The social context of educational effort – implications for psychological and physiological health in adolescence

Individual educational effort usually promotes educational success and attainment, and generally has long-lasting positive consequences. However, there is important heterogeneity in this relationship due in part to constraints on the efficacy of individual effort presented by structural disadvantage, racism, and ethnocentrism. Using longitudinal data from the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (n = 1670, age 0–17, male and female), we investigate the relationship between educational effort and mental (depressive symptoms) and physical (accelerated epigenetic aging) health. Drawing from scholarship on intersectionality, John Henryism, and skin-deep resilience, we investigate whether the associations are moderated by socioeconomic disadvantage, and test for differences by race and ethnicity (White, Black, and Hispanic). We find that educational effort is consistently protective for depressive symptoms but predicts accelerated epigenetic aging among Hispanic adolescents from low socioeconomic circumstances.