Income inequality within urban settings and depressive symptoms among adolescents

Details

• Alternative Title:
  J Epidemiol Community Health
• Personal Author:
  Pabayo, Roman ; Dunn, Erin C. ; Gilman, Stephen E. ; Kawachi, Ichiro ; Molnar, Beth E.
• Description:
  Background
  
  Although recent evidence has shown that area-level income inequality is related to increased risk for depression among adults, few studies have tested this association among adolescents.
  
  Methods
  
  We analyzed cross-sectional data from a sample of 1,878 adolescents living in 38 neighborhoods participating in the 2008 Boston Youth Survey. Using multilevel linear regression modeling, we: (1) estimated the association between neighborhood income inequality and depressive symptoms.; (2) tested for cross-level interactions between sex and neighborhood income inequality; and (3) examined neighborhood social cohesion as a mediator of the relationship between income inequality and depressive symptoms.
  
  Results
  
  The association between neighborhood income inequality and depressive symptoms varied significantly by sex, with girls in higher income inequality neighborhood reporting higher depressive symptom scores, but not boys. Among girls, a unit increase in Gini Z-score was associated with more depression symptoms (β=0.38, 95% CI=0.28, 0.47, p=0.01) adjusting for nativity, neighborhood income, social cohesion, crime, and social disorder. There was no evidence that the association between income inequality and depressive symptoms was due to neighborhood-level differences in social cohesion.
  
  Conclusion
  
  The distribution of incomes within an urban area adversely affects adolescent girls’ mental health; future work is needed to understand why, as well as to examine in greater depth the potential consequences of inequality for males, which may have been difficult to detect here.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Adolescent Cross-Sectional Studies Depression Female Humans Income Male Sex Factors Social Class Urban Health
• Source:
  J Epidemiol Community Health. 70(10):997-1003.
• Pubmed ID:
  27103664
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC5473150
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  K01 MH102403/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/United States ; L40 MH098379/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/United States ; U49 CE000740/CE/NCIPC CDC HHS/United States
• Place as Subject:
  Boston, MA
• Volume:
  70
• Issue:
  10
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:7d55127912564838bac01480813ecaf8c5bce133b56b647d7aae2c1c805bc359
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/48493/cdc_48493_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 340.08 KB ]