Cultural Connection As a Protective Factor Against the Negative Impact of Adversity on Early Behavioral Health

Introduction: From the prenatal period through the early childhood, early experiences determine future success in well-being, school, work, and in the community. Adversity creates an accumulated number of risks that are potentially damaging and could increase vulnerabilities for negative health and social outcomes, including likely involvement in the juvenile justice system. This study focused on examining the relationship between intergenerational adversity and early behavioral health and the role of cultural connection as a protective factor against the negative effects of adversity. Differences across groups were also investigated, comparing associations between whites, Blacks, and Latinos.

Methods: Longitudinal path analysis was conducted using baseline, Wave 1, and Wave 9 data from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study (N=4,898) with a nationally representative sample of Black and Latino mothers and their children in U.S. urban cities. Outcome measure is externalizing behavior at age 9 as measured by Achenbach’s Child Behavior Checklists. Intergenerational adversity is measured by the sum of adversities including family instability (e.g. divorce or separation), mother’s experience of partner violence, parental incarceration, food insecurity, financial insecurity, and maternal depression measured at baseline. Cultural connection is measured by the frequency of family’s participation in cultural activities per month. Control variables include age of mother at first childbirth and number of children.

Results: Results showed a positive relationship between intergenerational adversity and externalizing behaviors, where greater adversity was significantly associated with worse externalizing behavior (p<.01). This result was consistent across ethnic groups but with a stronger association for African-Americans followed by Latinos. Cultural connection as a protective factor was significant only for African-Americans.

Conclusion: These results provide evidence towards the potentially increased risk and vulnerabilities of children exposed to multiple adversities in childhood towards later involvement in the juvenile justice system. Additionally, results show that adversity’s negative effects are potentially not inexorable. Cultural connection could be a promising resource for African-Americans that could mitigate the damaging impact of adversity on behavioral risks and vulnerabilities of young children. Examining protective factors in the context of early exposure to adversity helps to identify potential targets for preventive interventions. It also has implications for preventing the future involvement of at-risk children in the juvenile justice system.