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., Methods: A total of 418 adolescents (50.2% girls; 11-14 years old; mean age 1/4 12.57 years) living in rural China participated in two waves of data collection. Path analysis was conducted to examine 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 among adolescents. The findings highlight the importance of considering different dimensions of neighborhood poverty (e.g., intensity and duration) on adolescents' health. (c) 2023 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. All rights reserved.