scholarly journals Bereavement and Physiological Dysregulations in African American Adults

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 934-935
Author(s):  
Jieun Song ◽  
Marsha Mailick
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Glucose Metabolism ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Hpa Axis ◽  
African American Men ◽  
Diabetes Diagnosis ◽  
African American Adults ◽  
Parasympathetic System ◽  
Lipids Metabolism ◽  
Hpa Axis Functioning

Abstract This study uses data from National Survey of Midlife in the U.S. (MIDUS) to examine the effect of bereavement on physiological dysregulations in African American adults, with moderating effects of gender. Models were estimated using data from 210 Non-Hispanic African American respondents who participated in MIDUS 2 (M2: 2004-2005) and the biomarker data collection (2004-2009). We analyzed data from two groups, respondents who experienced the death of an individual(s) close to them, either family or friends (97 women, 40 men) and respondents who did not experience any deaths of close individuals during the same period (46 women, 27 men), controlling for age, education, marital status, prior family bereavement, number of negative life events since M2, and physical health prior to bereavement. Physiological dysregulations were assessed for 7 systems: HPA axis, glucose metabolism, lipids metabolism, sympathetic system, parasympathetic system, inflammation, and cardiovascular functioning. The results show that African American men and women who experienced bereavement were at higher risk of dysregulation of glucose metabolism (assessed by HbA1c, HOMA-IR, and fasting glucose) than the non-bereaved, even after adjusting prior diabetes diagnosis. In addition, African American women (but not men) who experienced recent bereavement were at higher risk of dysregulation of HPA axis functioning (assessed by urinary cortisol and blood DHEA-S) than their counterparts. The other physiological systems were not significantly associated with bereavement experience in African American adults. The findings suggest that bereavement has adverse impacts on health in African American adults via dysregulations in glucose metabolism and HPA axis functioning.

Sociodemographic Influences in the Prediction of Attitudes toward Transracial Adoption

2000 ◽  
Vol 81 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie Doty Hollingsworth
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African American Women ◽  
African American Men ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
Transracial Adoption ◽  
Opinion Survey ◽  
Research And Practice ◽  
Caucasian Men ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Age Category

An exploratory study of attitudes toward transracial adoption was conducted, using data from a 1991 national telephone opinion survey of 916 respondents. Seventy-one percent of those surveyed believed that race should not be a factor in who should be allowed to adopt a child. However, in a logistic regression analysis, respondents in the highest age category (i.e., those older than 64 years) were 63% less likely to approve of transracial adoption, compared with 18- to 29-year-olds. There was also an interaction of race and sex. African-American women were 84% less likely than African-American men to approve of transracial adoption. Compared with African-American men, Caucasian men were 72% less likely to approve. The importance of considering subpopulation differences in applying such findings to adoption policy, research, and practice is discussed.

Age Differences in Knowledge about HIV Transmission among African-American Men and Women

2007 ◽  
Vol 101 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1133-1140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann Kathleen Burlew
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
African Americans ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Hiv Transmission ◽  
African American Men ◽  
Hiv And Aids ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Younger Women ◽  
Older African Americans ◽  
The Difference

To test whether knowledge about HIV transmission may be one contributing factor to the disproportionately high rates of HIV and AIDS cases among older African Americans, this study examined data from 448 African-American men and women, who completed the AIDS Knowledge and Awareness Scale. Overall the findings supported the hypothesis that older African Americans were not as knowledgeable as their younger counterparts. However, the analyses also indicated older (age 61+) African-American women were significantly less knowledgeable about HIV transmission than the younger women. However, the difference between older and younger men was not significant. One implication is that older African Americans, especially women, should be targets of educational efforts.

Gender Differences in the Dating Experiences of African American Young Adults: The Challenge of Forming Romantic Relationships Within the Context of Power Imbalance

2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie Gordon Simons ◽  
Tara E. Sutton ◽  
Antoinette M. Landor ◽  
Ashley B. Barr ◽  
Chalandra M. Bryant ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
African American ◽  
African American Women ◽  
African American Men ◽  
Past Research ◽  
Mate Preferences ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Dating Relationships ◽  
Using Data ◽  
American Young Adults

Past research has documented that structural factors produce a skewed dating market in African American communities that advantages men over women. Using data collected from a sample of 495 African American young adults (55.8% women, Mage = 22), we tested the idea that African American men can be more selective when choosing dating partners than their female counterparts due to their power advantage. Consonant with this hypothesis, our results indicated that women who had characteristics consistent with men’s mate preferences were significantly more likely to be involved in dating relationships. However, there were no associations between the likelihood of men’s dating frequency or relationship status and whether they typified women’s mate preferences. These findings support the contention that, unlike their male counterparts, African American women may have to compromise their mate preferences and date less desirable partners due to the gendered power disadvantage in the dating market.

