Edith Chen
Biographic Data
| ID | 3583243 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Edith Chen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Edith |
| FAMILY NAME | Chen |
| SIGNATURE | CHEN E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Northwestern University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6116-2239 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 56 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 491 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 56 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
A Person‐Centered Approach to Examining Out‐of‐School Participation Among Black Adolescents and Its Association With Racial and Ethnic Identity
INTRODUCTION: Positive racial and ethnic identity formation is associated with psychological well-being, especially for Black adolescents. Parental socialization and school-related factors are key influences that have been studied, but less is known about other factors in an adolescent's social ecology, such as out-of-school activities. The goal of the present study was to better understand the relation between out-of-school activity (i.e., after…
What We Bring to the Table: An Examination of the Developing Relationship Between Youth Mentees and Their College Mentors
Mentoring programs are a popular approach for supporting youth through relationships with adult mentors, but few mentoring studies have included the mentor perspective. The present study comprised 80 undergraduate mentors ( M age = 19.83, 52.5% White, 76.3% female) and elementary‐aged mentees ( M age = 10.61, 91.3% Black, 53.8% female). Mentee and mentor perceptions of the mentoring relationship and their other adult social supports were assessed…
Socioeconomic disadvantage and high‐effort coping in childhood: Evidence of skin‐deep resilience
BACKGROUND: Low socioeconomic status (SES) is a risk factor for poor outcomes across development. Recent evidence suggests that, although psychosocial resilience among youth living in low-SES households is common, such expressions of resilience may not extend to physical health. Questions remain about when these diverging mental and physical health trajectories emerge. The current study hypothesized that skin-deep resilience - a pattern wherein s…
Socioeconomic Disadvantage, Neighborhood Belonging, and Inflammation Among Adolescents
OBJECTIVE: Childhood socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with a host of adverse health outcomes across the lifespan. However, there is increasing interest in identifying factors that may promote resilience to disadvantage's effects on health. One promising candidate in this regard is a sense of neighborhood belonging, which could offset health risks by providing a sense of connection to others, as well as a sense of belonging to a community …
Skin-deep Resilience and Early Adolescence: Neighborhood Disadvantage, Executive Functioning, and Pubertal Development in Minority Youth
Childhood poverty, immune cell aging, and African Americans' insulin resistance: A prospective study
The present study investigated developmental pathways that can contribute to chronic disease among rural African Americans. With a sample of 342 African American youth (59% female) from the southeastern United States followed for nearly two decades (2001–2019), we examined the prospective association between family poverty during adolescence (ages 11–18) and insulin resistance (IR) in young adulthood (ages 25–29) as well as underlying biological …
Properties of the Shift and Persist Questionnaire in adolescent and young adult cancer patients and survivors: Validity, consistency, and interpretability
Psychological stress during childhood and adolescence and its association with inflammation across the lifespan: A critical review and meta-analysis
suggesting the impact of early stress strengthens with time. By contrast, effect sizes did not vary by adversity type (socioeconomic disadvantage, maltreatment, other interpersonal stressors, and cumulative exposure across stressors), or component of inflammation (circulating biomarkers of low-grade inflammation vs. cytokine responses to microbial stimuli). Implications and future directions are discussed.
