Procedure
Participants were recruited from the community through various forms of
advertisements (e.g., television, bus ads, flyers, and newspapers). Upon
arrival to the laboratory, parents provided consent and children
provided assent. Following this, children completed the morphed face
task and parents completed questionnaires including a report of their
current address. All study procedures were approved by the university’s
Institutional Review Board.
Results
Preliminary analyses revealed that children from racial/ethnic minority
groups lived in areas with greater crime risk (M = 93.54,SD = 28.62) than their non-Hispanic White peers (M =
68.64, SD = 34.75), t (91) = 3.57, p <
.01, Cohen’s d = .79. This said, there was a clear range of crime risk
for minority children (58-143) and non-Hispanic White children (13-143).
To test our hypotheses regarding the link between neighborhood crime and
children’s LPP responses to emotional stimuli, and how this may be
moderated by children’s race/ethnicity, we used a repeated measures
general linear model with level of neighborhood crime and racial-ethnic
group (non-Hispanic White vs. racial-ethnic minority) as between
subjects factors and emotion (fearful, sad, happy) and morph level (low,
medium, high) as within subjects factors. In this analysis, there were
significant crime × emotion × morph, F (4, 384) = 5.03, p < .001, ηp2 = .05,
and racial/ethnic group × emotion × morph, F (4, 384) = 4.66,p = .001, ηp2 = .05,
interactions. Importantly, the crime × racial/ethnic group × emotion ×
morph interaction was also significant, F (4, 384) = 3.70,p = .006, ηp2 = .04.
To determine the form of this interaction, we examined the crime ×
emotion × morph interaction separately in minority and non-Hispanic
White children. In these analyses, the crime × emotion × morph
interaction was significant for racial/ethnic minority children,F (4, 132) = 4.89, p = .001,ηp2 = .13, but not for
non-Hispanic White children, F (4, 252) = 1.36, p = .25,ηp2 = .02. Examining this
further in children from racial/ethnic minority groups, the crime ×
emotion interaction was significant for fearful faces, F (2, 66) =
6.99, p = .002, ηp2 =
.18, but not for happy, F (2, 66) = 2.66, p = .08,ηp2 = .08, or sad, F(2, 66) =
0.73, p = .48, ηp2 =
.02, faces. As a final step, we examined the correlation between
neighborhood crime and LPP amplitude to fearful faces at each morph
level in racial/ethnic minority children. Higher levels of neighborhood
crime were associated with greater LPP amplitude for fearful faces at
high, r = .36, p = .03, but not medium, r = -.14,p = .42, or low, r = -.26, p = .13, morph levels.
Although all analyses were based on continuous levels of neighborhood
crime risk, we used a median split to provide a visual depiction of
these results (see Figure 1).
To evaluate the robustness of these results, we conducted follow-up
partial correlation analyses to determine whether the relation between
higher levels of neighborhood crime risk and greater LPP responses to
fearful faces among racial/ethnic minority children was maintained after
statistically controlling for the influence of children’s family income
and their current symptoms of anxiety and depression. In call cases, the
significant relation was maintained (all p s < .05).
Conclusions
The goal of this study was to examine the link between census-derived
indices of neighborhood crime risk and children’s neural reactivity to
threat-relevant stimuli, and whether this link may be stronger among
children from racial/ethnic minority backgrounds. We found that levels
of higher neighborhood crime risk were associated with larger LPP
amplitudes to threat-relevant images, but only among racial/ethnic
minority children and not among non-Hispanic White children. This
finding was specific to full intensity threat images and was not
observed at lower intensities. It was also specific to threat-relevant
images (fearful faces) and was not observed for non-threat negative
images (sad face) or positive images (happy faces). Therefore, in
addition to living in areas characterized by higher crime risk, children
from racial/ethnic minority groups were also more reactive to the
presence of higher crime risk in terms of their neural reactivity. This
suggests that levels of neighborhood crime risk may be more salient in
racial/ethnic minority children than for non-Hispanic White children.
Importantly, the relation between neighborhood crime risk and children’s
LPP reactivity to threat-relevant images was also maintained when we
statistically controlled for the influence of children’s family income
and current symptoms of depression and anxiety, suggesting that the
relation is at least partially independent of these other factors.
The current results build upon previous research showing that direct
experiences with crime and violence are associated with greater neural
reactivity to threat-relevant stimuli, which suggests that similar
patterns are observed as a function of simply living in an area
characterized by higher risk of crime (King et. al., 2022). For example,
previous research has shown that living in an area with higher crime
rates, regardless of whether the individual is a victim of crime
themselves, is associated with higher levels of externalizing problems
and anxiety symptoms (Hessel et. al., 2019; Jacobs et. al., 2019; Lowe
et. al., 2016; Ramey and Harrington, 2019). Research has also shown that
this risk differs across racial/ethnic groups such that racial/ethnic
minorities that resided in areas experiencing higher crime rates are at
particularly high risk for developing psychopathology (Andrews et. al.,
2019). The current results suggest that increased neural reactivity to
threat may be one mechanism by which living in an area characterized by
higher risk of crime increases risk for psychopathology among
racial/ethnic minority children. However, longitudinal studies are
needed to more formally test this mediational hypothesis.
Despite the strengths of this study, there were limitations as well,
which highlight important areas for future research. First, the current
study was cross sectional and longitudinal studies are needed to
determine if neighborhood characteristics contribute to increased neural
reactivity to threat-relevant stimuli over time. These longitudinal
studies should also examine the impact of moving into versus out of
higher-crime areas on children’s neural reactivity to threat, including
potential sensitive periods, given evidence from previous research that
moving out of high crime areas is associated with reductions in anxiety
and depression (King et. al., 2022). A second limitation is that
representation for individuals of different racial/ethnic minority
groups was limited, so we could not examine whether the link between
neighborhood crime risk and neural reactivity to threat is stronger for
some minority groups than others. Finally, additional research is needed
to understand the mechanisms underlying the link between neighborhood
crime risk and neural reactivity to threat among racial/ethnic minority
children. Although, on average, racial/ethnic minority families in this
sample tended to live in areas with higher crime rates than the
non-Hispanic White families, level of neighborhood crime risk also
appear to be more salient to children from minority backgrounds.
Although the specific mechanisms for this are not clear, it is possible
that children from racial/ethnic minority backgrounds have a greater
fear of being a victim themselves or may be more reactive to the
correlates of living in a higher crime area (e.g., increased police
presence). Future research is needed to explore these possibilities.
In summary, this study supports the link between neighborhood crime risk
and children’s increased neural reactivity to threat-relevant stimuli,
but only among racial/ethnic minority children and not non-Hispanic
White children. This increased neural reactivity to threat may be one
mechanism of risk for later psychopathology in these children. Future
research is needed to identify potential sensitivity periods for the
impact of neighborhood characteristics as well as the impact of moving
out of higher crime areas. Research is also needed to better understand
mediators and moderators of the link between neighborhood crime risk and
minority children’s neural reactivity to threat, which may highlight
additional targets of intervention to reduce risk for later
psychopathology in these children.