Gender as a Moderator of the Relation between Race-Related Stress and Mental Health Symptoms for African Americans

2009 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-307 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tawanda M. Greer ◽  
Adrian Laseter ◽  
David Asiamah
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
African American ◽  
African American Women ◽  
African American Men ◽  
Mental Health Symptoms ◽  
Health Symptoms ◽  
American Women ◽  
Stress Appraisals ◽  
Related Stress ◽  
Race Related Stress

The present study tested gender as a moderator of the relationship between race-related stress and mental health symptoms among African American adults. Because African American women are exposed to stressors associated with race and gender, we hypothesized that African American women would have higher levels of race-related stress and more severe mental health outcomes related to experiences of race-related stress compared to African American men. Multivariate analyses revealed that African American men had higher stress appraisals for institutional racism than did women. No significant gender differences were found for cultural and individual racism. Moderated regression analyses revealed that increases in stress appraisals for individual racism were associated with increases in anxiety and obsessive-compulsive symptoms for African American women. Race-related stress had no significant effects on mental health symptoms for African American men. The findings suggest that gender is an important factor in determining the impact of race-related stress on mental health.

scholarly journals Search for Identity and Self-Realization in Toni Morrison'sBeloved.

2018 ◽  
Vol 214 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-152
Author(s):  
Assist. Instr. Alaa Sadoon Muhsen.
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Collective Memory ◽  
African American Women ◽  
African American Men ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
American Women ◽  
The Past ◽  
Women's Relationships ◽  
Self Worth ◽  
Black Writing

       This paper aims at exploring the search for identity and the ways in which Toni Morrison has systematically recast the image and reconstructed the identity of African American women in her novel Beloved. She employs different means such as pure black writing, love and myth by which she re-opens new doors for the African American women to achieve and reconstruct their identities in the community of slavery. Drawing upon womanist and postmodern theories of identity construction, and incommensurability, this paper argues that African American femininity is relationally constructed. In essence, black women's relationships with their children (especially their daughters), their men, and the White community of brutal slavery define who they are, determine how they perceive themselves, and, largely, dictate their capacity for success and survival.Though many scholars contend that Morrison's Beloved situates individual and collective memory as the vehicle by which such self-identification is achieved. It  maintains that it is not until African American women and African American men are able to put their stories together and to identify new ways of  seeing and relating to the other can they create any real sense of self-worth.  Many scholars support this assessment as Morrison offers it through a reconstruction of personal and community histories and ancestral reclamation whereby the entire characters move on a continuum from a repressive slave perspective to an open, accepting, free perspective of self and environment. Therefore, (re)memory alone is not sufficient. There must be collaboration to weave the pieces, the fragments of the past into a tapestry that might provide warmth and security for the future.

African American Women Chemists

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeannette Brown
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
African American Women ◽  
African American Men ◽  
African American Woman ◽  
American Woman ◽  
The United States ◽  
Columbia University ◽  
American Women ◽  
Race And Gender

Dr. Marie Maynard Daly received her PhD in Chemistry from Columbia University in 1947. Although she was hardly the first of her race and gender to engage in the field, she was the first African American woman to receive a PhD in chemistry in the United States. In this book, Jeannette Brown, an African American woman chemist herself, will present a wide-ranging historical introduction to the relatively new presence of African American women in the field of chemistry. It will detail their struggles to obtain an education and their efforts to succeed in a field in which there were few African American men, much less African American women. The book contains sketches of the lives of African America women chemists from the earliest pioneers up until the late 1960's when the Civil Rights Acts were passed and greater career opportunities began to emerge. In each sketch, Brown will explore women's motivation to study the field and detail their often quite significant accomplishments. Chapters focus on chemists in academia, industry, and government, as well as chemical engineers, whose career path is very different from that of the tradition chemist. The book concludes with a chapter on the future of African American women chemists, which will be of interest to all women interested in science.

scholarly journals Gender Differences in Negative Affect During Acute Tobacco Abstinence Differ Between African American and White Adult Cigarette Smokers

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (8) ◽  
pp. 1072-1078 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raina D Pang ◽  
Mariel S Bello ◽  
Madalyn M Liautaud ◽  
Andrea H Weinberger ◽  
Adam M Leventhal
Keyword(s):  
Gender Differences ◽  
African American ◽  
Negative Affect ◽  
African American Women ◽  
White Women ◽  
African American Men ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Women Smokers ◽  
Tobacco Withdrawal ◽  
Hispanic White