The Relationship Between Disproportionate Social Support and Metabolic and Inflammatory Markers: Moderating Role of Socioeconomic Context
OBJECTIVE: The present study examines the association of disproportionate social support (the relative balance of support given versus received) on metabolic and inflammatory outcomes and whether effects vary by socioeconomic context. METHODS: We enrolled a sample of 307 parental caregivers living with a child with a chronic illness. Parents were assessed on four dimensions of social support: emotional support received, instrumental support recei…
Association of Wealth With Longevity in US Adults at Midlife
This cohort study found that wealth accumulation at midlife was associated with longevity in US adults. Discordant sibling analyses suggested that this association is unlikely to be simply an artifact of early experiences or heritable characteristics shared by families
Trajectories of Depressive Symptoms and Perceived Stress From Pregnancy to the Postnatal Period Among Canadian Women: Impact of Employment and Immigration
Objectives. To identify trajectory patterns of maternal depressive symptoms and perceived stress from midpregnancy to 2 years postpartum and determine relationships with selected sociodemographic factors including income, education, immigration, and postpartum employment. Methods. Pregnant women (n = 3307) recruited from the general population in 4 regions in Canada provided 6 waves of data from pregnancy to 2 years postpartum. The study was cond…
Academic disparities and health: How gender-based disparities in schools relate to boys' and girls' health
College completion predicts lower depression but higher metabolic syndrome among disadvantaged minorities in young adulthood
Significance College graduates enjoy healthier, longer lives compared with individuals who do not graduate from college. However, the health benefit of educational attainment is not as great for blacks as it is for whites. Moreover, college completion may not erase the detrimental effects of early-life disadvantage for blacks and Hispanics. We use nationally representative data on young adults to test whether American minorities experience differ…
Chronic Family Stress and Adolescent Health: The Moderating Role of Emotion Regulation
OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to assess whether the association between chronic family stress and physiological measures is moderated by emotion regulation strategies in an adolescent sample. METHODS: Chronic family stress was assessed via a semistructured interview and emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and suppression) via questionnaire among 261 adolescents (14.57 (1.07) years). Several metabolic (waist-hip ratio, systo…
John Henryism Coping and Metabolic Syndrome Among Young Black Adults
OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to test the novel hypothesis that, among black Americans who used John Henryism coping, those from low socioeconomic status backgrounds would be more likely to develop metabolic syndrome than those from higher socioeconomic backgrounds. METHODS: This is an ancillary analysis of Strong African American Families Healthy Adult Program, a longitudinal cohort of 391 black youths and their caregivers. From ages 11 to…
Midlife self-reported social support as a buffer against premature mortality risks associated with childhood abuse
Low-Grade Inflammation and Ambulatory Cortisol in Adolescents: Interaction Between Interviewer-Rated Versus Self-Rated Acute Stress and Chronic Stress
OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the association between self-rated or interviewer-rated recent acute stress exposures and low-grade inflammation and daily cortisol production in adolescents is moderated by chronic stress ratings. METHODS: Acute and chronic stress exposures were assessed in 261 adolescents aged 13 to 16 years using a semistructured life stress interview. The negative impact of acute stressors was independently rated by both adoles…
Early-Life Socioeconomic Disadvantage and Metabolic Health Disparities
OBJECTIVE: A quarter of the world's population have metabolic syndrome (MetS). MetS prevalence is stratified by socioeconomic status (SES), such that low SES is associated with higher MetS risk. The present study examined the relative roles of early-life SES and current SES in explaining MetS risk. METHODS: Participants (N = 354; ages = 15-55 years, M [SD] = 36.5 [10.7] years; 55% female; 72.9% white, 16.9% Asian, 10.2% others) were evaluated for…
Just World Beliefs Are Associated With Lower Levels of Metabolic Risk and Inflammation and Better Sleep After an Unfair Event
This study's goal was to conduct a preliminary test of the theory that just world beliefs can buffer against negative physiological outcomes after people experience certain types of negative life events by testing associations between just world beliefs and physiological outcomes among people with different life event histories. In a sample of 247 adults ( M age = 46.01; 24.31% men; 60.78% White), this research investigated the relationship betwe…
Childhood close family relationships and health
Emerging data suggest that during childhood, close family relationships can ameliorate the impact that adversity has on life span physical health. To explain this phenomenon, a developmental stress buffering model is proposed in which characteristics of family relationships including support, conflict, obligation, and parenting behaviors evolve and change from childhood to adolescence. Together, these characteristics govern whether childhood fami…
Accuracy and Positivity in Adolescent Perceptions of Parent Behavior: Links With Adolescent Psychological Adjustment and Proinflammatory Profiles
Forming accurate perceptions is often linked to positive relationship and individual functioning, yet may also be detrimental in some contexts. The current study examined whether accuracy may be detrimental to individual functioning, both psychological and physiological, in an important social context: parent–adolescent relationships. Specifically, we examined whether the accuracy of adolescents’ perceptions of their parent’s behaviors was associ…
Dimensions of Socioeconomic Status and Childhood Asthma Outcomes: Evidence for Distinct Behavioral and Biological Associations
OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to investigate 2 key dimensions of socioeconomic status (SES)-prestige and resources-and their associations with immune, behavioral, and clinical outcomes in childhood asthma. METHODS: Children ages 9 to 17 years with a physician's diagnosis of asthma (N = 150), and one of their parents participated in this study. Children and parents completed interviews and questionnaires about SES (prestige = parent …
Views of a good life and allostatic load: Physiological correlates of theories of a good life depend on the socioeconomic context
This research examines the relationship between one's theory of a good life and allostatic load, a marker of cumulative biological risk, and how this relationship differs by socioeconomic status. Among adults with a bachelor's degree or higher, those who saw individual characteristics (e.g., personal happiness, effort) as part of a good life had lower levels of allostatic load than those who did not. In contrast, among adults with less than a bac…
Congruence and Incongruence in Adolescents’ and Parents’ Perceptions of the Family: Using Response Surface Analysis to Examine Links with Adolescents’ Psychological Adjustment
Supportive Family Environments Ameliorate the Link Between Racial Discrimination and Epigenetic Aging: A Replication Across Two Longitudinal Cohorts
This study tested the hypothesis that supportive family environments during adolescence buffer exposure to racial discrimination, reducing its impact on biological weathering and its manifestation in cellular aging. Perceived racial discrimination, support in the family environment, and confounder variables were assessed for 3 consecutive years across adolescence in two independent cohorts of African American youth from rural Georgia. DNA was ext…
Psychological stress in childhood and susceptibility to the chronic diseases of aging: Moving toward a model of behavioral and biological mechanisms
Among people exposed to major psychological stressors in early life, there are elevated rates of morbidity and mortality from chronic diseases of aging. The most compelling data come from studies of children raised in poverty or maltreated by their parents, who show heightened vulnerability to vascular disease, autoimmune disorders, and premature mortality. These findings raise challenging theoretical questions. How does childhood stress get unde…
If it goes up, must it come down? Chronic stress and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis in humans
The notion that chronic stress fosters disease by activating the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis is featured prominently in many theories. The research linking chronic stress and HPA function is contradictory, however, with some studies reporting increased activation, and others reporting the opposite. This meta-analysis showed that much of the variability is attributable to stressor and person features. Timing is an especially c…
Socioeconomic differences in children's health: How and why do these relationships change with age
The effects of socioeconomic status (SES) on health are well documented in adulthood, but far less is known about its effects in childhood. The authors reviewed the literature and found support for a childhood SES effect, whereby each decrease in SES was associated with an increased health risk. The authors explored how this relationship changed as children underwent normal developmental changes and proposed 3 models to describe the temporal patt…
Socioeconomic status and health: Do gradients differ within childhood and adolescence
Discrimination, Racial Identity, and Cytokine Levels Among African-American Adolescents
Understanding Health Disparities: The Role of Race and Socioeconomic Status in Children’s Health
Objectives. We sought to determine whether childhood health disparities are best understood as effects of race, socioeconomic status (SES), or synergistic effects of the two. Methods. Data from the National Health Interview Survey 1994 of US children aged 0 to 18 years (n=33911) were used. SES was measured as parental education. Child health measures included overall health, limitations, and chronic and acute childhood conditions. Results. For ov…
