Articles

<b>Background:</b><b> </b>School characteristics — including poverty levels, teacher experience, graduation rates, and college enrollment — are essential determinants of students’ academic outcomes and long-term success. Families often use their socioeconomic resources, such as parental education and household income, to secure access to high-quality schools with favorable attributes. However, Minorities’ Diminished Returns (MDRs) theory suggests that Black families may not experience the same benefits of high family SES due to structural barriers. This study examines the association between family SES and school characteristics, focusing on racial disparities in access to high-quality educational environments. <b>Objective:</b><b> </b>To investigate the relationship between family SES (parental education and household income) and multiple school characteristics (poverty, teacher experience, graduation rates, and college enrollment), and to assess racial differences in these associations. <b>Methods:</b><b> </b>Data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, a national sample of US adolescents, was analyzed. We used multivariate regression models to examine associations between family SES and school characteristics and to test for interactions by race, specifically comparing Black and White adolescents. <b>Results:</b><b> </b>Higher family SES was associated with positive school characteristics overall, including lower school poverty, greater teacher experience, and increased graduation and college enrollment rates. However, these positive effects of high family SES on school characteristics were significantly weaker for Black adolescents than for White adolescents. Black adolescents from high-income families were more likely than White adolescents from similar backgrounds to attend schools with higher poverty rates, less experienced teachers, and reduced graduation and college enrollment rates. <b>Conclusion:</b><b> </b>Our findings highlight persistent racial inequities in access to educational opportunities, even among families with comparable socioeconomic resources. The diminished returns of family SES for Black adolescents underscore the role of structural barriers in limiting access to high-quality schools. These findings emphasize the need for policy interventions to address systemic inequalities that hinder Black families from fully leveraging their SES to access favorable educational environments.

<b>Objective: </b>This study explores the relationship between neighborhood stress and Body Mass Index (BMI) in adolescents, while also examining whether this association differs between Black and White adolescents. <b>Methods:</b> Data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study were analyzed using linear regression models to examine the association between neighborhood stress (defined as a composite score based on three items measuring perceived safety and neighborhood fear) and BMI in adolescents, controlling for demographic and socioeconomic variables. We tested models both with and without interaction terms to assess whether race moderated the association. Stratified analyses were conducted to further explore potential differences between Black and White adolescents. <b>Results:</b> A positive association was observed between neighborhood stress and BMI across the overall sample. However, this association was weaker for Black adolescents compared to White adolescents, even after adjusting for potential confounders. <b>Conclusions:</b> The contribution of neighborhood stress to higher BMI in adolescents may vary by race. Our findings suggest that while neighborhood stress is associated with increased BMI, Black adolescents appear to be less affected by these stressors than their White peers. This weaker association could be due to the normalization of stress in environments where it is pervasive (what is common becomes normal) or the presence of other significant risk factors affecting BMI in Black youth, such as poverty, limited food access, food culture, and food deserts. Future research should explore processes of habituation, inoculation, or even sensitization to stress among Black populations, who are often exposed to a wide range of stressors throughout the life course.

<b>Background:</b> Minorities’ Diminished Returns (MDRs) theory posits that socioeconomic resources have weaker protective effects on health and behavior for racial and ethnic minorities compared to Whites. This study examines whether tobacco susceptibility, defined as curiosity, intention, and openness to future tobacco use, mediates the diminished returns of family income on tobacco initiation among Black adolescents. <b>Methods</b><b>: </b>Data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study were analyzed. Participants were followed from age 9 to 16. All participants were tobacco naïve at baseline.<b> </b>Tobacco susceptibility was assessed through self-reported measures of curiosity, intention, and openness to future tobacco use. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to examine the relationship between family income, tobacco susceptibility, and tobacco initiation. <b>Results</b><b>: </b>Overall,<b> </b>10,653 Black or White youth entered our analysis.<b> </b>The analysis revealed that higher family income was less effective in preventing tobacco initiation among Black adolescents. Tobacco susceptibility significantly predicted tobacco initiation and partially mediated the relationship between family income and tobacco initiation. <b>Conclusions</b><b>: </b>Tobacco susceptibility explains some of the diminished returns of family income on tobacco initiation among Black adolescents. Interventions aimed at reducing tobacco susceptibility may enhance the protective effects of family income and help mitigate health disparities.