|
 High-striving black youth from the most disadvantaged homes were
more than twice as likely to develop diabetes by age 29 as
high-achieving black teens from more affluent homes, researchers
report in Pediatrics.
Among these resilient black teens, high-strivers from disadvantaged
homes may have what’s known as “skin-deep resilience” as adults,
displaying few outward signs of the stress they endured to succeed
in school and work but still having health problems under the
surface, said lead study author Gene Brody of the University of
Georgia in Athens.
“We reasoned that, if disadvantaged children were succeeding
academically and emotionally, they might also be protected from
health problems that were more common in lower-income youth,” Brody
said by email. “As it turned out, the exact opposite was true.”
“These young people were achieving success by all the conventional
markers: doing well academically, staying out of trouble, making
friends, and developing a positive sense of self,” Brody added.
“Underneath, however, their physical health was deteriorating.”
This may be because compared with other participants in the study,
they produced more stress hormones, had higher blood pressure, were
more obese, displayed a greater susceptibility to infection, and had
faster aging of their immune cells, Brody said.
Researchers didn’t find this pattern of skin-deep resilience in
white youth.
To explore the connection between high achievement in adolescence
and health in young adulthood, researchers examined survey data on
1,431 black youth and 3,935 white young people.
The teens participated in one round of surveys when they were 16
that included questions on striving such as their aspirations for
education, persistence and avoidance of drugs and other activities
that can sidetrack success.
Then, at age 29, participants completed another round of surveys
that included questions on college graduation, income, symptoms of
depression and type 2 diabetes status.
At the start of the study, 30 percent of black teens lived in
households with income below the federal poverty level and 15
percent of the parents were unemployed, researchers report in
Pediatrics. By comparison, 11 percent of white teens came from poor
households and 6 percent of their parents were unemployed.
[to top of second column] |
Disadvantaged teens at the start of the study were less likely to
graduate from college, more likely to have depression and lower
incomes than youth that started out with more resources.
When kids were high strivers at 16, they were more likely to get a
college degree and have higher income and less likely to be
diagnosed with depression.
Poor black kids, but not white teens, however, were more likely to
develop diabetes as adults when they were high achievers during
their teen years.
One limitation of the study include its reliance on teens to
accurately recall and report on factors like their family income,
school achievements, and health, the authors note. Researchers also
lacked data to assess how skin-deep resilience might apply to
Hispanic youth or teens from other racial or ethnic groups.
The study is observational and doesn’t prove ambition causes
diabetes.
“The reason why this happens is still very much up for debate,” said
Dr. Gary Maslow, a researcher at Duke University in Durham, North
Carolina who wrote an accompanying editorial. “It could be related
to the physical effects of chronic stress, with high-strivers from
disadvantaged backgrounds facing greater stressors as they strive to
succeed.”
“However, there are other potential hypotheses that need to be
explored as well to fully explain this association,” Maslow added by
email. “For instance, health behavior choices related to diet and
physical activity may also play a role, as young people work hard to
achieve academically but may struggle to care well for themselves in
other ways.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2fJNfso Pediatrics, online November 28, 2016.
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
