Alvarado-Harris Rebeca, Perreira Krista, Woods-Giscombe Cheryl L, Mills-Koonce William Roger, Santos Hudson P
School of Nursing, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States.
Department of Social Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States.
Brain Behav Immun Health. 2024 Nov 24;43:100914. doi: 10.1016/j.bbih.2024.100914. eCollection 2025 Feb.
The race-based traumatic stress model proposes that discrimination elicits trauma-related symptoms. Cumulative discriminatory experiences and subsequent trauma symptoms may lead to prenatal inflammation, with far reaching consequences for the health of a mother and her child.
Latina mothers, primarily of Mexican and Central American heritage ( = 150), completed the Everyday Discrimination Scale and the Traumatic Avoidance subscale of the Inventory of Depression and Anxiety Symptoms-II during pregnancy (24-32 weeks). Plasma levels of cytokines were measured with multiplex assays, which were aggregated into a pro-inflammatory cytokine profile (IL-1β, TNF-α, IFN-γ, and IL-8) after a Confirmatory Factor Analysis supported this approach.
Latina mothers who grew up in the US reported more discrimination, more traumatic avoidance symptoms, and had a more elevated cytokine profile than those who immigrated after childhood. Based on a two-mediator sequential model, discrimination and traumatic avoidance symptoms sequentially provided mechanistic support for the higher levels of cytokines observed in mothers who grew up in the US. Additionally, mothers who experienced trauma symptoms in response to discrimination had an elevated cytokine profile, whereas those who did not had a suppressed cytokine profile.
This is among the first studies to examine the association between trauma symptoms, discrimination, and inflammation during pregnancy. In so doing, it elucidates critical pathways by which discrimination may be differentially biologically embedded across immigrant generations. Emotional responses to and chronicity of discrimination may be critical factors for understanding how experiences of discrimination may influence the maternal inflammatory milieu.
基于种族的创伤应激模型提出，歧视会引发与创伤相关的症状。累积的歧视经历和随后的创伤症状可能导致产前炎症，对母亲及其孩子的健康产生深远影响。
主要为墨西哥和中美洲裔的拉丁裔母亲（n = 150）在孕期（24 - 32周）完成了日常歧视量表以及抑郁与焦虑症状量表 - II的创伤回避子量表。通过多重检测法测量血浆细胞因子水平，在验证性因素分析支持该方法后，将其汇总为促炎细胞因子谱（IL - 1β、TNF - α、IFN - γ和IL - 8）。
在美国长大的拉丁裔母亲比童年后移民的母亲报告了更多的歧视、更多的创伤回避症状，且细胞因子谱水平更高。基于一个双中介顺序模型，歧视和创伤回避症状依次为在美国长大的母亲中观察到的较高细胞因子水平提供了机制支持。此外，因歧视而出现创伤症状的母亲细胞因子谱升高，而未出现创伤症状的母亲细胞因子谱受到抑制。
这是首批研究孕期创伤症状、歧视与炎症之间关联的研究之一。通过这样做，它阐明了歧视可能在不同移民代际中以不同方式在生物学上得以体现的关键途径。对歧视的情绪反应和歧视的长期性可能是理解歧视经历如何影响母体炎症环境的关键因素。
