Abstract
PURPOSE: This study is the first to examine the impact of structural racism from historic redlining practices on present-day perceived stress in adolescents. METHODS: Data come from the Study of Adolescent to Adult Neural Development. Adolescents aged 15-17 years (N = 213) completed the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-14). Regression models examined associations between redlining scores, a measure of residential security risk, and PSS-14. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the indirect effect of present-day neighborhood inequities. RESULTS: After adjusting for covariates, adolescents living in high redlined tracts (52.1%) reported higher PSS-14 values than those living in ungraded tracts (β: 2.47, 95% confidence interval: 0.35, 4.59). Analyses subset to non-Hispanic Black adolescents showed similar results. There was an indirect effect of redlining on perceived stress through neighborhood poverty (p = .043). DISCUSSION: Findings indicate that institutional discriminatory lending practices from the early 20th century continue to impact present-day neighborhood poverty, resulting in increased adolescent stress.