MULTIPLE PATHWAYS LINKING RACISM TO HEALTH OUTCOMES
Open accessAbstract
This commentary discusses advances in the conceptual understanding of racism and selected research findings in the social neurosciences. The traditional stress and coping model holds that racism constitutes a source of aversive experiences that, when perceived by the individual, eventually lead to poor health outcomes. Current evidence points to additional psychophysiological pathways linking facets of racist environments with physiological reactions that contribute to disease. The alternative pathways emphasize prenatal experiences, subcortical emotional neural circuits, conscious and preconscious emotion regulation, perseverative cognitions, and negative affective states stemming from racist cognitive schemata. Recognition of these pathways challenges change agents to use an array of cognitive and self-controlling interventions in mitigating racism's impact. Additionally, it charges policy makers to develop strategies that eliminate deep-seated structural aspects of racism in society.
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“In addition to impacting the academic performance, engagement in the courses, and retention within a program or within a university by students of color, the physiological responses to the stress of perceiving that they are being treated differently from their peers may negatively impact the general health of these st…”
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- Authors
- Harrell, C. J. P., Burford, T. I., Cage, B. N., Nelson, T. M., Shearon, S., Thompson, A., & Green, S.
- Affiliations
- Howard University (US)
- University of Pittsburgh (US)
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (US)
- Corresponding author
- Harrell, Camara Jules P.
- Venue
- Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2011
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 143-157
- ISSN
- 1742-058X (ISSN-L)
- 1742-0598
- PMC
- PMC3328094
- OpenAlex
- W2004192508
- Cited by
- 257
- References
- 62
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 14 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 25 · 2022: 37 · 2021: 25 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 15 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 14 · 2015: 9 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 5
- FWCI
- 26.79
- 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 Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (P01AT004952)
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P30HD003352)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Racial and Ethnic Identity Research
- Social Sciences › Health › Health disparities and outcomes
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Keywords
- racism, health outcomes, stress and coping model, emotion regulation, perseverative cognition, structural racism, health interventions, social neuroscience
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