Allostatic load, Response to discrimination stress, Discrimination Exposure frequency, and social Network structure and function (ARDEN)

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ABSTRACT The current proposal seeks to rigorously test how interpersonal discrimination contributes to acute and chronic stress, allostatic load and related health risk among Hispanics and how aspects of social support networks may mitigate these effects by reducing stress contagion. Our project focuses on discrimination, as immigrant Hispanics – particularly recent immigrants – often report discrimination at substantially lower frequencies than US-born Hispanics. This in turn may contribute to immigrant Hispanic’s health advantages, such as 3 additional years life expectancy, relative to US-born Hispanics. The Weathering Hypothesis and theories of allostasis suggest that the cumulative effects of discrimination exposure and related stress would explain these health disparities. However, this proposal will be among the first to test mechanisms of how discrimination stress contributes to allostatic load, with a focus on social and cultural mechanisms; moreover, we will extend this work beyond the individual to understand how discrimination stress acts on a social network. Research in White populations has documented how social support protects against the negative health effects of stress, but little work has examined these effects in Hispanic samples. Moreover, prior research does not account for how social support may perpetuate stress across a network: that is, when one person experiences stress, their supportive others will also experience stress. This is particularly relevant for stressors like discrimination, which impact not only the target but also their social ties. Thus, in order to mitigate the effects of discrimination, support networks may need to be used in specific ways and have specific qualities. The current study tests these qualities. First, we will determine the extent to which discrimination stress response and discrimination exposure frequency combine to predict changes in allostatic load, and in turn predicts risk for multiple chronic health outcomes that are leading causes of death (e.g., cardiovascular disease). Second, we will determine the social network qualities that mitigate discrimination stress “spilling over” from one person to another. Finally, we determine how discrimination stress response transmits across a network to predict changes in the networks’ allostatic load. To achieve this, we will use sampling designs (respondent-driven sampling; RDS) and social network analyses that allow us to understand how the connections across people influence health. We will examine social support; biomarkers of allostatic load, acute and chronic stress, and inflammation; and daily diary assessments of discrimination frequency. Using novel Bluetooth technology developed by our team we will also assess how often participants interact with one another and link that data to each participants reports of discrimination and whether they discussed discrimination with supportive others. The combination of these measures and network-based approach allows us to conduct novel tests of how social environments influence health and potentially convey health resilience in the face of discrimination. Additionally, it will inform how to best arrange social support interventions to limit the negative effects of interpersonal discrimination.