The associations among racial discrimination, pubertal timing, neighborhoods, and mental health among U.S. Mexican boys.

ABSTRACT: The present study addressed gaps in puberty and weathering research by examining the relation between peer racial discrimination, pubertal timing, internalizing and externalizing symptoms, and neighborhood context among a longitudinal sample of U.S. Mexican boys. Using three waves of data (N = 383; mean ages: 10.3-15.8 years), we examined the weathering hypothesis: Whether peer racial discrimination experiences in late childhood predicted earlier pubertal timing in adolescence and subsequent mental health problems. We also examined whether variability in youths' neighborhood contexts qualified these associations. Consistent with the weathering hypothesis, exposure to peer racial discrimination in 5th grade, predicated earlier pubertal timing in the 7th grade, which, in turn, predict

SUBMITTER: Seaton EK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9336515 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jul-Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature