Reconsidering Adolescent Society: Racial Differences in Stress Processing, Violence, and Health

Abstract

This dissertation investigates racial differences in individual stress processes and health as well as the ways social networks characteristics mediate these relationships. I explore (1) the stress trajectories of victims and non-victims from adolescence to adulthood across racial groups, (2) how particular network configurations determine the probability of adolescents experiencing victimization, and finally, (3) the ways racial homophily and social cohesion together, determine depressive symptoms. I conduct three studies all using relevant demographic, mental, and physical health data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. In my first study I find that black respondents have a unique relationship with the stress incurred from victimization, such that black victims and non-victims have virtually equal allostatic loads. In my second study I find that delinquency and integration shape the probability of victimization for adolescents, net of several common correlates of delinquency. Finally, results from my third chapter show that racial homophily mediates the well establish relationship between social cohesion and depression. These findings contribute to the sociology of race and ethnicity, network sociology, and to medical sociological inquires concerned with the vulnerable period of adolescence. Together, these three chapters show that race and networks govern opportunities that individuals have to form positive social relationships and the resulting health consequences of both successful and unsuccessful navigation of one’s social environment.