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Social Status, Discrimination, and Minority Individuals’ Mental Health: a Secondary Analysis of US National Surveys

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Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objectives

Our study measured minority individuals’ social status factors and frequency of discrimination experiences, in order to delineate social mechanisms linking race/ethnicity to mental status (specifically, to current mood/anxiety disorder and self-rated mental health).

Methods

In this nationally representative secondary research, our data analyses drew on the cross-sectional “Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys,” dating 2001–2003. The sample for the final model numbered 9368 respondents (2016 Asians, 2676 Latinos, 4676 blacks).

Results

Across races/ethnicities, better mental health was associated with male gender, higher income, marriage, more education, and less-frequent discrimination experiences; discrimination experiences could impair health, especially among blacks. Marriage’s strong contribution to Asians’ mental health did not hold among blacks; education’s contribution to Latinos’ mental health did not hold among blacks either. Blacks’ mental health was unaffected by immigration status, but Asian and Latino immigrants showed less-robust mental health than native-born counterparts.

Conclusions

Across the three racial/ethnic groups studied, differences were noted in relationships between self-reported mental health status and the employed social status and discrimination factors.

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Correspondence to Celia C. Lo.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Lo, C.C., Cheng, T.C. Social Status, Discrimination, and Minority Individuals’ Mental Health: a Secondary Analysis of US National Surveys. J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities 5, 485–494 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-017-0390-9

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