Long-term Neighborhood Poverty Effects on Internalizing Symptoms in Adolescents: Mediated Through Allostatic Load and Pubertal Timing.

Purpose: The long-term effect of neighborhood poverty on internalizing symptoms in adolescents and the biological mechanisms underlying this association remain unclear. We defined neighborhood poverty at the village level in two dimensions: intensity (i.e., poverty rate) and duration. This study investigated how the poverty rate and duration of exposure to neighborhood poverty interact to predict internalizing symptoms in adolescents through biological mechanisms (i.e., allostatic load and early pubertal timing).

Methods: A total of 418 adolescents (50.2% girls; 11-14 years old; mean age = 12.57 years) living in rural China participated in two waves of data collection. Path analysis was conducted to examine the mediating role of allostatic load and pubertal timing in the relationship between the duration of exposure to neighborhood poverty and internalizing symptoms. Moreover, the interactive effect between the poverty rate and duration of neighborhood poverty on the allostatic load was tested.

Results: The positive association between the duration of exposure to neighborhood poverty and internalizing symptoms of adolescents was explained by elevated allostatic load and early pubertal timing after adjusting for gender, age, prior family socioeconomic states and internalizing symptoms. The duration in neighborhood poverty was a stronger predictor of allostatic load for adolescents living in high poverty rate neighborhoods than for those living in low poverty rate neighborhoods.

Discussion: Neighborhood poverty gets "under the skin" through biological pathways and affects internalizing symptoms among adolescents. The findings highlight the importance of considering different dimensions of neighborhood poverty (e.g., intensity and duration) on adolescents' health.