scholarly journals Psychiatric Disorders Among Older Black Americans: Within- and Between-Group Differences

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Joseph Taylor ◽  
Linda M Chatters
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
African American ◽  
Risk Factor ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Literature Review ◽  
Psychiatric Disorders ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
Black American ◽  
American Population ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Psychiatric disorders impose significant personal, social, and financial costs for individuals, families, and the nation. Despite a large amount of research and several journals focused on psychiatric conditions, there is a paucity of research on psychiatric disorders among Black Americans (i.e., African Americans and Black Caribbeans), particularly older Black Americans. The present literature review examines research on psychiatric disorders among older Black Americans and provides a broad overview of research findings that are based on nationally representative studies. Collectively, this research finds: (1) older African Americans have lower rates of psychiatric disorders than younger African Americans; (2) family support is not protective of psychiatric disorders, whereas negative interaction with family members is a risk factor; (3) everyday discrimination is a risk factor for psychiatric disorders; (4) both older African Americans and African American across the adult age range have lower prevalence rates of psychiatric disorders than non-Latino whites; (5) Black Caribbean men have particularly high rates of depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and suicide attempts; and (6) a significant proportion of African American older adults with mental health disorders do not receive professional help. This literature review also discusses the “Race Paradox” in mental health, the Environmental Affordances Model, and the importance of investigating ethnicity differences among Black Americans. Future research directions address issues that are directly relevant to the Black American population and include the following: (1) understanding the impact of mass incarceration on the psychiatric disorders of prisoners’ family members, (2) assessing the impact of immigration from African countries for ethnic diversity within the Black American population, (3) examining the impact of racial identity and racial socialization as potential protective factors for psychiatric morbidities, and (4) assessing racial diversity in life-course events and their impact on mental health.

The Impact of Housing Stressors on the Mental Health of a Low-Income African-American Population

2013 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodney D. Green ◽  
Marie Kouassi ◽  
Padma Venkatachalam ◽  
Johnnie Daniel
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
African American ◽  
Low Income ◽  
American Population ◽  
African American Population ◽  
The Impact

Emancipation and Free African Americans

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Archer
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
New England ◽  
Rhode Island ◽  
New Hampshire ◽  
Jim Crow ◽  
African Descent ◽  
American Population ◽  
African American Population ◽  
Free African Americans

Except in parts of Rhode Island and Connecticut, slavery was a peripheral institution, and throughout New England during and after the Revolution there was widespread support to emancipate slaves. Some of the states enacted emancipation laws that theoretically allowed slavery to continue almost indefinitely, and slavery remained on the books as late as 1857 in New Hampshire. Although the laws gradually abolished slavery and although the pace was painfully slow for those still enslaved, the predominant dynamic for New England society was the sudden emergence of a substantial, free African American population. What developed was an even more virulent racism and a Jim Crow environment. The last part of the chapter is an analysis of where African Americans lived as of 1830 and the connection between racism and concentrations of people of African descent.

African American men who become mental health advocates

2021 ◽  
pp. 002076402110127
Author(s):  
Sandra Yaklin ◽  
Miyong Kim ◽  
Jacklyn Hecht
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Intervention Program ◽  
African American Men ◽  
Working Relationships ◽  
Major Theme ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Tailored Messages ◽  
Promote Mental Health

Using a narrative approach, this study explored how African American men became mental health advocates. This ancillary study is part of a formative within an ongoing community based intervention program that was designed to promote mental health of African Americans (AMEN) project within an ongoing community based intervention program that was designed to promote mental health of African Americans (AMEN) project. Narrative research techniques were used to analyze and synthesize the data. Analysis generated one major theme (interdependence) with four supporting sub-themes (credibility, social depression, stigma, and calling). These findings and insights through this qualitative study guided the AMEN project team to formulate effective communication strategies in establishing working relationships with community partners and wider stakeholders as well as crafting culturally tailored messages for African American participants.

Post-Slavery? Post-Segregation? Post-Racial? A History of the Impact of Slavery, Segregation, and Racism on the Education of African Americans

2015 ◽  
Vol 117 (14) ◽  
pp. 53-74
Author(s):  
Christopher M. Span
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Educational Experiences ◽  
Source Analysis ◽  
Secondary Source ◽  
Archival Data ◽  
Historical Overview ◽  
Colonial Era ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact

This chapter details how slavery, segregation, and racism impacted the educational experiences of African Americans from the colonial era to the present. It offers a historical overview of the African American educational experience and uses archival data and secondary source analysis to illustrate that America has yet to be a truly post-slavery and post-segregation society, let alone a post-racial society.

