There is a great deal of evidence about the mental health implications of physical child abuse and environmental stressors, or hardships that people experience at the household and neighborhood level (e.g., neighborhood violence; economic hardship, substance abuse, or conflict among family members). Yet, studies often focus on either abuse or environmental stress, not both, or examine abuse and environmental stressors as a combined set of experiences. Less is known, therefore, about how child abuse and environmental stress might work as either distinct or interrelated risks to diminish mental health over time. In this longitudinal study, we used path analyses to examine the cumulative effects of physical child abuse and environmental stressors on adult depressive symptoms among a sample of children followed into adulthood (N = 356). The goal was to assess whether chronic physical child abuse remains an independent predictor of adult outcomes once we accounted for the cumulative effects of household and neighborhood stressors across the lifecourse. Cumulative measures of physical child abuse and environmental stress each independently predicted a higher likelihood of adult depressive symptoms (ß = .122, p < .01 and ß = .283, p < .001, respectively). After accounting for adolescent depressive symptoms, only cumulative environmental stressors independently predicted depressive symptoms (ß = .202, p < .001). Tests of the indirect effect of cumulative environmental stress on the relationship between cumulative physical abuse and adult depressive symptoms were marginally statistically significant. Results add to literature that examines child abuse, adversity, and lifecourse perspectives on health. (PsycINFO Database Record

We examined the reciprocal relationships among positive future expectations, expected threats to future safety, depression, and individual substance use and delinquency using 4 waves of data (N = 248–338) from African American and Latino adolescent male participants in the Chicago Youth Development Study. Individual positive future expectations and expected threats to safety were assessed at each wave and modeled as latent constructs. Individual substance use and delinquency were assessed at each wave and represented as ordinal variables ranging from low to high. Categorical autoregressive cross-lagged structural models were used to examine the hypothesized reciprocal relationships between both aspects of future expectations construct and risk behavior across adolescence. Analyses show that future expectations has important effects on youth substance use and involvement in delinquency, both of which in turn decrease positive expectations and increase expectation of threats to future safety across adolescence. Similarly, low positive expectations for the future continued to predict increased substance use and involvement in delinquency. The expected threats to safety construct was significantly correlated with delinquency within time. These effects are observed across adolescence after controlling for youth depression and race. Findings support the reciprocal effects hypothesis of a negative reinforcing cycle in the relationships between future expectations and both substance use and involvement in delinquent behavior across adolescence. The enduring nature of these relationships underscores the importance of future expectation as a potential change mechanism for intervention and prevention efforts to promote healthy development; vulnerable racial and ethnic minority male adolescents may especially benefit from such intervention.

Sexual and gender minority (SGM) populations experience extensive health disparities compared to their straight and cisgender counterparts. The importance of addressing these disparities is paramount, as SGM groups often encounter significant barriers to accessing comprehensive healthcare, including societal stigma, provider bias, and financial constraints. This study utilizes a community-based system dynamics approach to understand and visualize the barriers to and facilitators of healthcare engagement for SGM groups across their life course. It aims to identify core constructs, relationships, and dynamic feedback mechanisms related to the experiences of connection/disconnection with physical, mental, and dental healthcare of SGM individuals. Barriers to access, such as discriminatory practices and the limited availability of SGM-informed healthcare professionals, exacerbate these disparities, underscoring the urgency of developing targeted interventions. System dynamics, a complex systems science (CSS) methodology, was used for this research. Group model building sessions were conducted with diverse SGM groups, including youth, older adults, and trans and gender-expansive community members. Causal loop diagrams were developed according to an iterative process, and a meta-model of their collective experiences was created. The study revealed extensive, dynamic, and shifting structural barriers for SGM community members accessing healthcare. Societal and structural stigma, provider bias, and pathologization were identified as significant barriers throughout their life course. Community-led interventions and SGM-focused holistic healthcare were identified as critical facilitators of SGM healthcare connection. The findings highlight the need for SGM-affirming and culturally responsive healthcare settings. This paper calls for a concerted effort from SGM health researchers to use CSS in developing interventions to reduce SGM health disparities.

Neighborhood context, including the physical and social environment, has been implicated as important contributors to positive youth development. A transactional approach to neighborhood asserts that place and people are mutually constitutive; negative perceptions of place are intrinsically bound with negative portrayals of stigmatized groups, including youth. Adult perceptions of neighborhood youth may contribute to an increased sense of alienation and youth antisocial behavior. This study uses street‐intercept interviews with adults (N = 408) to examine the relationship between neighborhood conditions and adult support for neighborhood youth. A path model was used to examine the direct and indirect relationship of neighborhood constructs (safety, aesthetic quality, and walkability) on adult support for neighborhood youth. Neighborhood aesthetic quality and the walking environment were directly associated with adult support for youth, whereas perceived safety was indirectly associated. Collective efficacy partially explained these relationships. Findings support theorized relationships between people and places; improvements to neighborhood physical environment may directly impact resident adults’ perceptions of neighborhood young people.

Sexual and gender minority youth (SGMY) are overrepresented in the foster care system and experience greater foster-care-related stressors than their non-SGM peers. These factors may further elevate their risk of anxiety/depressive, post-traumatic stress disorder, self-harm, and suicidality. The system currently produces unequal and disproportionate adverse mental health outcomes for SGMY and needs points of intervention to disrupt this status quo. This article provides an empirically grounded conceptual–theoretical model of disproportionate representation and burden of psychological comorbidities experienced by SGMY in the foster care system. We apply findings from an integrated literature review of empirical research on factors related to overrepresentation and mental health burden among SGMY to minority stress theory to explicate how and why the foster care system exacerbates mental health comorbidities for SGMY. Searches were conducted in June 2020 in PubMed using MeSH terms and title/abstract terms for foster care, sexual or gender minorities, and psychological comorbidities. Inclusion criteria are studies conducted in the United States, published in English, focused on mental illness, and published between June 2010 and 2020. Developmental/intellectual and eating disorders were excluded. The initial search returned 490 results. After applying inclusion criteria, 229 results remained and are utilized to build our conceptual–theoretical model. We assert that the phenomenon of disproportionate psychological comorbidities for SGMY in foster care is best represented as a complex and dynamic system with multiple feedback loops. Extant empirical and theoretical literature identifies three critical areas for intervention: family acceptance, community belonging and queer chosen/constructed family, and affirming and nondiscriminatory child welfare policy.