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Updated: Aug 5, 2026

Collecting Hair Samples for Hair Cortisol Analysis in African Americans
Published on: June 10, 2018
Ethnic-racial socialization and ethnic minority youth's hair cortisol concentration
Hanna Forrest1,2, Grace Salloum3, Allison West4
1Department of Applied Human Sciences, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, Kentucky, USA.
Abstract:
Despite the plethora of evidence on the association of parental ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) and ethnic minority youth's mental health, the physiological stress-response mechanism that may explain such link has been rarely studied. In the current study, we investigated the relations between parental ERS and youth's chronic physiological stress, indexed by hair cortisol concentrations (HCC). Forty-eight Black and 38 Latino youth (Mage = 12.18 years, SD = 1.50) in the United States and their parents participated in the study. Parents reported ERS in terms of enculturation and preparation for bias. Youth's hair samples were collected and analysed for HCC. Results revealed that parental enculturation was significantly associated with lower levels of HCC. The importance of parental ERS in relation to ethnic minority youth's stress physiology is discussed.
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