Consequences of a match made in hell: the harm caused by menthol smoking to the African American population over 1980–2018

2021 ◽  
pp. tobaccocontrol-2021-056748 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Mendez ◽  
Thuy T T Le
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Smoking Initiation ◽  
African American Community ◽  
American Population ◽  
The Public ◽  
African American Population ◽  
Menthol Cigarettes ◽  
Life Years

BackgroundFor many years, national surveys have shown a consistently disproportionately high prevalence of menthol smokers among African Americans compared with the general population. However, to our knowledge, no prior study has quantified the harm that menthol smoking has caused on that population. In this work, we estimate the public health harm that menthol cigarettes have caused to the African American community over the last four decades.MethodsUsing National Health Interview Survey data, we employed a well-established simulation model to reproduce the observed smoking trajectory over 1980–2018 in the African American population. Then, we repeat the experiment, removing the effects of menthol on the smoking initiation and cessation rates over that period, obtaining a new hypothetical smoking trajectory. Finally, we compared both scenarios to calculate the public health harm attributable to menthol cigarettes over 1980–2018.ResultsOur results show that menthol cigarettes were responsible for 1.5 million new smokers, 157 000 smoking-related premature deaths and 1.5 million life-years lost among African Americans over 1980–2018. While African Americans constitute 12% of the total US population, these figures represent, respectively, a staggering 15%, 41% and 50% of the total menthol-related harm.DiscussionOur results show that menthol cigarettes disproportionally harmed African Americans significantly over the last 38 years and are responsible for exacerbating health disparities among that population. Removing menthol cigarettes from the market would benefit the overall US population but, particularly, the African American community.

scholarly journals African American Health and Posttraumatic Slave Syndrome: A Terror Management Theory Account

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 45-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Halloran
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Terror Management Theory ◽  
Terror Management ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Cultural Trauma ◽  
Management Theory ◽  
American People ◽  
Posttraumatic Slave Syndrome ◽  
The Impact

The aim of this article is to explicate a terror management theory (TMT) analysis of the poor social and psychological well-being of African Americans by drawing upon a model of cultural trauma to explain the antecedents and effects of posttraumatic slave syndrome. Cultural trauma is defined as a state that occurs when a people’s cultural worldview has been destabilized to the point where it does not effectively meet its TMT function of providing a buffer against basic anxiety and uncertainty. The article outlines how the impact of slavery was a significant trauma to African American people, which was carried forward through successive generations; providing an explanation of their current anxiety-related conditions, poor health, and maladaptive behaviors. Findings from health and justice research and qualitative data from narratives of African Americans are presented to substantiate the adaptation of a model of cultural trauma for understanding the contemporary situation of African Americans.

scholarly journals Do police killings of unarmed persons really have spillover effects? Reanalyzing Bor et al. (2018)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Nix ◽  
M. James Lozada
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
General Population ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Black Americans ◽  
Spillover Effects ◽  
Black American ◽  
Police Violence ◽  
Crowdsourced Data

We reevaluate the claim from Bor et al. (2018: 302) that “police killings of unarmed black Americans have effects on mental health among black American adults in the general population.” The Mapping Police Violence data used by the authors includes 91 incidents involving black decedents who were either (1) not killed by police officers in the line of duty or (2) armed when killed. These incidents should have been removed or recoded prior to analysis. Correctly recoding these incidents decreased in magnitude all of the reported coefficients, and, more importantly, eliminated the reported statistically significant effect of exposure to police killings of unarmed black individuals on the mental health of black Americans in the general population. We caution researchers to vet carefully crowdsourced data that tracks police behaviors and warn against reducing these complex incidents to overly simplistic armed/unarmed dichotomies.

scholarly journals Mental health among young adults in prison: The importance of childhood-onset conduct disorder

BJPsych Open ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 78-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Björn Hofvander ◽  
Henrik Anckarsäter ◽  
Märta Wallinius ◽  
Eva Billstedt
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Conduct Disorder ◽  
Psychiatric Disorders ◽  
Violent Offenders ◽  
Childhood Onset ◽  
Important Indicator ◽  
Health Burden ◽  
Axis I ◽  
The Impact

BackgroundThe psychiatric health burden of prisoners is substantial. However, there is a lack of high-quality studies of psychiatric disorders among young adults with a high risk of reoffending.AimsTo investigate the lifetime prevalence of psychiatric disorders and use of mental health services among young male violent offenders and the impact of childhood-onset conduct disorder (COCD).MethodA nationally representative cohort (n = 270, age 18–25) of male offenders was followed back in medical records and clinically assessed by gold standard methods. Lifetime prevalences are presented together with odds ratios (ORs) as risk estimates in relation to COCD.ResultsPrevious use of psychiatric services among the participants was high but their lifetime psychiatric morbidity was even higher, with 93% meeting criteria for at least one Axis I disorder. The COCD group was overrepresented in most clinical categories and carried five times higher odds (OR = 5.1, 95% CI 2.0–12.8) of a psychotic disorder, three times higher odds (OR = 3.2, 95% CI 1.2–8.5) of a substance use disorder and two times higher odds of a mood disorder (OR = 2.3, 95% CI 1.3–4.0) or anxiety disorder (OR = 2.0, 95% CI 1.1–3.5).ConclusionsThe mental health burden is substantial among young violent offenders, and COCD is an important indicator of future mental health problems which must be a priority for public health efforts.

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