Supportive Family Environments Ameliorate the Link Between Racial Discrimination and Epigenetic Aging: A Replication Across Two Longitudinal Cohorts
This study tested the hypothesis that supportive family environments during adolescence buffer exposure to racial discrimination, reducing its impact on biological weathering and its manifestation in cellular aging. Perceived racial discrimination, support in the family environment, and confounder variables were assessed for 3 consecutive years across adolescence in two independent cohorts of African American youth from rural Georgia. DNA was ext…
Childhood close family relationships and health
Emerging data suggest that during childhood, close family relationships can ameliorate the impact that adversity has on life span physical health. To explain this phenomenon, a developmental stress buffering model is proposed in which characteristics of family relationships including support, conflict, obligation, and parenting behaviors evolve and change from childhood to adolescence. Together, these characteristics govern whether childhood fami…
Congruence and Incongruence in Adolescents’ and Parents’ Perceptions of the Family: Using Response Surface Analysis to Examine Links with Adolescents’ Psychological Adjustment
Socioeconomic status and the health of youth: A multilevel, multidomain approach to conceptualizing pathways
Previous research has clearly established associations between low socioeconomic status (SES) and poor youth physical health outcomes. This article provides an overview of the main pathways through which low SES environments come to influence youth health. We focus on 2 prevalent chronic health problems in youth today, asthma and obesity. We review and propose a model that encompasses (a) multiple levels of influence, including the neighborhood, …
Socioeconomic Status and Substance Use Behaviors in Adolescents: The Role of Family Resources versus Family Social Status
The aims of this study were to test the associations among socio-economic status (SES) and substance use in adolescents, and to compare the relative strength of associations for different types of SES markers, including financial resources and family social status. A total of 113 teenagers reported their substance use, and parents reported family SES. High SES teens were more likely to use substances than low SES teens. Family financial resources…
Socioeconomic Status and Patterns of Parent–Adolescent Interactions
This study investigated reciprocity in parent–adolescent interactions among 102 families from lower or higher socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. Negative behaviors between parents and adolescents were more reciprocal (strongly correlated) in higher SES than lower SES families, and this reciprocity correlated with higher family relationship quality. Lower SES families exhibited reciprocity related to withdrawn behaviors. Reciprocity of these …
Midlife self-reported social support as a buffer against premature mortality risks associated with childhood abuse
Skin-deep Resilience and Early Adolescence: Neighborhood Disadvantage, Executive Functioning, and Pubertal Development in Minority Youth
Academic disparities and health: How gender-based disparities in schools relate to boys' and girls' health
Pathways Linking Treatment Intensity and Psychosocial Outcomes among Adult Survivors of Childhood Leukemia
To determine the pathways between treatment intensity (age at diagnosis, dosage of chemotherapy [intrathecal methotrexate; IT-MTX] and cranial radiation [CRT]) and various psychosocial outcomes, review of medical records and structured interviews were carried out in 510 adult survivors of childhood leukemia. Structural equation modeling revealed that higher treatment intensity during childhood (indicated by treatment with high-dose CRT, low-dose …
Socioeconomic differences in children's health: How and why do these relationships change with age
The effects of socioeconomic status (SES) on health are well documented in adulthood, but far less is known about its effects in childhood. The authors reviewed the literature and found support for a childhood SES effect, whereby each decrease in SES was associated with an increased health risk. The authors explored how this relationship changed as children underwent normal developmental changes and proposed 3 models to describe the temporal patt…
Socioeconomic Status, Stress, and Immune Markers in Adolescents With Asthma
OBJECTIVE: Previous research has demonstrated links between low socioeconomic status (SES) and clinical asthma outcomes, as well as links between stress and asthma. The objective of this study was to test whether adolescents with asthma from different SES backgrounds differed in biological profiles relevant to asthma, including immune and cortisol measures. The second objective was to test whether psychological stress and control beliefs could ex…
Neighborhood, family, and subjective socioeconomic status: How do they relate to adolescent health?
