methylation moderated the effects of contextual stressors on defensive/hostile relational schemas. Findings suggest that early exposures to stress carry forward to affect the development of social developmental risk factors in emerging adulthood, which place rural African American men at risk for increased substance abuse and depressive symptoms during the emerging adult years.
ISSN:0954-5794
1469-2198
DOI:10.1017/S0954579420000632