Discrimination and Depressive Symptoms Among African American Men Across the Adult Lifecourse

Felicia V Wheaton PhD, Courtney S Thomas PhD, Carly Roman Ba and Cleopatra M Abdou PhD

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2018, vol. 73, issue 2, 208-218

Abstract: ObjectivesA lifecourse framework was used to examine the association between major and everyday measures of perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms among African American men and to evaluate whether these relationships differed for young, middle-aged, and older men.MethodThe association between both major and everyday discrimination and depressive symptoms, as measured by the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression (CES-D) scale, was assessed among 296 African American men in the 2011–2014 Nashville Stress and Health Study (NSAHS) using ordinary least squares regression. Interactive associations between major and everyday discrimination and age patterns in the discrimination–depressive symptoms relationship were also investigated.ResultsEveryday, but not major discrimination was associated with depressive symptoms among African American men. This relationship was stronger among middle-aged men and diminished among older men. However, major discrimination, but not everyday discrimination, was associated with depressive symptoms of older men (age 55+), with greatest depressive symptomatology among those reporting both forms of discrimination.DiscussionEveryday discrimination is a more consistent predictor, relative to major discrimination, of depressive symptoms among African American men across the lifecourse, although there were age and/or cohort differences. Findings also demonstrate the synergistic, or additive, impact of multiple forms of discrimination on mental health.

Keywords: African American; Depression; Discrimination; Health disparities; Lifecourse; Men; Minority and diverse populations; Psychosocial factors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbx077 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:geronb:v:73:y:2018:i:2:p:208-218.

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://academic.oup.com/journals

Access Statistics for this article

The Journals of Gerontology: Series B is currently edited by Psychological Sciences - S. Duke Han, PhD and Social Sciences - Jessica A Kelley, PhD, FGSA

More articles in The Journals of Gerontology: Series B from The Gerontological Society of America Oxford University Press, Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().