Black youth experience PTSD, suicidal thoughts from online discrimination
Online discrimination can harm the mental health of Black youth and increase their risk of suicidal thoughts, new research shows.
When Black adolescents are exposed to racism on the web, they can develop post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, such as difficulty concentrating, avoidance and sleep problems. Those symptoms in turn can increase their risks of suicidal thoughts, such as thinking about suicide or having a desire to kill themselves, according to the study, which was published Jan. 3 in JAMA Psychiatry.
Study participants were asked whether they experienced racial discrimination while online — including symbols, video, images and text — and assessed for mental health stress and suicidal thoughts. Previous research has found that Black adolescents experience racial discrimination about five times each day. Most of those occurrences happen online, where U.S. teens are estimated to spend nine hours daily.
While a direct association between online racial discrimination and suicidal thoughts was not found in the new study, a link between online discrimination, resulting PTSD symptoms and suicidal thoughts was.
In August, Johns Hopkins University reported that compared to their peers, Black youth have the fastest growing suicide rate, increasing 144% from 2007 to 2020.
Increases in SNAP benefits lowered food insecurity
Fewer poorer Americans were food insecure in 2021, thanks to emergency benefits from the federal government, a new study finds. But since that expansion ended, challenges have been increasing.
The new research, published Jan. 1 in the Annals of Internal Medicine, found that food insecurity among low-income adults dropped 5% during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, which was declared a U.S. emergency in March 2020.
Despite worsening unemployment and economic loss, food insecurity decreased overall in America from 20.6% in 2019 to 15.5% in 2021, the study showed. For low-income SNAP users, food insecurity fell from 34.6% in 2019 to 21.6% in 2021.
The improvements coincided with federal measures aimed at easing the health and economic impact of the pandemic. In March 2020, Congress authorized emergency benefit increases for low-income people participating in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as “food stamps.” Then in April 2021, the U.S. Department of Agriculture further boosted benefits for families with very low incomes, many of whom were struggling with the economic downturns of the pandemic.
SNAP participation also grew in 2021, with 12.5% of the U.S. population enrolled in the program, according to USDA. Overall U.S. food insecurity rates fell to pre-pandemic levels in 2022, but were still lower among adult SNAP users, the new study said.
As the nation approached the end to the national pandemic emergency in 2023, SNAP payments returned to their regular levels. An August study from researchers at the University of Pennsylvania linked that change to a 21% increase in food insufficiency, affecting more than 2 million households.
Food insecurity is more than just being hungry or lacking food. USDA defines people who are insecure as those who have a lower quality, variety and desirability of diet, with or without hunger or reduced food intake.
Kids often at home when unintentionally shot and killed
More than half of kids who are unintentionally killed by guns are shot at home, where firearms are often left loaded and unlocked, a recent study finds.
About 1,260 children died unintentionally by firearms from 2003-2021, according to the study, which was published in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Eighty-five percent of victims were shot in a house or apartment, including 56% in their own homes.
Before they were shot, the children were most commonly playing with or showing a gun to another person, according to study researchers, who were with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Michigan Public Health Institute. In nearly 11% of the incidents, the gun was mistaken for a toy.
While public health and safety officials call for firearms to be securely stored away from ammunition, only about a third follow that advice. In 76% of the deaths, the firearm was unlocked and 74% of the time it was loaded. Unsecured guns were commonly kept in nightstands or other sleeping areas. In more than 60% of the shootings, the gun was owned by a parent or another family member.
The majority of the children who died were middle school age or older, but very young children were not safe from harm. A third of the children were ages 5 and under — and they were most likely to mistake guns for toys.
About 4.6 million children are estimated to live in U.S. homes where firearms are stored loaded and unlocked. If half of households with kids switched from unlocked to locked storage, as many as 260 youth deaths could be prevented annually, previous research finds.
Coastal flooding threatens vulnerable populations
Disadvantaged people will suffer most as climate change raises sea levels in U.S. coastal communities, according to recent research.
Rising temperatures from climate change are causing sea levels to surge in many parts of the world, resulting in damage, death and in some cases, population displacement. About 20 million residents in coastal areas of the U.S. are estimated to be impacted by rising sea levels by 2030, but not everyone will be affected equally, the new study finds.
When coastal sea levels rise above 4 feet, disadvantaged residents — who include people of color, renters and older adults — will be disproportionately at risk for isolation, said the research, which was published in Nature Communications. As roads, communications and essential services are cut off by flooding, the health and lives of those who are least likely to be able to adapt will increasingly be at risk.
Study researchers compared community demographic data with high-water scenarios developed by the U.S. National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration, finding that Hispanic populations are at disproportionate risk of isolation beginning at 4 feet of sea level rise, and Black populations are overrepresented at 6 feet. White populations are underrepresented after sea level rises 5 feet.
Hispanic populations would be disproportionately affected throughout U.S. coastal areas, but especially in Northern California, Louisiana and the Northeast, the study said. Black coastal residents would be disproportionately affected mainly in California and the Northeast.
While coastal flooding has long been an issue in many low-lying areas of the U.S., such as Florida, more regions have been experiencing sea level rise in recent years. States on the East and Gulf coasts in particular have experienced more coastal flooding over the past 70 years, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, with floods five times more common in some areas.
The Watch is written by Michele Late, who has more than two decades of experience as a public-health journalist.
