Bridget J. Goosby

Early Life Course Pathways of Adult Depression and Chronic Pain

Applying cumulative inequality theory, this study examines the extent to which childhood socioeconomic disadvantage and maternal depression increase the risk of major depression and chronic pain in U.S. working-aged adults. Further, I assess whether low socioeconomic status amplifies the risk of adult depression and/or pain. Using data from the 2003 National Comorbidity Survey Replication (N=4339), I find that socioeconomic disadvantage and maternal depression during youth increases the risk of adult depression and/or chronic pain. The probability of having chronic pain increases in magnitude over the life course for adults whose parents have lower educational attainment relative to those with more highly educated parents. Childhood socioeconomic circumstances are not completely explained by adulthood socioeconomic status indicators. These findings help illustrate the far-reaching influence of childhood context on adult physical and mental health.

Birth Weight, Math and Reading Achievement Growth: A Multilevel Between-Sibling, Between-Families Approach

We used multilevel covariance structure analysis to study the relationship between birth weight, family context and youth math and reading comprehension growth from approximately ages 5 through 14 within and between families. Using data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth Child Sample, we examined the relationship between birth weight and subsequent academic achievement growth disparities, distinguishing between birth weight and other contextual social confounders. We found that smaller birth weight is associated with lower math and reading scores at age 5. Additional findings indicated that the home environment has important developmental consequences from early childhood and into adolescence. Overall, the pattern of findings painted a complex picture of disadvantage, beginning in the womb and extending through a variety of mechanisms into adolescence.

School racial composition and race/ethnic differences in early adulthood health

We investigate whether school racial composition is associated with racial and ethnic differences in early adult health. We then examine whether perceived discrimination, social connectedness, and parent support attenuates this relationship. Using U.S. data from Waves I and IV of the National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health, we found that black adolescents attending predominantly white schools reported poorer adult health while Asians reported better health. Further research is warranted to understand whether there are qualitative differences in the treatment of racial and ethnic minorities within certain school contexts and how that differential treatment is related to adult health outcomes.

Perceived discrimination and markers of cardiovascular risk among low-income African American youth.

Our study examines the relationship between perceived discrimination and levels of C‐reactive protein and blood pressure in low‐income youth ages 10−15 years old.

The Small-school Friendship Dynamics of Adolescent Depressive Symptoms

Adolescence is a time when depressive symptoms and friendships both intensify. The authors ask whether friendships change in response to depressive symptoms, whether individual distress is influenced by friends’ distress, and whether these processes vary by gender. To answer these questions, the authors use longitudinal Simulation Investigation for Empirical Network Analysis models to study how changes in friendships and depressive symptoms intertwine with each other among all adolescents as well as boy-only and girl-only networks in seven smaller K-12 Add Health schools. The findings indicate that distressed youth are more likely to be socially excluded, though depressive symptoms are also a basis for friendship formation. Moreover, friends influence one another’s mood levels. These processes differ for boys and girls, however, such that distressed girls are more likely to face exclusion and distressed boys are more likely to befriend and subsequently influence one another.

Hard Times and Heart Break Linking Economic Hardship and Relationship Distress

We used the Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study to examine an integrated mediational model linking economic hardship to relationship distress. Depressive symptoms, partner’s discord, parenting stress, and coparenting are combined into a joint model linking economic hardship to relationship distress among mothers and fathers in intimate relationships. Although economic hardship is significantly associated with each mediating factor, only discord is associated with both relationship distress and dissolution in the full model. Moreover, comparisons using multigroup structural equation modeling indicate that while economic hardship is associated with higher discord among both mothers and fathers, the influence is substantially larger among fathers. We suggest that the link between hardship and relationship distress is largely contingent on interactional processes (i.e., discord) and how mothers perceive their child’s father in the midst of economic hard times.

The differential contributions of teen drinking homophily to new and existing friendships: An empirical assessment of assortative and proximity selection mechanisms

Alcohol use is pervasive in adolescence. Though most research is concerned with how friends influence drinking, alcohol is also important for connecting teens to one another. Prior studies have not distinguished between new friendship creation, and existing friendship durability, however. We argue that accounting for distinctions in creation-durability processes is critical for understanding the selection mechanisms drawing drinkers into homophilous friendships, and the social integration that results. In order to address these issues, we appliedstochastic actor based models of network dynamics to National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health data. Adolescents only modestly prefer new friendships with others who drinker similarly, but greatly prefer friends who indirectly connect them to homophilous drinkers. These indirect homophilous drinker relationships are shorter lived, however, and suggest that drinking is a social focus that connects adolescents via proximity, rather than assortativity. These findings suggest that drinking leads to more situational and superficial social integration.

