Social Determinants of Perceived Discrimination among Black Youth: Intersection of Ethnicity and Gender

This article examines the extent to which racial differences in socio-economic status (SES), social class and acute and chronic indicators of perceived discrimination, as well as general measures of stress can account for black-white differences in self-reported measures of physical and mental health. The observed racial differences in health were markedly reduced when adjusted for education and especially income. However, both perceived discrimination and more traditional measures of stress are related to health and play an incremental role in accounting for differences between the races in health status. These findings underscore the need for research efforts to identify the complex ways in which economic and non-economic forms of discrimination relate to each other and combine with socio-economic position and other risk factors and resources to affect health.

We derived and tested a short form of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) for reliability and validity among a sample of well older adults in a large Health Maintenance Organization. The 10-item screening questionnaire, the CESD-10, showed good predictive accuracy when compared to the full-length 20-item version of the CES-D (kappa = .97, P or = 16 for the full-length questionnaire and > or = 10 for the 10-item version. We discuss other potential cutoff values. The CESD-10 showed an expected positive correlation with poorer health status scores (r = .37) and a strong negative correlation with positive affect (r = -.63). Retest correlations for the CESD-10 were comparable to those in other studies (r = .71). We administered the CESD-10 again after 12 months, and scores were stable with strong correlation of r = .59.

The objectives of the National Survey of American Life (NSAL) are to investigate the nature, severity, and impairment of mental disorders among national samples of the black and non‐Hispanic white (n = 1,006) populations in the US. Special emphasis in the study is given to the nature of race and ethnicity within the black population by selecting and interviewing national samples of African‐American (N = 3,570), and Afro‐Caribbean (N = 1,623) immigrant and second and older generation populations. National multi‐stage probability methods were used in generating the samples and race/ethnic matching of interviewers and respondents were used in the largely face‐to‐face interview, which lasted on average 2 hours and 20 minutes. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) IV World Mental Health Composite Interview (WHO‐CIDI) was used to assess a wide range of serious mental disorders, potential risk and resilience factors, and help seeking and service use patterns. This paper provides an overview of the design of the NSAL, sample selection procedures, recruitment and training of the national interviewing team, and some of the special problems faced in interviewing ethnically and racially diverse national samples. Unique features of sample design, including special screening and listing procedures, interviewer training and supervision, and response rate outcomes are described. Copyright © 2004 Whurr Publishers Ltd.