Diagnosing Human Trafficking Victims: A Mini-Review and Perspective
The global campaign against human trafficking, also known as trafficking in persons, has gained much momentum in the past two decades. Although psychiatric and physical illness sequela of human trafficking are well documented, the research community continues to struggle over such foundational questions as what specific activities or experiences count as trafficking-in-persons victimization and how best to obtain representable and generalizable data on experiences of people who are trafficked. We provide a brief review of major efforts to define trafficking in persons to establish prevalence estimates to date. We argue for consensus on key clinical and public health indicators, resembling the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) approach to enable common and systematic knowledge building and comparability across studies.
DOI: 10.29245/2578-2959/2024/1.1292 View / Download PdfExposure to Adverse Life Events among Children Transitioning into Adolescence: Intersections of Socioeconomic Position and Race
Background: Racism is shown to diminish the protective effects of family socioeconomic position (SEP) resources for racial minorities compared to the majority groups, a pattern called minorities’ diminished returns. Our existing knowledge is minimal about diminished returns of family SEP indicators on reducing exposure to adverse life events among children transitioning into adolescence. Aim: To compare diverse racial groups for the effects of family income and family structure on exposure to adverse life events of pre-adolescents transitioning to adolescence.
Methods: In this longitudinal study, we analyzed data from 22,538 observations belonging to racially diverse groups of American 9–10-year-old children (n = 11,878) who were followed while transitioning to adolescence. The independent variables were family income and family structure. The primary outcome was the number of stressful life events with impact on adolescents, measured by the Life History semi-structured interview. Mixed-effects regression models were used for data analysis to adjust for data nested to individuals, families, and centers.
Results: Family income and married family structure had an overall inverse association with children’s exposure to adverse life events during transition to adolescence. However, race showed significant interactions with family income and family structure on exposure to adverse life events. The protective effects of family income and married family structure were weaker for African American than White adolescents. The protective effect of family income was also weaker for mixed/other race than White adolescents.
Conclusion: While family SEP is protective against children’s exposure to adverse life events, this effect is weaker for African American and mixed/other race compared to White youth.
DOI: 10.29245/2578-2959/2024/1.1293 View / Download PdfImmigration, Educational Attainment, and Subjective Health in the United States
Objectives: Although educational attainment is a major social determinant of health, according to Marginalization-related Diminished Returns (MDRs), the effect of education tends to be weaker for marginalized groups compared to the privileged groups. While we know more about marginalization due to race and ethnicity, limited information is available on MDRs of educational attainment among US immigrant individuals.
Aims: This study compared immigrant and non-immigrant US adults aged 18 and over for the effects of educational attainment on subjective health (self-rated health; SRH).
Methods: Data came from General Social Survey (GSS) that recruited a nationally representative sample of US adults from 1972 to 2022. Overall, GSS has enrolled 45,043 individuals who were either immigrant (4,247; 9.4%) and non-immigrant (40,796; 90.6%). The independent variable was educational attainment, the dependent variable was SRH (measured with a single item), confounders were age, gender, race, employment and marital status, and moderator was immigration (nativity) status.
Results: Higher educational attainment was associated with higher odds of good SRH (odds ratio OR = 2.08 for 12 years of education, OR = 2.81 for 13-15 years of education, OR = 4.38 for college graduation, and OR = 4.83 for graduate studies). However, we found significant statistical interaction between immigration status and college graduation on SRH, which was indicative of smaller association between college graduation and SRH for immigrant than non-immigrant US adults.
Conclusions: In line with MDRs, the association between educational attainment and SRH was weaker for immigrant than non-immigrant. It is essential to implement two sets of policies to achieve health inequalities among immigrant populations: policies that increase educational attainment of immigrants and those that increase the health returns of educational attainment for immigrants.
DOI: 10.29245/2578-2959/2024/1.1299 View / Download PdfWhat is Common Becomes Normal; Black-White Variation in the Effects of Adversities on Subsequent Initiation of Tobacco and Marijuana During Transitioning into Adolescence
Background: While adversities across domains of finance, race, family, and life may operate as risk factors for initiation of substance use in adolescents, the influence of these factors may vary across racial groups of youth. Unfortunately, the existing knowledge is minimal about racial differences in the types of adversities that may increase the risk of subsequent substance use initiation during the transition into adolescence.
Aim: To compare racial groups for the effects of adversities across domains of finance, race, family, and life on subsequent substance use initiation among pre-adolescents transitioning into adolescence.
Methods: In this longitudinal study, we analyzed data from 6003 non-Latino White and 1562 non-Latino African American 9-10-year-old children transitioning into adolescence. Data came from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. Participants were followed for up to thirty-six months as they transitioned to adolescence. The independent variables were adversities related to the domains of finance, race, family, and life. The primary outcomes were time to first tobacco or marijuana use. Age, puberty, and gender were confounders. Cox regression models were used for data analysis.
Results: For White youth, tobacco use was under influence of having two parents in the household (HR = .611; 95% CI = .419-.891), parental education (HR = .900; 95% CI = .833-.972), household income (HR = .899; 95% CI = .817-.990), racial stress (HR = 1.569; 95% CI = 1.206-2.039), and life stress (HR =1.098 ; 95% CI = 1.024-1.178) and marijuana use was under influence of neighborhood income (HR = .576; 95% CI = .332-.999) and financial stress (HR =4.273; 95% CI = 1.280-17.422). No adverse condition predicted tobacco or marijuana use of African American youth.
Conclusion: The effects of adversities on substance use depend on race. While various types of adversities tend to increase subsequent initiation of tobacco and marijuana, such factors may be less influential for African American adolescents, who experience more of such adversities. What is common may become normal.
DOI: 10.29245/2578-2959/2024/1.1300 View / Download Pdf