scholarly journals Deaths, Disparities, and Cumulative (Dis)Advantage: How Social Inequities Produce an Impairment Paradox in Later Life

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heide Jackson ◽  
Michal Engelman
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Multinomial Logistic Regression ◽  
Functional Limitations ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Functional Health ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Gender Groups ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background Research on health across the life course consistently documents widening racial and socioeconomic disparities from childhood through adulthood, followed by stabilization or convergence in later life. This pattern appears to contradict expectations set by cumulative (dis)advantage (CAD) theory. Informed by the punctuated equilibrium perspective, we examine the relationship between midlife health and subsequent health change and mortality and consider the impact of earlier socioeconomic exposures on observed disparities. Methods Using the Health and Retirement Study, we characterize the functional impairment histories of a nationally-representative sample of 8,464 older adults between 1994-2016. We employ non-parametric and discrete outcome multinomial logistic regression to examine the competing risks of mortality, health change, and attrition. Results Exposures to disadvantages are associated with poorer functional health in midlife and mortality. However, a higher number of functional limitations in midlife is negatively associated with the accumulation of subsequent limitations for white men and women and for Black women. The impact of educational attainment, occupation, wealth, and marriage on later life health differs across race and gender groups. Conclusions Observed stability or convergence in later-life functional health disparities is not a departure from the dynamics posited by CAD, but rather a result of the differential impact of racial and socioeconomic inequities on mortality and health at older ages. Higher exposure to disadvantages and a lower protective impact of advantageous exposures lead to higher mortality among Black Americans, a pattern which masks persistent health inequities later in life.

scholarly journals Child’s Developmental Disabilities and Parental Health in Later Life: Do Parental Race and Gender Matter?

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 312-313
Author(s):  
Juha Lee ◽  
Manjing Gao ◽  
Chioun Lee
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Developmental Disabilities ◽  
Adverse Effects ◽  
Early Life ◽  
The United States ◽  
Parental Health ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Gender Groups ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Parents, particularly mothers, who experienced early life adversities (ELAs) are more likely to have a child with developmental disabilities (DD). We have little knowledge about how parental health varies across race-gender groups among those with a DD child and the role of ELAs in the associations. Using Black and White adults (n = 8,778; 25% Blacks) from the Midlife in the United States (MIDUS) study, we examine racial disparities in the impact of having a child with DD (vs. having healthy children) on parental health outcomes. This study questions (1) the extent to which parents’ ELAs (e.g., poverty and abuse) are associated with having a child with DD and (2) how considering early-life factors reveals racial and gender disparities in the impact of having a child with DD. We found that as the number of ELAs increases, the probability of having a healthy child decreases for all race-gender groups, but most dramatically for Black women. Having a DD has adverse effects on chronic illnesses and functional limitations more for mothers than fathers. Black women are most adversely affected, with no effect on Black men. There is no gender difference in the impact of having a DD child on depressive symptoms, yet White parents are more vulnerable than Black parents. After controlling for ELAs, the adverse effects of having a DD child on both physical and mental health remain significant. Future research should identify life-course circumstances that reveal why the impact of having a DD child varies by race and gender.

scholarly journals Structural Gendered Racism Revealed in Pandemic Times: Intersectional Approaches to Understanding Race and Gender Health Inequities in COVID-19

2021 ◽  
pp. 089124322110013
Author(s):  
Whitney N. Laster Pirtle ◽  
Tashelle Wright
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Women Of Color ◽  
Structural Racism ◽  
Gendered Racism ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Root Cause ◽  
The Veil ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
The Impact

The pandemic reveals; the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has brought the historically rooted inequities of our society to the forefront. We argue that an intersectional analysis is needed to further help peel back the veil that the pandemic has begun to reveal. We identify structural gendered racism—the totality of interconnectedness between structural racism and structural sexism in shaping race and gender inequities—as a root cause of health problems among Black women and other women of color, which has been amplified during the pandemic. We show that women of color occupy disadvantaged positions within households, occupations, and health care institutions, and therefore face heightened risk for COVID-19 and lowered resources for mitigating the impact of the deadly virus. Intersectional analyses and solutions must be centered to also reveal, we hope, a new way forward.

RING THE ALARM

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Jelisa S. Clark
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
Black Girls ◽  
Black Boys ◽  
Exclusionary Discipline ◽  
School To Prison Pipeline ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Discipline Policies ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Impact

Abstract In this research, I use theories of framing and social construction to investigate how race and gender are featured in national news coverage of the school-to-prison pipeline, and how policies and practices funnel students from school to the criminal justice system. Results indicate that there are three primary narratives surrounding the school-to-prison pipeline. The first is a narrative that harsh disciplinary practices in schools are irrational and negatively impact all students. The second narrative crafts the school-to-prison pipeline as a social problem for all Black students irrespective of gender. The final narrative emphasizes the impact of exclusionary discipline on Black boys. Each of these narratives functions to erase the experiences of Black girls. Ultimately, I argue that we need to take a more intersectional approach to school discipline policies and take into account how Black women and girls are situated within popular and policy discussions.

