Relations Among Perceived Environmental Conditions, Stress Responsivity, and Reproductive Health in Hispanic Women

Abstract

The environmental contexts we inhabit and navigate throughout our lives significantly influence our behavior and health. Often, these influences lead to adverse health effects and disease, especially in the presence of harsh environmental conditions. The primary goals of this dissertation are to 1) find evidence of relations between childhood and current environmental conditions (subjective indicators of harshness) with stress responsivity and several reproductive health outcomes and 2) evidence that stress responsivity is a mediating factor between direct relations among environmental conditions and reproductive health outcomes. These relations are first investigated by constructing latent constructs to represent environmental conditions at different life stages, stress responsivity, and female reproductive health. Then, the latent constructs are structured in a hierarchical structural model based on prior theory to test the magnitude and direction of hypothesized relations among them. These relations are assessed among two samples: 1) a sample of female teachers from Mexico as part of the Mexican Teacher’s Cohort (MTC) and 2) a US sample comprised of Hispanic women living in the greater Reading, PA, and Tucson, AZ, areas. While still preliminary, within the MTC sample (Study 1), the manifest indicators did not load strongly onto designated constructs. The structural model also showed weak relations among latent constructs, suggesting no relation. Within the US sample (Study 2), many of the manifest indicators loaded significantly onto their designated latent constructs. The structural model strongly suggests that harsher environmental conditions in childhood directly relate to harsher environmental conditions in the self-reported current environment leading to elevated stress responsivity, and this, in turn, adversely affects reproductive health outcomes. It also strongly indicates that relations between environmental conditions and reproductive health are partially mediated by stress responsivity.