SOC363 Race, ethnicity, and mental health

1. After reading all the assigned material, what is the central issue/debate/take-away across the readings? 2. What are the similarities/differences in how do they each speak to this? 3. How would you evaluate this body of work? Are there empirical/theoretical/methodological limitations, unexplored questions, counter-arguments ? If so, how could these be addressed? 4. What is your position on the points covered in Q1? What do you find significant about the readings ? Do you see relevant connections with material from other weeks? 5. How does one of the key take-aways from across the readings connect to a real-world event/issue ? Nelson & Wilson  Arguments o A more critical and nuanced understanding of colonialism  Medicalization of colonialism/historical trauma as individualized problems  Retain attention to societal and structural level problems of a colonial society o Binary distinction between Indigenous and Western epistemology  Collapse both Indigenous and Western world-views into homogeneous generalizations o Only a small, methodologically weak evidence base for culturally adapted, integrated, or otherwise community-based interventions o Overemphasis on the prevalence of suicide and substance use among Indigenous populations can create new negative stereotypes o Distinctions in prevalence rates between different Indigenous communities are underrepresented. o The relevance of DSM is extremely limited for Indigenous communities o Metis and urban Indigenous peoples are underrepresented o Lack of information on status and non-status First Nations. o Near exclusion of Indigenous elders o Underrepresentation of Indigenous men  Future research prospect o More research on Indigenous women due to the gendered impacts of colonialism Brown et al.  Not enough attention to how sociocultural variation can complicate and clarify our understanding of mental health status.  Definition of race o Essentialist perspective: Immutable biological status and genetic

characteristics shared within a racial group and differ between groups. o Social constructivist perspective: Socially constructed status based on observed phenotypic differences(ascriptive markers) that have social meanings o Complications in the operationalization of race:  Self-identification vs. other-identification  Multiracial movement -> “check all that apply” o Not everyone in the same racial group shares the same experiences  Definition of nativity o Being born in, or outside of, the US shapes experiential paradigms o Foreign-born nativity  Assimilation & acculturation processes that can have psychological consequences  Generational status  Type of immigrant  Age at entry  Period of entry  Length of US residence  Legal staus o No systemic investigation into how nativity is linked to mental health due to data and sampling design limitations o The meaning of nativity is layered due to heterogeneity among immigrants  Definition of ethnicity o Putative salience nurtured by shared geographic birthplace and national heritage o An achieved and voluntary status with many layers that are hardened through socialization  Cultural influences o Cultural influences represent dynamic, action-oriented ways of living that people use to meet psychosocial needs o Development of measures that account for racialization and the impact of non-nativity, while recognizing the centrality of ethnicity and cultural influences, would permit systemic study of sociocultural variation. o A systemic approach to disentangling these constructs is required for researcher to understand their joint effects on mental health status.  Race, nativity, ethnicity & cultural influences affect mental health status in 3 ways: o Assessment issues impair researcher’s ability to collect valid and reliable data o These constructs expose individuals to varying stressful events because they are stratifying social statuses & conflicting cultural influences can have a deleterious psychological impact

 Goal-striving stress o The degree to which individuals feel their efforts match their rewards o Measures discrepancies between socially derived aspirations and achievements  Fuels accomplishment  Cause psychological pain  For Black Americans, also captures structural stress o The poor had low goal-striving stress but high rates of symptoms; high SES blacks had high goal-striving stress and a low rate of symptoms. o Goal-striving stress may differentially impact the mental health of Black Americans, depending upon socioeconomic position. o The closer blacks came to achieving their economic goals without quite achieving them, the more impatient they would become for total equality with whites.  Two competing hypotheses  The stress of striving may be compounded by poverty, which leads to higher rates of distress among the poor.  High goal-striving stress among those above poverty may lead to poorer mental health precisely because the inability to reach important goals may be more painful the closer one is to actually attaining these goals.  Findings o The poor tend to report higher levels of goal-striving stress than the nonpoor. o No significant difference between poor and nonpoor on levels of disappointment or on levels of aspiration. o Age and residing in the South are +ve related to happiness. o Women and formerly married individuals report lower levels of happiness. o Poverty status, education, and marital status are inversely related to life satisfaction o At lower levels of goal-striving stress, the poor report lower levels of life satisfaction. o Goal-striving stress is strongly and inversely related to self-esteem. o When goal striving stress is high, nonpoor report lower levels of life satisfaction than those who are poor.  Strength and limitations o Dated sample -> sample attrition -> more conservative findings