Abstract Introduction Prior studies have found heightened negative affect following tobacco abstinence in women compared to men. However, experimental work addressing whether these findings generalize across racial groups is scarce. This study investigated whether race (non-Hispanic White vs. non-Hispanic African American) moderated gender differences in abstinence-induced negative affect and smoking behavior. Methods Data were collected from 2010 to 2017 from two separate laboratory studies investigating experimentally manipulated tobacco abstinence. Following a baseline session, adult daily smokers (≥10 cigarettes/day; women: n = 297, 83.8% non-Hispanic African American; men: n = 492, 86.2% non-Hispanic African American) attended two counterbalanced lab sessions (16 hours abstinent vs. non-abstinent) and completed self-report measures of negative affect followed by a laboratory analogue smoking reinstatement task. Results We found a gender × race interaction for several negative affect states and composite negative affect (βs = −.12 to −.16, Ps < .05). Analyses stratified by race showed that non-Hispanic White women compared to non-Hispanic White men exhibited greater abstinence-induced increases in anger, anxiety, and composite negative affect (βs = −.20 to −.29, Ps < .05). No significant gender differences in abstinence-induced negative affect were found for non-Hispanic African American smokers (βs = .00 to − .04, Ps > .05). Conclusion These findings suggest that negative affect during acute tobacco abstinence may be a clinically important and intervenable factor that can inform cessation interventions specifically for non-Hispanic White women smokers. Further empirical exploration of mechanisms underlying interactions of gender and race in tobacco addiction may benefit smoking cessation efforts in non-Hispanic African American women smokers. Implications This study contributes to a scant body of research examining the intersectional influence of race and gender on abstinence-induced negative affect—a central, motivationally prepotent feature of tobacco withdrawal. Using a laboratory-based design to experimentally manipulate abstinence, we provide evidence of a gender × race interaction on negative affect–related withdrawal. Our findings suggest that gender differences in abstinence-induced negative affect observed among non-Hispanic White smokers may not generalize to non-Hispanic African American smokers, highlighting the need for future work to address potential mechanisms underlying the racially discrepant impact of gender on affective tobacco withdrawal.

scholarly journals Receiver-operating characteristics of adiposity for metabolic syndrome: the Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span (HANDLS) study

2010 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 77-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
May A Beydoun ◽  
Marie T Fanelli Kuczmarski ◽  
Youfa Wang ◽  
Marc A Mason ◽  
Michele K Evans ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Metabolic Syndrome ◽  
African American ◽  
Life Span ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Fat Mass ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
African American Men ◽  
Operating Characteristics ◽  
Predictive Values ◽  
Receiver Operating

AbstractObjectiveTo assess the predictive values of various adiposity indices for metabolic syndrome (MetS) among adults using baseline data from the Healthy Aging in Neighborhoods of Diversity across the Life Span (HANDLS) cohort.DesignIn a cross-sectional study, BMI, waist circumference (WC), body composition by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) and metabolic risk factors such as TAG, HDL cholesterol, blood pressure, fasting glucose and insulin, uric acid and C-reactive protein were measured. Receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves and logistic regression analyses were conducted.SettingBaltimore, Maryland.SubjectsWhite and African-American US adults (n 1981), aged 30–64 years.ResultsIn predicting risk of MetS using obesity-independent National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III criteria, percentage total body fat mass (TtFM) assessed using DEXA measuring overall adiposity had no added value over WC. This was true among both men (area under the ROC curve (AUC) = 0·680 v. 0·733 for TtFM and WC, respectively; P < 0·05) and women (AUC = 0·581 v. 0·686). Percentage rib fat mass (RbFM) was superior to TtFM only in women for MetS (AUC = 0·701 and 0·581 for RbFM and TtFM, respectively; P < 0·05), particularly among African-American women. Elevated percentage leg fat mass (LgFM) was protective against MetS among African-American men. Among white men, BMI was inferior to WC in predicting MetS. Optimal WC cut-off points varied across ethnic–sex groups and differed from those recommended by the National Institutes of Health/North American Association for the Study of Obesity.ConclusionsThe study provides evidence that WC is among the most powerful tools to predict MetS, and that optimal cut-off points for various indices including WC may differ by sex and race.

Sex and ethnicity modify the associations between individual and contextual socioeconomic indicators and ideal cardiovascular health: MESA study

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
pp. e237-e244
Author(s):  
Augusto César Ferreira De Moraes ◽  
Heráclito Barbosa Carvalho ◽  
Robyn L McClelland ◽  
Ana V Diez-Roux ◽  
Moyses Szklo
Keyword(s):  
African American ◽  
Los Angeles ◽  
African American Women ◽  
Cardiovascular Health ◽  
Family Income ◽  
African American Men ◽  
Socioeconomic Indicators ◽  
Baltimore County ◽  
Cvd Risk ◽  
Ideal Cardiovascular Health

AbstractBackgroundLow socioeconomic status (SES) is associated with cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk, but its association with different markers of SES may be heterogeneous by sex and race/ethnicity.MethodsWe have examined the relationships of four SES markers (education, family income, occupation and neighborhood SES) to ideal cardiovascular health (ICH), an index formed by seven variables. A total of 6792 cohort participants from six regions in the USA: Baltimore City and Baltimore County, MD; Chicago, IL; Forsyth County, NC; Los Angeles County, CA; New York, NY; and St. Paul, MN of the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (MESA) (52.8% women) were recruited at baseline (2000–2) and included in the present analysis.ResultsICH was classified as poor, intermediate or ideal. Level of education was significantly and inversely associated with ICH in non-Hispanic White men and women, in Chinese-American and Hispanic American men and African-American women. Family income was inversely and significantly associated with poor ICH in African-American men only.ConclusionsWe conclude that the strength of the associations between some SES markers and ICH differ between sexes and race/ethnic groups.

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