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Cited by 548Racial and Ethnic Identity ResearchHealth disparities and outcomesGender, Health, and Social Inequality

A Life Course Perspective on How Racism May Be Related to Health Inequities

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Gee, Gilbert C., Walsemann, Katrina M., Brondolo, Elizabeth·2012·American Journal of Public Health
DOI 10.2105/ajph.2012.300666PMC PMC3483932
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Abstract

Recent studies show that racism may influence health inequities. As individuals grow from infancy into old age, they encounter social institutions that may create new exposures to racial bias. Yet, few studies have considered this idea fully. We suggest a framework that shows how racism and health inequities may be viewed from a life course perspective. It applies the ideas of age-patterned exposures, sensitive periods, linked lives, latency period, stress proliferation, historic period, and cohorts. It suggests an overarching idea that racism can structure one's time in asset-building contexts (e.g., education) or disadvantaged contexts (e.g., prison). This variation in time and exposure can contribute to racial inequities in life expectancy and other health outcomes across the life course and over generations.

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Crossref · 10.2105/ajph.2012.300666

Cites

95 of 95 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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  • There is no way to identify racial trauma other than through a life-course approach that captures the complex nature of individual, collective, historical, and intergenerational experiences of racism experienced by BIPOC communities in Western society.

    “There is no way to identify racial trauma other than through a life-course approach that captures the complex nature of individual, collective, historical, and intergenerational experiences of racism experienced by BIPOC communities in Western society.”

    From Complex Racial Trauma: Evidence, Theory, Assessment, and Treatment (2023) · cites this paper as Gee et al., 2012

    The paper’s discussion of a life-course perspective (indexed as Abstract; page unavailable) says it can provide a more complex model of racism and health inequities, including historical events and effects across generations. It does not say that a life-course approach is the only way to identify racial trauma, or establish that claim for all BIPOC communities in Western society. (LLM, conf=0.87)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • The detrimental impact of racism may attenuate over time, perhaps because of the fading impact of brief exposure or because individuals become hardened to racism over time.

    “This finding suggests that the detrimental impact of racism may attenuate over time, perhaps because of the fading impact of brief exposure or due to individuals becoming ‘hardened’ to racism over time [412, 413].”

    From Racism as a Determinant of Health: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (2015) · cites this paper as [413]

    In the Latency Periods discussion (indexed as Abstract; page unavailable), the paper says short-term reactions to discrimination may or may not have long-term health outcomes. That lends some support to the possibility that an effect of brief exposure does not persist, but the paper does not say racism’s detrimental impact generally attenuates over time or that people become hardened to it. (LLM, conf=0.77)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Gee, Walsemann and Brondolo argued that explicit attention to the timing of racism is critical for theoretical and empirical reasons.

    “Gee, Walsemann and Brondolo [413] have argued that explicit attention to the timing of racism is critical both for theoretical and empirical reasons, especially these dimensions of time: (1) the length of exposure to discriminatory events; (2) the timing of these events within the life course; and (3) the etiological period between exposure and the onset of illness.”

    From Racism as a Determinant of Health: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (2015) · cites this paper as [413]

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Cites

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2 of the 97 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Research works printed but not linked: 4

  1. [18]Kuh D, Ben-Shiomo Y, Lynch J, Hallgvist J, Power C. Life course epidemiology. J Epidemiol Community Health. 2003:57(10):778–783 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. [29]Brondolo E, Libretti M, Rivera L, Walsemann KM. Racism and social capital. J Soc Issues. 2012. In press [Google Scholar]
  3. [69]Almond D, Chay KY. The long-run and intergenerational impact of poor infant health: evidence from cohorts born during the Civil Rights Era. 2006. NBER Working Paper. Available at: http://www.nber.org/∼almond/chay_npc_paper.pdf. Accessed March 8, 2012 [Google Scholar]
  4. [82]Oliver ML, Shapiro TM. Black Wealth, White Wealth: A New Perspective on Inequality. New York, NY: Routledge; 1997 [Google Scholar]

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Authors
Gee, G. C., Walsemann, K. M., & Brondolo, E.
Affiliations
St. John's University (US)
ORCID
Venue
American Journal of Public Health
Publisher
American Public Health Association
Published
2012-05
Volume
102
Issue
5
Pages
967-974
ISSN
  • 0090-0036 (ISSN-L)
  • 1541-0048
DOI
10.2105/ajph.2012.300666
PMC
PMC3483932
OpenAlex
W2074565935
Cited by
547
References
97
Citations by year
2026: 19 · 2025: 51 · 2024: 62 · 2023: 56 · 2022: 56 · 2021: 73 · 2020: 49 · 2019: 43 · 2018: 31 · 2017: 25 · 2016: 19 · 2015: 26 · 2014: 19 · 2013: 14 · 2012: 4
FWCI
66.19
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • American Journal of Public Health (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Scholar Commons (University of South Carolina) (submittedVersion)
Funders
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R24HD041022)
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 › Gender, Health, and Social Inequality
Keywords
racism, health disparities, life course perspective, racial bias, sensitive period, linked lives, latency period, historical periods, cohort, asset building, disadvantaged contexts, life expectancy
MeSH terms
Age Factors, Humans, Prejudice, Social Environment, Stress, Psychological, Health Status Disparities

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