Examining Racial Discrimination’s Association With Depressive Symptoms Through Metadehumanization Among African Americans: Does Racial Identity Matter?

2020 ◽  
pp. 009579842098366
Author(s):  
Yara Mekawi ◽  
Natalie N. Watson-Singleton

Though considerable empirical work has documented the ways in which African Americans are dehumanized by other racial groups, there is no research examining how perceiving dehumanization (i.e., metadehumanization) is associated with the mental health of African Americans. In this study, we examined the indirect effect of racial discrimination on depressive symptoms through metadehumanization and explored whether this indirect effect was contingent on racial identity (i.e., centrality, private regard). African American students completed measures in a university lab located in the Midwestern region of the United States ( N = 326; Mage = 19.7, 72.4% women). We found that the degree to which racial discrimination was indirectly associated with depressive symptoms through metadehumanization was contingent on racial identity dimensions. Specifically, the indirect effect of racial discrimination on depressive symptoms through metadehumanization was only significant for individuals who were relatively higher on centrality and private regard. This research suggests that the role of metadehumanization is stronger among African Americans who strongly identify with and have positive views of their racial group. We discuss these results in the context of social cognitive theories.

2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Oluwole M Adegbala ◽  
Akintunde Akinjero ◽  
Samson Alliu ◽  
Adeyinka C Adejumo ◽  
Emmanuel Akintoye ◽  
...  

Background: Although, in-hospital mortality from acute myocardial infarction (AMI) have declined in the United States recently, there is a gap in knowledge regarding racial differences in this trend. We sought to evaluate the effect of race on the trends in outcomes after Acute Myocardial Infarction among Medicaid patients in a nationwide cohort from 2007-2011 Methods: We extracted data from the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) for all hospitalizations between 2007 and 2011 for Medicaid patients aged 45 years or older with principal diagnosis of AMI using ICD-9-CM codes. Primary outcome of this study was all cause in-hospital mortality. We then stratified hospitalizations by racial groups; Whites, African Americans and Hispanics, and assessed the time trends of in-hospital mortality before and after multivariate analysis. Results: The overall mortality from AMI among Medicaid patients declined during the study period (8.80% in 2007 to 7.46% in 2011). In the adjusted models, compared to 2007, in-hospital mortality from AMI for Medicaid patients decreased across the 3 racial groups; Whites (aOR= 0.88, CI=0.70-0.99), African Americans (aOR=0.76, CI=0.57-1.01), Hispanics (aOR=0.87, CI=0.66-1.25). While the length of hospital stay declined significantly among African American and Hispanic with 2 days and 1.76 days decline respectively, the length of stay remained unchanged for Whites. There was non-significant increase in the incidence of stroke across the various racial groups; Whites (aOR= 1.23, CI=0.90 -1.69), African Americans (aOR=1.10, CI=0.73 -1.64), Hispanics (aOR=1.03, CI=0.68-1.55) when compared to 2007. Conclusion: In this study, we found that in-hospital mortality from AMI among Medicaid patients have declined across the racial groups. However, while the length of stay following AMI declined for African Americans and Hispanics with Medicaid insurance, it has remained unchanged for Whites. Future studies are necessary to identify determinants of these significant racial disparities in outcomes for AMI.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 1081 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mihail Zilbermint ◽  
Fady Hannah-Shmouni ◽  
Constantine Stratakis

Hypertension is the leading cause of cardiovascular disease in the United States, affecting up to one-third of adults. When compared to other ethnic or racial groups in the United States, African Americans and other people of African descent show a higher incidence of hypertension and its related comorbidities; however, the genetics of hypertension in these populations has not been studied adequately. Several genes have been identified to play a role in the genetics of hypertension. They include genes regulating the renin-aldosterone-angiotensin system (RAAS), such as Sodium Channel Epithelial 1 Beta Subunit (SCNN1B), Armadillo Repeat Containing 5 (ARMC5), G Protein-Coupled Receptor Kinase 4 (GRK4), and Calcium Voltage-Gated Channel Subunit Alpha1 D (CACNA1D). In this review, we focus on recent genetic findings available in the public domain for potential differences between African Americans and other populations. We also cover some recent and relevant discoveries in the field of low-renin hypertension from our laboratory at the National Institutes of Health. Understanding the different genetics of hypertension among various groups is essential for effective precision-guided medical therapy of high blood pressure.


Daedalus ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 140 (2) ◽  
pp. 11-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence D. Bobo

In 1965, when Dædalus published two issues on “The Negro American,” civil rights in the United States had experienced a series of triumphs and setbacks. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 extended basic citizenship rights to African Americans, and there was hope for further positive change. Yet 1965 also saw violent confrontations in Selma, Alabama, and the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles that were fueled by racial tensions. Against this backdrop of progress and retreat, the contributors to the Dædalus volumes of the mid-1960s considered how socioeconomic factors affected the prosperity, well-being, and social standing of African Americans. Guest editor Lawrence D. Bobo suggests that today we inhabit a similarly unsettled place: situated somewhere between the overt discrimination of Jim Crow and the aspiration of full racial equality. In his introduction, Bobo paints a broad picture of the racial terrain in America today before turning the volume over to the contributors, who take up particular questions ranging from education and family support, to racial identity and politics, to employment and immigration.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Priscilla Lui

