Stress and the Mental Health of Populations of Color Advancing Our Understanding of Race-related Stressors

• Published in: Journal of health and social behavior Vol. 59; no. 4; pp. 466 - 485
• Main Author: Williams, David R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA Sage Publications, Inc 01.12.2018; SAGE Publications; American Sociological Association
• Subjects: 2017 Leonard I. Pearlin Award Paper; Black or African American - psychology; Delivery of Health Care; Disadvantaged; Discrimination; Environmental degradation; Ethnic groups; Ethnicity; Health status; Hostility; Humans; Immigrants; Mental disorders; Mental Disorders - ethnology; Mental Disorders - psychology; Mental Health; Minority & ethnic groups; Minority Groups - psychology; Populations; Race; Racial discrimination; Racism; Racism - psychology; Stress; Stress, Psychological - ethnology; Stress, Psychological - psychology; Systemic racism; Understanding; stress; racism; race; racial discrimination; mental health; mental disorders
• ISSN: 0022-1465; 2150-6000; 2150-6000
• DOI: 10.1177/0022146518814251

This article provides an overview of research on race-related stressors that can affect the mental health of socially disadvantaged racial and ethnic populations. It begins by reviewing the research on self-reported discrimination and mental health. Although discrimination is the most studied aspect of racism, racism can also affect mental health through structural/institutional mechanisms and racism that is deeply embedded in the larger culture. Key priorities for research include more systematic attention to stress proliferation processes due to institutional racism, the assessment of stressful experiences linked to natural or manmade environmental crises, documenting and understanding the health effects of hostility against immigrants and people of color, cataloguing and quantifying protective resources, and enhancing our understanding of the complex association between physical and mental health.