When fifth year clinical psychology Ph.D. student Kelly Garrett first moved to Southeast D.C. from the suburbs, she wondered how the crime and poverty of a neighborhood could impact mental health.  

“During my time there I saw some crime, some violence, and while I was living there it really got me interested in this: if people are seeing these things on a daily basis, how does that impact their mental health?” This question led her to the topic of her research— the effect of neighborhood disorder on mental health.  

“Neighborhood disorder refers to the physical and social aspects of a neighborhood, things like crime, violence, dilapidated buildings,” she explained. “So, I’m trying to see how that relates to mental health outcomes; if they’re going to develop more anxiety, more depression, more PTSD because of those things they’re seeing in their neighborhood.”  

To study this relationship, Garrett focused on “Black emerging adults” — that is, adults between the ages of 18 and 29. She was drawn to this population in particular because of how pivotal a time it is in people’s lives, as they begin to face adult pressures like navigating school, housing, and careers, which are all situations that living in a stressful neighborhood could further complicate.  

Garrett hypothesized that Black emerging adults that perceive higher neighborhood disorder will also report higher rates of depression, anxiety, and PTSD symptoms. Further, she hypothesized that factors such as social support and self-efficacy and collective efficacy — the ability for an individual or a community to achieve their own goals and actively intervene in their own issues — could buffer these negative symptoms.  

To test this, Garrett collected data from over 200 young Black adults, many of whom were Howard students, and 80% of whom were female. The participants took part in multiple self-report scales covering perceived neighborhood disorder, their mental health, and the potential “buffers.” Analyzing the results, however, Garrett was surprised.  

First, the data did not show as strong a correlation between neighborhood disorder and levels of depression, anxiety, or PTSD as previous studies. Self-efficacy and collective efficacy also did not seem to have a major impact on either neighborhood disorder or stress. Finally, and most fascinating of all, she found that rather than having a mitigating effect, people who reported high neighborhood disorder and higher levels of depression and anxiety also reported relatively high social support.  

“That was something that was really interesting,” she said. “So, for me it was, ‘okay, what do I think about that?’ Even in the midst of social support, these people are still struggling in their environments.”  

Presenting at Howard’s annual Research Symposium, Garrett discussed both the limitations of the study and the ways she’d like to expand her research in the future. As many of the participants were living in dorms, she’d like to bring in participants who are closer to their late 20s, who are more likely to have stronger connections to their neighborhoods. She’s also looking into improving the level of detail, moving from online surveys to in-person interviews and getting into specifics about how people experience their social support. “Social support looks different for so many people, right? We see social support may not make a situation better, but what types of social support are you actually leaning on, and what else can we really do here?”  

For Garrett, these results bring on more questions about both personal mental health and public health, and could have implications for the ways we currently treat both. 

“I’m in clinical psychology, so as I think about that from an intervention perspective, I really want to figure out, if you do have social support, maybe there’s other things that we need to address here.” Talking about the potential impacts of her work, Garrett went back to her therapy work, which also focuses on emerging adults, and other avenues for treatment beyond social support. “Maybe they do have a great community, but what are the thoughts going through their heads? Because they could say ‘I have a community around me, but I still feel alone.’ So, what are the processes in their mind that we’re not thinking about that can be addressed in therapy?”