Ethnic, racial, and structural inequalities, which may lead to individual experiences of acculturative stress and discrimination, are increasingly recognized as contributors to health, and these experiences may affect pregnant individuals and their developing offspring. For example, acculturative stress and discrimination can have deleterious effects on pregnant individuals’ mental well-being and is associated with depression and anxiety. This study characterized acculturation and discrimination stressors during pregnancy in a sample of predominantly Hispanic adolescents and the associations of these stressors with their offspring’s neonatal functional connectivity and birth outcomes.

A sample of 165 nulliparous predominantly Hispanic pregnant women, aged 14 to 19 years, were recruited through obstetrics and gynecology departments at two different hospitals. Participants completed three self-report measures on acculturation and discrimination during the 2^nd or 3^rd trimester: 1) the Acculturation, Habits, and Interests Multicultural Scale for Adolescents (AHIMSA), 2) the Short Acculturation Scale for Hispanics (SASH), and 3) the Experiences of Discrimination Scale (EOD). They also completed measures on maternal distress. A data-driven clustering of acculturation, discrimination, perceived stress, depressive symptoms, trauma, and sociodemographic variables during pregnancy were performed to determine whether acculturation clustered with other types of factors. Birth outcomes (gestational age and Apgar scores) for offspring were obtained from medical records. Infant MRIs occurred within the first five weeks of life to assess whole-brain seed connectivity from the right and left amygdala combined into a single seed. The time course of a reference region was computed as average time course across all voxels in the region, and this was correlated with time course for every other voxel in the gray matter to create a map reflecting seed-to-whole-brain connectivity. These r-values are transformed to z-values yielding a map for each seed, representing the strength of correlation with the seed for each participant.

Acculturation styles loaded onto separate factors from discrimination, perceived stress, depressive symptoms, trauma, and socioeconomic status. An optimal model of factors including only the AHIMSA and SASH led to the following three factors: assimilation-separation, assimilation-integration, and marginalized. Higher maternal report of assimilation-separation was associated with weaker connectivity between the amygdala and bilateral fusiform gyrus of their neonate. Infants whose mothers endorsed discrimination during pregnancy had weaker connectivity between the amygdala and prefrontal cortices (medial and anterior), and stronger connectivity between the amygdala and the left fusiform gyrus. Acculturation factors and discrimination experience during pregnancy were not associated with offspring birth outcomes after correcting for multiple comparisons.

Our findings suggest that maternal prenatal acculturative stress and discrimination may be additional stressors associated with neonatal functional connectivity of the amygdala. This is intriguing, as previous literature demonstrates an association between the fusiform and ethnic or racial processing in adults. Cautiously, results may suggest a similarity to studies with adults, noting that experience of acculturation or discrimination may have a possible effect on amygdala circuitry across generations. Further studies with a more diverse population of minoritized individuals and that use comprehensive assessment of ethnic, racial, and structural stressors are needed.