Police contact and health among urban adolescents: The role of perceived injustice. (October 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: McFarland, Michael J.; Geller, Amanda; McFarland, Cheryl
• Is Part Of: Social science & medicine. Volume 238(2019)
• Publication Date: 2019-10
• Subjects: Social determinants of health -- Police -- Urban -- Adolescents -- Stress -- Race -- Procedural justice police contact and health among urban adolescents; Social medicine -- Periodicals; Medical anthropology -- Periodicals; Public health -- Periodicals; Psychology -- Periodicals; Medicine -- Periodicals; Medicine -- Periodicals; Médecine sociale -- Périodiques; Anthropologie médicale -- Périodiques; Santé publique -- Périodiques; Psychologie -- Périodiques; Médecine -- Périodiques; Electronic journals; 362.105
• DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.112487
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0277-9536

Abstract

Abstract: This research evaluates whether personal and vicarious police contact are related to self and caregiver-reports of teen health and to what extent these associations vary by perceptions of procedural injustice. We analyzed longitudinal health data collected from adolescents in the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (N = 3435), alongside teen self-reports of whether they were stopped by the police or experienced vicarious police contact, and if so, their perceptions of procedural injustice in these encounters. We estimated regression models with lagged dependent variables and a propensity score weighting approach. Our analysis yielded four important results. First, participants who reported personal or vicarious police stops had worse self-reported health in adolescence than their counterparts with no contact. Second, both types of police contact were unrelated to caregiver reports of adolescent health and inconsistently related to somatic symptoms. Third, procedural injustice exacerbated the relationship between both personal and vicarious contact and diminished self-reported health. Finally, the associations between police contact and self-reported health were stronger among black and Hispanic adolescents than white ones. Our results highlight personal and vicarious police contact, particularly instances viewed as procedurally unjust, as commonly experienced adverse health events among urban adolescents. Highlights: Personal and vicarious police contact may be detrimental to health Those reporting contact had worse self-reported health than others This relationship was exacerbated by those reporting higher levels of procedural injustice The association between contact and self-reported health was stronger among racial minorities Findings were inconsistent across health outcome