Race, Gender, and National Identity in the American and British Telephone Industries

2001 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-205 ◽  
Author(s):  
Venus Green
Keyword(s):  
National Identity ◽  
Black Women ◽  
White Women ◽  
The United States ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Gender Constructions ◽  
Telephone Operators ◽  
Telephone Industry ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Impact

This article compares the racially heterogeneous, privately-owned American telephone industry, and the relatively homogeneous, publicly-owned British system, to examine how race and gender constructions implicit in the national identities of the two countries influence employment opportunities. For all the differences in the histories of the two telephone industries and variations in the construction of racial, national, and gender identities, blacks in the United States and Britain had remarkably similar experiences in obtaining employment as telephone operators. This leads to the conclusion that the power of national identity in the workplace is strongly based on “whiteness”. Despite their limited access to national identity, white women experienced advantages that were denied to black women, which illustrates how race modified the impact of gender on the privileges of national identity.

Mothers’ Functional Limitations and Relationship Quality With Adult Children: Exploring the Moderating Roles of Race and Gender

2021 ◽  
pp. 016402752110448
Author(s):  
Catherine Stepniak ◽  
J. Jill Suitor ◽  
Megan Gilligan
Keyword(s):  
Relationship Quality ◽  
Adult Children ◽  
Functional Limitations ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
White Families ◽  
Child Relationship ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Mother Child Relationship

Theory and research on intergenerational relations emphasize the salient role that mothers and their adult children play in one another’s lives. However, little is known about how mothers’ health may shape mother–child relationship quality in later-life. We utilized data from the Within Family Differences Study to explore how mothers’ functional limitations affect multiple dimensions of mother–child relationship quality, as reported by mothers and their offspring, with particular emphasis on whether race, child’s gender, or generational position moderated these associations. Although mothers’ reports of relationship quality were not predicted by their functional limitations, adult children reported higher ambivalence when they perceived their mothers had limitations. Further, adult children in White families reported higher ambivalence when mothers had limitations than did those in Black families. This study highlights the importance of considering the roles of structural factors in shaping the conditions under which health limitations affect mother–child ties.

Discrimination in the Payment of Full-Time Wage Premiums

ILR Review ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan L. Averett ◽  
Julie L. Hotchkiss
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
White Women ◽  
Wage Premium ◽  
Full Time ◽  
Current Population Survey Data ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
Wage Premiums ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Gender Groups ◽  
To Receive

This study investigates how many hours must be worked per week in order for workers in different race and gender groups to receive a high-hours (full-time) wage premium. An analysis of 1989 Current Population Survey data shows that across occupations, both white and black men received a full-time wage premium for working at least 33 hours per week, whereas white women had to work at least 37 hours and black women at least 39 hours to receive the premium. Controlling for occupation changes the threshold for black women to 33 hours, but does not change the results for the other groups. The authors find that the observed differences account for, at most, two percentage points of the wage differentials across race and gender.

scholarly journals Inter-Individual Variability in Trajectories of Functional Limitations by Race/Gender

2019 ◽  
Vol 75 (5) ◽  
pp. 1082-1092
Author(s):  
Jielu Lin
Keyword(s):  
Black Women ◽  
Life Course ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Black Men ◽  
White Women ◽  
Interindividual Variability ◽  
Functional Limitations ◽  
White Men ◽  
Race And Gender ◽  
And Gender

Abstract Objective Several theories emphasize that systematic interindividual divergence is a key feature of cohort aging and evidence for accumulative social inequality over the life course. While many have documented widening health gaps with age between subgroups, such divergence is only one aspect of the broader social inequality based on race and gender. This article examines patterns of interindividual variability in trajectories of functional limitations within each race/gender. Methods Using data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS)’s HRS cohort (born 1931–1941), I estimate growth curves of functional limitations with Level 2 heteroscedasticity, allowing interindividual variability to differ across 4 groups: white men, black men, white women, and black women. I examine race/gender differences in the age-based pattern of interindividual variability using an interquartile range of estimated individual trajectories. Results Black men, white women, and black women have greater interindividual variability in functional limitations than do white men. Interindividual variability increases systematically with age at similar rates for all groups but black women. Discussion Functional limitations become more heterogeneous with age for the entire cohort and for white men, white women, and black men. Future research should identify life-course processes that generate the race and gender patterning of interindividual variability in late-life health.

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