Objectives: Psychological effects of racism and discrimination may reflect both the common nature of differential treatment itself, distinctive ways that various types of discrimination impact adjustment outcomes, and ways in which individuals integrate these experiences within their ethnoracial group memberships. Everyday racial discrimination and police-related discrimination tend to be examined separately, and it remains unclear how individuals organize their racial identity to navigate these experiences with intergroup contact. Method: African American (N = 213, 61.5% women) and Asian American (N = 571, 49.6% women) university students were sampled to assess their exposure to everyday racial and police/law enforcement-related discrimination, elements of their racial identity, and psychological adjustment. Results: African Americans reported more experiences with both forms of discrimination, whereas exposure to both forms of discrimination was related more consistently to poorer psychological adjustment among Asian Americans. Multivariate regression analyses showed that different dimensions of racial identity accounted for different patterns of internalizing symptoms, hazardous alcohol use, and life satisfaction. Notably, higher levels of private regard were associated with better psychological adjustment among African Americans and Asian Americans. Among Asian Americans, higher levels of centrality were linked to greater internalizing symptoms whereas private regard reduced the correlations between everyday racial discrimination exposure and internalizing symptoms. Conclusions: Findings have implications for examining group-specific discrimination experiences through refined and comprehensive measurement, as well as the systematic consideration of identity dimensions as risks and promotive factors for psychological adjustment.


Author(s):  
Ann V. Collins

Between the turbulent months of April and October 1919, racial violence reached a peak in the United States. Some twenty-six white-on-black massacres took place across the country. Author and civil rights activist James Weldon Johnson dubbed this terrible period the Red Summer as a way to characterize pervasive racial hostility and for the blood spilled in its wake. Yet, racial violence has had a long and painful history in the United States. From the moment enslaved Africans arrived in the New World, whites strove cruelly and systematically to maintain power and control over their bodies and labor. Indeed, many interactions between ostensible racial groups have centered on white hostility. A type of brutality that proved especially vicious took the shape of white-on-black race massacres. First appearing in the early 19th century and fading by the end of World War II, whites used these types of disturbances to deny African Americans progress and freedom. Destruction of black communities, massive bloodshed, and lynchings characterized these occurrences. The early 20th century, and particularly the Red Summer, marked a critical moment in the history of race relations of the United States—one that proved deadly to African Americans.


2009 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 27-30
Author(s):  
Deirdre O'Sullivan ◽  
Stephen J. Notaro

This study explored the relationship between racial groups, racial identity, and attitudes toward dating a person with a physical disability. It was hypothesized that African Americans would have higher levels of racial identity than Caucasian Americans. Furthermore, it was hypothesized that because of shared minority group status, African Americans would have more positive attitudes than Caucasians toward dating someone described as having a physical disability. African American participants were found to have higher levels of racial identity than Caucasian participants, but had significantly more negative attitudes regarding dating a person with a physical disability than Caucasians. A discussion of racial identity, as well as implications for rehabilitation counselors, is included.


2020 ◽  
Vol 90 (2) ◽  
pp. 264-307
Author(s):  
Timothy G. Ford ◽  
Alyson L. Lavigne ◽  
Ashlyn M. Fiegener ◽  
Shouqing Si

As an intermediary between U.S. state and federal policy and the school, the school district, many scholars maintain, remains a key player in meeting the needs of school-level leadership. Moreover, the job of the principal is difficult and has become increasingly complex as a result of increased pressure, accountability, and oversight under the No Child Left Behind Act (now the Every Student Succeeds Act) in the United States. These two propositions raise important questions about what we know (and do not yet know) about how to support school leaders’ learning and development in their quest to effectively lead a school. In this review, we use extant social-cognitive theories of motivation to organize the research on district effectiveness in pursuit of the following question: How does the district as a key player in school/instructional improvement facilitate conditions under which school principals’ learning, development, and success are enhanced? In pursuing this question, we hoped to strengthen two particular weaknesses in this strand of scholarship: (1) the concern that research in this particular area is relatively atheoretical and (2) concerns about the applicability of this research to practice.


2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 368-380 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marlene G. Williams ◽  
Jioni A. Lewis

In the current study, we explored the relations between gendered racial microaggressions, gendered racial identity (intersection of one’s racial and gender identities), coping, and depressive symptoms among Black women. We tested coping strategies as mediators of the relations between gendered racial microaggressions and depressive symptoms. We also tested a moderated mediation model with gendered racial identity public and private regard as moderators of the indirect association of gendered racial microaggressions and depressive symptoms through disengagement coping. Participants were 231 Black women in the United States who completed an online survey. Disengagement coping was a significant mediator; increases in gendered racial microaggressions were associated with greater use of disengagement coping which, in turn, was associated with greater depressive symptoms. Gendered racial identity private regard was a significant moderator of the indirect association of gendered racial microaggressions and depressive symptoms through disengagement coping. These findings highlight the role of gendered racial identity private regard in buffering the negative effects of gendered racial microaggressions on depressive symptoms. Practitioners can use this information to apply an intersectional approach to therapeutic interventions that consider Black women’s intersecting identities and experiences of gendered racism.


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