This study investigated the role of neighborhood, family, and individual subjective socioeconomic status (SES) in predicting adolescent physical health and psychological characteristics. Three hundred fifteen adolescents completed assessments of blood pressure, cortisol, and body mass index (BMI). Results revealed that lower neighborhood SES was associated with higher BMI and lower basal cortisol levels and that these effects persisted after cont…
Perceived Control and Immune and Pulmonary Outcomes in Children With Asthma
Objective: This study tested the relationships between perceived control and biological processes relevant to asthma in children. Methods: Forty children diagnosed with asthma completed the Children's Health Locus of Control (CHLC) scale. Participants also completed pulmonary function testing, measuring forced vital capacity (FVC), and forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1). Blood was drawn to assess immune markers associated with asthma. Sp…
Socioeconomic Status and Patterns of Parent–Adolescent Interactions
This study investigated reciprocity in parent–adolescent interactions among 102 families from lower or higher socioeconomic status (SES) backgrounds. Negative behaviors between parents and adolescents were more reciprocal (strongly correlated) in higher SES than lower SES families, and this reciprocity correlated with higher family relationship quality. Lower SES families exhibited reciprocity related to withdrawn behaviors. Reciprocity of these …
Understanding Health Disparities: The Role of Race and Socioeconomic Status in Children’s Health
Objectives. We sought to determine whether childhood health disparities are best understood as effects of race, socioeconomic status (SES), or synergistic effects of the two. Methods. Data from the National Health Interview Survey 1994 of US children aged 0 to 18 years (n=33911) were used. SES was measured as parental education. Child health measures included overall health, limitations, and chronic and acute childhood conditions. Results. For ov…
Socioeconomic status and health: Do gradients differ within childhood and adolescence
Socioeconomic Status and Health Behaviors in Adolescence: A Review of the Literature
Impact of Socioeconomic Status on Physiological Health in Adolescents: An Experimental Manipulation of Psychosocial Factors
OBJECTIVE: To examine the effects of a brief psychosocial manipulation on physiological responses to laboratory stress in lower and higher socioeconomic status (SES) adolescents. METHODS: A total of 115 adolescents participated in two acute laboratory stress tasks: one with psychosocial intervention and one with no intervention. In the intervention condition, half of the adolescents were given control over the stressor parameters; the other half …
Unfavorable Socioeconomic Conditions in Early Life Presage Expression of Proinflammatory Phenotype in Adolescence
OBJECTIVE: Unfavorable socioeconomic status (SES) circumstances early in life are associated with heightened vulnerability to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases in adulthood. However, little is known about mechanisms underlying this phenomenon. METHODS: This study examined whether early-life SES predicts future activity of two genes involved in regulating inflammation. An ethnically diverse cohort of 136 adolescent females was enrolled in th…
Issues in exploring variation in childhood socioeconomic gradients by age: A response to Case, Paxson, and Vogl
If it goes up, must it come down? Chronic stress and the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis in humans
The notion that chronic stress fosters disease by activating the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis is featured prominently in many theories. The research linking chronic stress and HPA function is contradictory, however, with some studies reporting increased activation, and others reporting the opposite. This meta-analysis showed that much of the variability is attributable to stressor and person features. Timing is an especially c…
Socioeconomic Status and Substance Use Behaviors in Adolescents: The Role of Family Resources versus Family Social Status
The aims of this study were to test the associations among socio-economic status (SES) and substance use in adolescents, and to compare the relative strength of associations for different types of SES markers, including financial resources and family social status. A total of 113 teenagers reported their substance use, and parents reported family SES. High SES teens were more likely to use substances than low SES teens. Family financial resources…
What Do Trajectories of Childhood Socioeconomic Status Tell Us About Markers of Cardiovascular Health in Adolescence
OBJECTIVE: The current study examined trajectories of socioeconomic status (SES) throughout childhood and their relationship to markers of cardiovascular health in adolescence. The goal was to determine whether early-life SES, current SES, cumulative SES, and/or social mobility best explained the relationship between SES experiences across an adolescent's life span and current blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR), and body mass index (BMI). DESIG…
Low early-life social class leaves a biological residue manifested by decreased glucocorticoid and increased proinflammatory signaling
