Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comparative Study
. 2011 Aug;42(1):14-28.
doi: 10.1007/s12160-011-9265-1.

Dimensions of perceived racism and self-reported health: examination of racial/ethnic differences and potential mediators

Elizabeth Brondolo  1 , Leslie R M Hausmann, Juhee Jhalani, Melissa Pencille, Jennifer Atencio-Bacayon, Asha Kumar, Jasmin Kwok, Jahanara Ullah, Alan Roth, Daniel Chen, Robert Crupi, Joseph Schwartz
Affiliations
Comparative Study

Dimensions of perceived racism and self-reported health: examination of racial/ethnic differences and potential mediators

Elizabeth Brondolo et al. Ann Behav Med. 2011 Aug.

Abstract

Background: Many details of the negative relationship between perceived racial/ethnic discrimination and health are poorly understood.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine racial/ethnic differences in the relationship between perceived discrimination and self-reported health, identify dimensions of discrimination that drive this relationship, and explore psychological mediators.

Methods: Asian, Black, and Latino(a) adults (N=734) completed measures of perceived racial/ethnic discrimination, self-reported health, depression, anxiety, and cynical hostility.

Results: The association between perceived discrimination and poor self-reported health was significant and did not differ across racial/ethnic subgroups. Race-related social exclusion and threat/harassment uniquely contributed to poor health for all groups. Depression, anxiety, and cynical hostility fully mediated the effect of social exclusion on health, but did not fully explain the effect of threat.

Conclusions: Our results suggest that noxious effects of race-related exclusion and threat transcend between-group differences in discriminatory experiences. The effects of race-related exclusion and threat on health, however, may operate through different mechanisms.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Statement The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Model testing depression, anxiety, and cynical hostility as multiple mediators of the association between lifetime exposure to discrimination and self-reported health. The numbers provided for each path are regression coefficients and standard errors (SE) derived from a bootstrap procedure. C represents the total effect of lifetime exposure to discrimination on self-reported health. C' represents the direct effect of lifetime exposure to discrimination on self-reported health after accounting for the effects of the mediators. All paths are significant at p<0.001, except C' which is non-significant (ns)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Model testing depression, anxiety, and cynical hostility as multiple mediators of the association between the social exclusion dimension of discrimination and self-reported health. The numbers provided for each path are regression coefficients and standard errors (SE) derived from a bootstrap procedure. C represents the total effect of exclusion on self-reported health. C' represents the direct effect of exclusion on self-reported health after accounting for the effects of the mediators. All paths are significant at p<0.001, except C' which is non-significant (ns)
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Model testing depression, anxiety, and cynical hostility as multiple mediators of the association between threat/harassment dimension of discrimination and self-reported health. The numbers provided for each path are regression coefficients and standard errors (SE) derived from a bootstrap procedure. C represents the total effect of threat/harassment on self-reported health. C' represents the direct effect of threat/harassment on self-reported health after accounting for the effects of the mediators. All paths are significant at p<0.001
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Contrada RJ, Ashmore RD, Gary ML, et al. Ethnicity-related sources of stress and their effects on well-being. Current Directions in Psychological Science. 2000;9:136–139.
    1. Contrada RJ, Ashmore RD, Gary ML, et al. Measures of ethnicity-related stress: Psychometric properties, ethnic group differences, and associations with well-being. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. 2001;31:1775–1820.
    1. Clark R, Anderson NB, Clark VR, Williams DR. Racism as a stressor for African Americans: A biopsychosocial model. American Psychologist. 1999;54:805–816. - PubMed
    1. Paradies Y. A systematic review of empirical research on self-reported racism and health. International Journal of Epidemiology. 2006;35:888–901. - PubMed
    1. Mays VM, Cochran SD, Barnes NW. Race, race-based discrimination, and health outcomes among African Americans. Annu Rev Psychol. 2007;58:201–225. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types