# Risk and protective factors associated with the development of depression and allostatic load in young adults of Mexican origin.

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS · 2024 · $269,567

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
 People of Latin American origin are projected to comprise over 28% of the United States (U.S.) population
by 2060 and close to 70% of the Latino population is comprised of people of Mexican origin. Racial and ethnic
minorities in the U.S., including people of Mexican origin, face higher rates of perceived discrimination and
economic hardship. Prior research suggests that exposure to these forms of adversity leads to both higher risk
for depression as well as increased allostatic load, or physical wear-and-tear on the body. In contrast, some
research in African American samples suggests that ‘resilience,’ or resistance to developing mental health
problems under conditions of adversity, may incur a cost of increased allostatic load during young adulthood. It
is plausible that this mechanism may also occur for Mexican-origin individuals. This indicates a critical need to
examine allostatic load in addition to depression symptoms to test whether some individuals who may appear
‘resilient’ in terms of low depression symptoms exhibit increased allostatic load in young adulthood. The current
proposal aims to establish the association between adversity in adolescence and depression symptoms and
allostatic load in young adulthood for those of Mexican origin, identify neural mechanisms mediating these
associations, and discover protective factors that can mitigate these processes of risk. In this study, the research
team proposes to collect a new wave of longitudinal data in the California Families Project (CFP), a longitudinal
study that has followed 674 Mexican-origin youth and their families since youth were 10 years old. The study will
capitalize on previous waves of longitudinal data collected in the CFP, including multi-informant assessments
collected annually from age 10 to 21 and functional MRI data collected when youth were 16 and 19 years old.
For this R01, the research team proposes to add a new wave of data collection (age 25 years) to assess allostatic
load, current depression symptoms, and self-report of potential protective factors. The research team will test
the following specific aims: 1) Examine the association between economic hardship and perceived discrimination
experienced during adolescence and depression symptoms and allostatic load in young adulthood. 2) Identify
the neural mechanisms through which specific forms of adversity predict depression symptoms and allostatic
load in young adulthood. 3) Examine how ethnic identity, familism, parent-child relationship quality, self-esteem,
active coping, optimism, and religiosity moderate associations between adversity, neural activity, depression
symptoms, and allostatic load. This research will determine how adolescent adversity predicts depression and
allostatic load in Mexican-origin young adults, identify neural mechanisms of risk that could be targeted in
interventions, and identify protective factors that can mitigate depression risk that could be targeted ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10866569
- **Project number:** 5R01MH123530-04
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT DAVIS
- **Principal Investigator:** RICHARD W ROBINS
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $269,567
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-07-15 → 2026-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10866569

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10866569, Risk and protective factors associated with the development of depression and allostatic load in young adults of Mexican origin. (5R01MH123530-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10866569. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*