Children reared in unfavorable socioeconomic circumstances show increased susceptibility to the chronic diseases of aging when they reach the fifth and sixth decades of life. One mechanistic hypothesis for this phenomenon suggests that social adversity in early life programs biological systems in a manner that persists across decades and thereby accentuates vulnerability to disease. Here we examine the basic tenets of this hypothesis by performin…
Health Psychology: Developing Biologically Plausible Models Linking the Social World and Physical Health
Research over the past several decades has documented psychosocial influences on the development and progression of several major medical illnesses. The field is now increasingly focused on identifying the biological and behavioral mechanisms underlying these effects. This review takes stock of the knowledge accumulated in the biological arena to date and highlights conceptual and methodological approaches that have proven especially productive. …
Double-Exposure to Acute Stress and Chronic Family Stress is Associated With Immune Changes in Children With Asthma
OBJECTIVE: To understand how psychological stress heightens risk for asthma flare-ups, we examined the relationship between acute stress, chronic family stress, and the production of asthma-related cytokines. METHODS: Seventy-one children with asthma and 76 medically healthy children completed interviews regarding life stress, and peripheral blood samples were collected. After mononuclear cells had been mitogenically stimulated, production of the…
Measuring Respiratory Health in Longitudinal Social Science Surveys
Objectively assessing respiratory health in longitudinal social science surveys would involve collecting pulmonary function measures on research participants, either in clinic settings or at home. These measures include indicators of volume (e.g., maximal amount of air blown in the first second of a forced exhalation) and airflow (maximal speed air is exhaled during a forced exhalation). Equipment options include office spirometry, portable spiro…
Childhood socioeconomic status and adult health
Socioeconomic status (SES) exposures during childhood are powerful predictors of adult cardiovascular morbidity, cardiovascular mortality, all‐cause mortality, and mortality due to a range of specific causes. However, we still know little about when childhood SES exposures matter most, how long they need to last, what behavioral, psychological, or physiological pathways link the childhood SES experience to adult health, and which specific adult h…
Psychological stress in childhood and susceptibility to the chronic diseases of aging: Moving toward a model of behavioral and biological mechanisms
Among people exposed to major psychological stressors in early life, there are elevated rates of morbidity and mortality from chronic diseases of aging. The most compelling data come from studies of children raised in poverty or maltreated by their parents, who show heightened vulnerability to vascular disease, autoimmune disorders, and premature mortality. These findings raise challenging theoretical questions. How does childhood stress get unde…
“Shift-and-Persist” Strategies: Why Low Socioeconomic Status Isn’t Always Bad for Health
Some individuals, despite facing recurrent, severe adversities in life such as low socioeconomic status (SES), are nonetheless able to maintain good physical health. This article explores why these individuals deviate from the expected association of low SES and poor health and outlines a “shift-and-persist” model to explain the psychobiological mechanisms involved. This model proposes that, in the midst of adversity, some children find role mode…
Protective Factors for Adults From Low-Childhood Socioeconomic Circumstances: The Benefits of Shift-and-Persist for Allostatic Load
OBJECTIVE: Low socioeconomic status (SES) early in life is one of the most well-established social predictors of poor health. However, little is understood about why some adults who grew up in low-SES environments do not have poor health outcomes. This study examined whether the psychological characteristic of "shift-and-persist" protects adults from the physiological risks of growing up in low-SES households. Shift-and-persist consists of refram…
Is Resilience Only Skin Deep?: Rural African Americans’ Socioeconomic Status–Related Risk and Competence in Preadolescence and Psychological Adjustment and Allostatic Load at Age 19
Many African American youth may develop high levels of allostatic load, a measure of physiological wear and tear on the body, by developing psychosocial competence under conditions of high risk related to socioeconomic status (SES). The current study was designed to test this hypothesis, which is based on John Henryism theory. In a representative sample of 489 African American youth living in the rural South, cumulative SES-related risks and teac…
Socioeconomic Status and Health: Mediating and Moderating Factors
Health disparities (differences in health by socioeconomic groups) are a pressing issue in our society. This article provides an overview of a multilevel approach that seeks to understand the mechanisms underlying health disparities by considering factors at the individual, family, and neighborhood levels. In addition, we describe an approach to connecting these factors to various levels of biological processes (systemic inflammation, cellular pr…
Medicine (45 works) · Psychology (45 works) · Developmental psychology (32 works) · Population (30 works) · Socioeconomic status (30 works) · Environmental health (26 works) · Clinical Psychology (21 works) · Health disparities and outcomes (19 works) · Psychiatry (18 works) · Demography (17 works)