Pathways underlying differences in health between White and Black Americans: exploring the role of racial discrimination
Date
2019
Authors
Marin, Josephine, author
Luong, Gloria, advisor
Zimmerman, Toni, committee member
Choi, Eunhee, committee member
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Abstract
This study explored the association between experiencing racial discrimination and poor health outcomes between White and Black Americans. Secondary data from wave 11 of HRS (N = 17,085) were used to test the research questions of whether the experience of racial discrimination mediates the relationship between race and poor health, and whether this association differs for Whites and Blacks. Much of the previous literature has focused on understanding how race differences in health may be explained by racial discrimination experiences, and the current study built on this work by testing the extent to which group differences in health between White and Black Americans may be explained (i.e., mediated) by different types of racial discrimination experiences: less severe everyday experiences vs. major racial discrimination. Moreover, much less is known regarding how racial discrimination experiences may be differentially linked to health outcomes for Whites compared to Blacks. To test these questions, self-reported and objective measures of health were used along with the Major Experiences of Lifetime Discrimination and Perceived Everyday Discrimination scales. Results indicated that experiences with major discrimination significantly accounted for differences in self-rated health and number of health conditions for Blacks. Further, for Blacks experiences with both types of discrimination were related to poorer health for total number of chronic health conditions and systolic and diastolic blood pressure, whereas for Whites experiences with either type of discrimination were associated with improvements in health in self-rated health and total number of chronic health conditions.