TRANSGENERATIONAL EFFECT OF MOTHERS’ EXPERIENCES OF DISCRIMINATION ON BLACK YOUTHS’ HORMONE COUPLING IN RESPONSE TO LABORATORY STRESS

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the impact of transgenerational racial stress on youths’ adrenal-and-gonadal hormone levels and co-regulation in response to acute stress. Black youths (N=120) residing in a U.S. metropolitan area completed the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Youths’ cortisol, dehydroepiandrosterone, and testosterone coupling levels were examined. Hormonal response to the TSST was influenced by their mothers’ experiences of racial discrimination. Mothers’ experiences predicted stronger positive cortisol-testosterone coupling. For high testosterone youths whose mothers’ experienced high discrimination, cortisol recovery was blunted after the stressor. Results suggest that mothers’ experiences of discrimination are transgenerational and impact their children’s hormonal co-regulation.

Data Availability Statement

De-identified data may be made available upon request from the corresponding author in accordance with the governing IRB.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Author contributions

Shannin N. Moody and Jenny M. Phan contributed to the writing and editing as co-first authors. Shannin N. Moody developed the research objective and Jenny M. Phan led the analysis. Wen Wang aided in feedback, intra- and inter-assay coefficient of variance, data management, and editing. Drs. Stacy Drury, Elizabeth Shirtcliff, and Katherine Theall lead study design, data collection and management, mentorship, and contributed to the editing.

SUPPLEMENTAL DATA

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Notes

1. While Brown can reference Asian, Indigenous, Arab, and Latina/o/e/x individuals, it can also represent within racial group appearance in Black individuals, it is beyond the scope of this paper to elucidate the complexity of ethno-racial characteristics that garner social categorization of an individual’s racial group. We chose to include the term Brown to acknowledge within group differences in “Black” individuals.

2. The Demographics questionnaire did not explicitly ask the “gender” of youth nor the “sex assigned at birth.” The item was written as “Sex of Child” and limited answers to “female” or “male.” Mothers, not their children, reported “Sex of Child.” Data was not collected on the gender of each child and we therefore refer to the children as either “male” or “female” throughout the paper. The authors would like to acknowledge that in doing so we are not attempting to reduce hormone coupling results as a strictly biological phenomena limited to being “female” or “male.” There are social impacts of being “girls,” “boys,” or on any place on the gender spectrum. While these factors may impact HPA-HPG hormone coupling, these questions are beyond the scope of the current manuscript. When gendered terms are used they are specifically used in the article cited.

Additional information

Funding

Research reported in this publication was supported by the NIH’s National Institute Of Neurological Disorders And Stroke of the National Institutes of Health: F99NS125815 [SNM], T32-NS115656 [JMP], R21-MH094688 and R01-MH101533 [SSD], National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences 1R01-ES020447 [KPT], Environmental Stress and Alcohol Use P60-AA009803-RC5 [KPT], and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development: T32-HD007489, P50-HD105353, U54-HD090256, P50-HD105328 [JMP].