Adolescent Loneliness and Health in Early Adulthood

The desire to belong and feel socially connected is a fundamental aspect of human development and well-being. Although there is an extensive sociological literature examining the health implications of social support and social integration along with a growing literature assessing the harmful impact of loneliness (i.e. perceived social isolation) among the elderly (Savikko et al. 2005; Warner and Kelley-Moore 2012), there is a dearth of information regarding the potential health consequences of loneliness relative to other indicators of social integration at earlier life course stages. The omission of early life course loneliness in the sociological literature is somewhat curious because loneliness is an eminently social-psychological construct, reflecting how people experience the communal aspects of their social worlds. Indeed, we know little about the extent to which early life course loneliness influences health during the transition to adulthood or the pathways through which loneliness impacts early adult health. Loneliness may serve as an important, overlooked pre-disease pathway for a range of health outcomes in adulthood. Adolescence is a particularly salient time for understanding the health consequences of loneliness because youth are experiencing various developmental transitions, from biological (i.e. pubertal onset) to social (e.g. transitioning from primary to secondary school). During this developmental stage, youth are also transitioning from their parents to their friends as primary socializing agents (Crosnoe 2000). Such a myriad of transitions can lead to both friendship instability and emotional distress, which could lead to a cascade of health risks over time. Social ties are salient for life course health (Umberson and Montez 2010). For adolescents specifically, both attachment to school and parental support may be key protective factors for mental and physical health during a developmental period when distress is high (Resnick et al. 1997; Giordano 2003). Using data from Waves 1–3 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we examine the social and psychological pathways through which loneliness influences early adult depression, self-rated health, and metabolic conditions associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD). To this end, our study expands the existing literature by applying a life course perspective to identify the psychological and social risk and protective pathways associated with loneliness in adolescence and health in early adulthood.

Life course SES and cardiovascular risk: Heterogeneity across race/ethnicity and gender

We examine four life course models as they relate to adolescent SES, adult SES, and cardiovascular risk--the sensitive period, pathways, accumulation, and social mobility models. Accounting for race/ethnic and gender differences in life course processes, we analyzed Waves I and IV of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, a nationally representative sample of individuals enrolled in grades 7-12 when they were first interviewed in 1994/5. We restricted our sample to whites, blacks, and Latinos who were interviewed in Waves I and IV and provided biomarker data (n = 11,397). The cardiovascular risk score at Wave IV combined waist circumference, blood pressure, hemoglobin A1c, and C-reactive protein. We found evidence for each of the four life course models for white women, whereas the sensitive period was indicated for white men. Upward mobility was also associated with higher CVD risk among white men as compared to those who were socio-economically advantaged at both time points. The pathway model was significant for Latino women. No life course models were significant for black men or women or Latino men. Our findings demonstrate the importance of applying an intersectional lens to understanding CVD risk over the life course.

Birth weight, early life course BMI, and body size change: Chains of risk to adult inflammation?

This paper examines how body size changes over the early life course to predict high sensitivity C-reactive protein in a U.S. based sample. Using three waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), we test the chronic disease epidemiological models of fetal origins, sensitive periods, and chains of risk from birth into adulthood. Few studies link birth weight and changes in obesity status over adolescence and early adulthood to adult obesity and inflammation. Consistent with fetal origins and sensitive periods hypotheses, body size and obesity status at each developmental period, along with increasing body size between periods, are highly correlated with adult CRP. However, the predictive power of earlier life course periods is mediated by body size and body size change at later periods in a pattern consistent with the chains of risk model. Adult increases in obesity had effect sizes of nearly 0.3 sd, and effect sizes from overweight to the largest obesity categories were between 0.3 and 1 sd. There was also evidence that risk can be offset by weight loss, which suggests that interventions can reduce inflammation and cardiovascular risk, that females are more sensitive to body size changes, and that body size trajectories over the early life course account for African American- and Hispanic-white disparities in adult inflammation.