The DOI matches its Crossref record, with a small difference in title or year; 35 of the 35 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
RACIAL DISPARITIES IN HEALTH: How Much Does Stress Really Matter?
Open accessAbstract
Despite the widespread assumption that racial differences in stress exist and that stress is a key mediator linking racial status to poor health, relatively few studies have explicitly examined this premise. We examine the distribution of stress across racial groups and the role of stress vulnerability and exposure in explaining racial differences in health in a community sample of Black, Hispanic, and White adults, employing a modeling strategy that accounts for the correlation between types of stressors and the accumulation of stressors in the prediction of health outcomes. We find significant racial differences in overall and cumulative exposure to eight stress domains. Blacks exhibit a higher prevalence and greater clustering of high stress scores than Whites. American-born Hispanics show prevalence rates and patterns of accumulation of stressors comparable to Blacks, while foreign-born Hispanics have stress profiles similar to Whites. Multiple stressors correlate with poor physical and mental health, with financial and relationship stressors exhibiting the largest and most consistent effects. Though we find no support for the stress-vulnerability hypothesis, the stress-exposure hypothesis does account for some racial health disparities. We discuss implications for future research and policy.
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Self-citation
Metadata
- Authors
- Sternthal, M. J., Slopen, N., & Williams, D. R.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Sternthal, Michelle J.
- Venue
- Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2011
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 95-113
- ISSN
- 1742-058X (ISSN-L)
- 1742-0598
- PMC
- PMC5993442
- OpenAlex
- W2024277158
- Cited by
- 755
- References
- 34
- Citations by year
- 2026: 50 · 2025: 104 · 2024: 76 · 2023: 83 · 2022: 89 · 2021: 73 · 2020: 53 · 2019: 49 · 2018: 43 · 2017: 24 · 2016: 23 · 2015: 19 · 2014: 24 · 2013: 23 · 2012: 13
- FWCI
- 22.06
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Du Bois Review Social Science Research on Race (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (T32ES007069)
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD050467, P50HD038986)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Racial and Ethnic Identity Research
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Gender, Health, and Social Inequality
- Keywords
- racial disparities in health, stress accumulation, cumulative stressors, financial stress, relationship stress, Black people, Hispanic adults, foreign-born Hispanics, physical health, mental health, community sample
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