Perceived Neighborhood Social Environment and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms: Insights from the Add Health
Introduction: Adolescents experience major depression at disproportionately higher rates than their adult counterparts. Perceived neighborhood social environment (PNSE) has been linked with depressive symptoms among adolescents. The primary aim was to investigate the relationships between each PNSE...
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Mary Ann Liebert
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Health Equity |
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| Online Access: | https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/heq.2024.0100 |
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| author | Rachel J. Kulchar Breanna J. Rogers Sam J. Neally Alyssa Shishkov Yangyang Deng Mohammad Moniruzzaman Kosuke Tamura |
| author_facet | Rachel J. Kulchar Breanna J. Rogers Sam J. Neally Alyssa Shishkov Yangyang Deng Mohammad Moniruzzaman Kosuke Tamura |
| author_sort | Rachel J. Kulchar |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Introduction: Adolescents experience major depression at disproportionately higher rates than their adult counterparts. Perceived neighborhood social environment (PNSE) has been linked with depressive symptoms among adolescents. The primary aim was to investigate the relationships between each PNSE and depressive symptoms. The secondary aim was to examine whether these associations may be varied by gender and race/ethnicity. Methods: Participants (n = 6083; mean age = 15.4) from the 1994–1995 National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) were asked to respond to items on depressive symptoms using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and perceived neighborhood measures. The two depressive symptoms outcomes based on CES-D score were a continuous CES-D score and a three-level depressive symptoms variable: (i) minimal symptoms score (referent) <16, (ii) mild: 16 ≤ CES-D < 24, and (iii) moderate/severe: CES-D ≥24. PNSE included safety, social cohesion, and contentedness (i.e., 1-standard deviation unit increase). Weighted regression models were used to examine associations between each PNSE and depressive symptoms, adjusting for covariates. Results: Perceived neighborhood safety, social cohesion, and contentedness were negatively related to depressive symptoms (β = −1.14, β = −0.59, and β = −1.46, respectively, all p < 0.001). Similar patterns of negative associations were observed by gender, whereas race/ethnicity-specific analyses revealed the complexity of the associations. Conclusion: As adolescents’ favorable perceptions of their neighborhoods (safety, social cohesion, and contentedness) were related to lower depressive symptoms, efforts toward improving neighborhood conditions and resources may be imperative to drive health equity in specific subgroups and address disparities in the adolescent mental health epidemic. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-34ddbef888714e9d93e209ab0f049fdf |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2473-1242 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Mary Ann Liebert |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Health Equity |
| spelling | doaj-art-34ddbef888714e9d93e209ab0f049fdf2025-08-20T02:59:06ZengMary Ann LiebertHealth Equity2473-12422024-12-018181682410.1089/heq.2024.0100Perceived Neighborhood Social Environment and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms: Insights from the Add HealthRachel J. Kulchar0Breanna J. Rogers1Sam J. Neally2Alyssa Shishkov3Yangyang Deng4Mohammad Moniruzzaman5Kosuke Tamura6Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.Socio-Spatial Determinants of Health (SSDH) Laboratory, Population and Community Health Sciences Branch, Division of Intramural Research, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.Gillings School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA.Socio-Spatial Determinants of Health (SSDH) Laboratory, Population and Community Health Sciences Branch, Division of Intramural Research, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.Socio-Spatial Determinants of Health (SSDH) Laboratory, Population and Community Health Sciences Branch, Division of Intramural Research, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.Socio-Spatial Determinants of Health (SSDH) Laboratory, Population and Community Health Sciences Branch, Division of Intramural Research, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.Socio-Spatial Determinants of Health (SSDH) Laboratory, Population and Community Health Sciences Branch, Division of Intramural Research, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.Introduction: Adolescents experience major depression at disproportionately higher rates than their adult counterparts. Perceived neighborhood social environment (PNSE) has been linked with depressive symptoms among adolescents. The primary aim was to investigate the relationships between each PNSE and depressive symptoms. The secondary aim was to examine whether these associations may be varied by gender and race/ethnicity. Methods: Participants (n = 6083; mean age = 15.4) from the 1994–1995 National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) were asked to respond to items on depressive symptoms using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) and perceived neighborhood measures. The two depressive symptoms outcomes based on CES-D score were a continuous CES-D score and a three-level depressive symptoms variable: (i) minimal symptoms score (referent) <16, (ii) mild: 16 ≤ CES-D < 24, and (iii) moderate/severe: CES-D ≥24. PNSE included safety, social cohesion, and contentedness (i.e., 1-standard deviation unit increase). Weighted regression models were used to examine associations between each PNSE and depressive symptoms, adjusting for covariates. Results: Perceived neighborhood safety, social cohesion, and contentedness were negatively related to depressive symptoms (β = −1.14, β = −0.59, and β = −1.46, respectively, all p < 0.001). Similar patterns of negative associations were observed by gender, whereas race/ethnicity-specific analyses revealed the complexity of the associations. Conclusion: As adolescents’ favorable perceptions of their neighborhoods (safety, social cohesion, and contentedness) were related to lower depressive symptoms, efforts toward improving neighborhood conditions and resources may be imperative to drive health equity in specific subgroups and address disparities in the adolescent mental health epidemic.https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/heq.2024.0100neighborhoodssocial contextsmood disordersdepressionyouthdisparities |
| spellingShingle | Rachel J. Kulchar Breanna J. Rogers Sam J. Neally Alyssa Shishkov Yangyang Deng Mohammad Moniruzzaman Kosuke Tamura Perceived Neighborhood Social Environment and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms: Insights from the Add Health Health Equity neighborhoods social contexts mood disorders depression youth disparities |
| title | Perceived Neighborhood Social Environment and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms: Insights from the Add Health |
| title_full | Perceived Neighborhood Social Environment and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms: Insights from the Add Health |
| title_fullStr | Perceived Neighborhood Social Environment and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms: Insights from the Add Health |
| title_full_unstemmed | Perceived Neighborhood Social Environment and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms: Insights from the Add Health |
| title_short | Perceived Neighborhood Social Environment and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms: Insights from the Add Health |
| title_sort | perceived neighborhood social environment and adolescent depressive symptoms insights from the add health |
| topic | neighborhoods social contexts mood disorders depression youth disparities |
| url | https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/heq.2024.0100 |
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