MOLINA PROJECT ABSTRACT Obesity is an epidemic that disproportionately impacts Latino youth: by ages 6-11, 26.1% of Latino youth are obese compared to 13.1% of whites. Recently, the unequal distribution of structural violence?in the form of stress manifesting from direct or residual effect of racism?to which parents of color are exposed, is increasingly being recognized as a key contributor of childhood disparities in obesity. Data from the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos indicated that nearly 80% of Latinos reported experiencing lifetime discrimination. Evidence, albeit limited, finds that stress in Latino parents is associated with increased risk of obesity in Latino youth. However, little is known regarding the ways in which different forms of structural violence co-occur and intersect in Latino parents. Further, given this gap, it is not known how distinct configurations of exposure to structural violence among parents are associated with child obesity, nor the potential mechanisms underlying this association. To address these knowledge gaps, we will conduct a secondary data analysis of the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos (HCHS/SOL) Youth Study (N=1,310), a cross-sectional multisite observational study of obesity and cardiometabolic risk among U.S. Hispanic/Latino children and their caregivers. We propose to use latent profile analysis and structural equation modeling to accomplish the following aims: (1) identify and characterize subtypes of structural violence present among Latino parents; and (2) determine which parental structural violence subtypes are associated with child BMI percentile, and the biological, psychological, and behavioral mechanisms that may underlie these associations. Successful completion of these goals will provide necessary preliminary data for a R01 continuation grant. Further, findings from this study will facilitate our understanding of the patterning of structural violence in Latino parents; associations with and relative importance to child BMI, and identifying potential modifiable mechanisms at different levels. Latinos are the youngest racial/ethnic group and Latino youth are the fastest growing segment of the U.S. child population. If the obesity epidemic among Latino youth is not reversed, the felt social, economic, and health toll will be great not just for the individual, but also for their families, communities, and the nation as a whole. Thus, our ultimate goal is to generate information about the characteristics of parental structural violence subtypes in Latino parents whose children may be at greatest risk of obesity. This in turn will help guide clinical practice and inform the development of targeted preventive interventions needed to reduce the burden of structural violence in Latino parents and of obesity in Latino youth.
| Matthews, Phoenix Alicia; Blok, Amanda C; Lee, Joseph G L et al. (2018) SBM recommends policy support to reduce smoking disparities for sexual and gender minorities. Transl Behav Med 8:692-695 |
