Speakers
Description
Immigrants have faced high burdens of stress since long before the current administration’s anti-immigrant policies. This study is an investigation of how immigration-related stress may impact the biology and health of Latinx immigrant mothers and children, considering recent increases in divisive rhetoric and anti-immigrant policies in the U.S. We compared hair cortisol and DNA methylation at stress-related candidate genes in mothers and children with interview data in Nashville, TN from two time points spanning the recent presidential election. Structured interviews were conducted with 82 immigrant mothers and their children (aged 5-13) between 2015 and 2016 and again in 2018. Using mixed-methods, we analyze perceived stressors, mental health, and buffering factors from mothers and children in relation to hair cortisol and bisulfite pyrosequencing at two stress-related genes. Mothers report high levels of depressive symptoms (24.3%), anxiety symptoms (35.1%), and moderate perceived stress (86.5%) as well as significantly decreased levels of optimism over time (mean difference = -3.4; p-value<0.001). Before the 2016 election, we find (log) children’s hair cortisol negatively associated with mother’s year’s in US (β = -0.07; p-value=0.04), and children’s worry over parent’s deportation (β = -0.31; p-value=0.069), suggesting a blunting effect on stress response. We see similar results following the election. We also see longitudinal epigenetic changes in FKBP5 (ρ = 0.42; p-value=0.05) in the mothers but no changes in the children. Increased stress over time can lead to biological and health consequences across the lifespan, especially for these already vulnerable families.
Funds provided by the Chancellors Research in Excellence Scholars at UCSD (Application # 4-G021) and Foundation for Child Development (VU-14).