Gender Differences in Longitudinal Links between Neighborhood Fear, Parental Support, and Depression among African American Emerging Adults

Shervin Assari, Jocelyn R. Smith, Cleopatra Howard Caldwell and Marc A. Zimmerman
Additional contact information
Shervin Assari: Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of Michigan, 4250 Plymouth Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2700, USA
Jocelyn R. Smith: Center for Research on Ethnicity, Culture and Health, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, 1415 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029, USA
Cleopatra Howard Caldwell: Center for Research on Ethnicity, Culture and Health, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, 1415 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029, USA
Marc A. Zimmerman: Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, 1415 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029, USA

Societies, 2015, vol. 5, issue 1, 1-20

Abstract: The transition to adulthood is a developmental period marked by increased stress, especially among African Americans. In addition to stress related to emerging adulthood, neighborhood fear may contribute to depressive symptoms for African Americans. We examined gender differences in longitudinal associations between changes in perceived neighborhood fear, parental support, and depressive symptoms among African American youth who were in transition to adulthood. Five hundred and thirteen African American youths (235 males and 278 females) were included in the study. An increase in perceived neighborhood fear was associated with an increase in depressive symptoms, and change in perceived maternal support was predictive of depressive symptoms among males, but not females. The findings suggest that policies and programs should help parents provide support to young adult children who live in violent neighborhoods as a strategy to prevent depressive symptoms during emerging adulthood.

Keywords: violence; depression; parenting; African Americans; gender; emerging adulthood (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 A14 P P0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/5/1/151/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/5/1/151/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:5:y:2015:i:1:p:151-170:d:46878

Access Statistics for this article

Societies is currently edited by Ms. Farrah Sun

More articles in Societies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().