Patterns of Connectedness and Psychosocial Wellbeing Among African American and Caribbean Black Adolescents

Introduction: Ecological models assert that adolescents are simultaneously connected to multiple and interrelated settings (e.g., family, school), which distinctly contribute to and interact to influence their health adjustment (e.g., Bronfenbrenner, 1979). Given research linking the quantity and quality of social connections to mental and physical health, health risks behaviors, morbidity, and mortality (e.g., Umberson & Montez, 2010), understanding types and patterns of adolescent connections to social settings can inform adolescent preventive interventions. This focus is important for efforts aimed at reducing health disparities among Black adolescents, who may experience barriers to accessing culturally relevant interventions fostering social connections. Attention to how social connections are linked with psychosocial wellbeing (e.g., self-esteem, mastery) offers opportunities to understand how interpersonal resources can support health and reduce vulnerability to adverse health outcomes. Research suggests that connections to multiple settings are more strongly associated with psychosocial wellbeing than connection to fewer settings (e.g., Jose et al., 2012). It is less clear whether high connection to some settings may compensate for low connection in others (Witherspoon et al., 2009) or how different combinations of connections are linked to wellbeing. This research examined patterns of connection to social settings salient for Black adolescents: family, peer, school, neighborhood, and religious institutions.

Methods: Participants were 1170 Black adolescents (810 African American; 360 Caribbean Black) who participated in the National Survey of American Life Adolescent supplement study. Given the complex, multistage sample design, analyses are based on weighted data. Latent profile analysis was used to examine profiles of adolescent connections across the five settings. Using the BCH approach, mean differences across profiles were examined for psychosocial wellbeing measures: self-esteem, mastery, life satisfaction, coping, perceived stress, and depressive symptoms.

Results: The best fitting solution comprised four profiles: unconnected (low in all domains), minimal connection, high family connection, and well-connected (high on all domains). The well-connected profile had higher self-esteem, mastery, life-satisfaction, and coping, and lower perceived stress and depressive symptoms than other profiles. The high family connection and well-connected profiles did not differ on mastery, life satisfaction, perceived stress, or depressive symptoms.

Conclusions: These results intimate connectedness to multiple settings is an important protective mechanism against lower psychosocial wellbeing and highlight the significance of family connection in the context of low connection to other domains. Preventive interventions strengthening social connections can foster better psychosocial wellbeing in the context of health disparities that Black youth disproportionately may have encountered.