Self-identified race, socially assigned skin tone, and adult physiological dysregulation: Assessing multiple dimensions of "race" in health disparities research.
Self-identified race, socially assigned skin tone, and adult physiological dysregulation: Assessing multiple dimensions of "race" in health disparities research.
复制标题
DOI：
10.1016/j.ssmph.2016.06.007
复制
发表时间：
2016-12
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Darity WA Jr
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Cobb RJ;Thomas CS;Laster Pirtle WN;Darity WA Jr
尽管社会科学中普遍认为“种族”是一种社会概念，而不是生物学概念，但种族健康差异研究却很少考虑到种族维度，而种族维度对于形成成人身体健康状况的持续差异可能是最重要的。在这项研究中，我们结合了种族是多维的社会建构主义观点，以纳什维尔压力与健康研究（N = 1186）中的黑人和白人成年人样本为样本，评估了种族自我认同和美国黑人的社会感知肤色这两种种族指标的健康意义。首先，我们使用差异研究中最常见的方法（比较结果中的群体差异）来考虑自我识别的稳态负荷（AL）种族差异，AL是身体调节失调的累积生物指标。其次，我们根据肤色（即浅色、棕色或深色皮肤）检查黑人 AL 的组内差异。第三，我们评估黑人肤色亚组之间的黑人与白人差异的大小是否相等。与之前的研究一致，我们发现黑人的失调率明显更高。然而，我们的结果还表明，AL 的种族差异因黑人肤色而异；白人和深肤色黑人之间的 AL 差异最大，白人和浅肤色黑人之间的 AL 差异最小。这项研究强调了黑人肤色作为社会分配种族的标志对于塑造成人生理失调的群体内和群体间差异的重要性。这些结果证明了在差异研究中评估种族的多个维度的重要性，因为这种方法可以更好地捕捉“种族”继续塑造健康的各种机制。黑人比白人具有更高的稳态负荷（即生理失调）。肤色是黑人非稳态负荷组内差异的一个来源。黑人与白人的非稳态负荷差异因黑人感知的肤色而异。白人和浅肤色黑人之间的静态负荷差异最小。结果显示了自我认同和社会分配的种族措施的重要性。
Despite a general acceptance of “race” as a social, rather than biological construct in the social sciences, racial health disparities research has given less consideration to the dimensions of race that may be most important for shaping persistent disparities in adult physical health status. In this study, we incorporate the social constructionist view that race is multidimensional to evaluate the health significance of two measures of race, racial self-identification and the socially perceived skin tone of black Americans, in a sample of black and white adults in the Nashville Stress and Health Study (N=1186). First, we use the approach most common in disparities research—comparing group differences in an outcome—to consider self-identified racial differences in allostatic load (AL), a cumulative biological indicator of physical dysregulation. Second, we examine intragroup variations in AL among blacks by skin tone (i.e. light, brown, or dark skin). Third, we assess whether the magnitude of black-white disparities are equal across black skin tone subgroups. Consistent with prior research, we find significantly higher rates of dysregulation among blacks. However, our results also show that racial differences in AL vary by blacks’ skin tone; AL disparities are largest between whites and dark-skinned blacks and smallest between whites and light-skinned blacks. This study highlights the importance of blacks’ skin tone as a marker of socially-assigned race for shaping intragroup and intergroup variations in adult physiological dysregulation. These results demonstrate the importance of assessing multiple dimensions of race in disparities research, as this approach may better capture the various mechanisms by which “race” continues to shape health. Blacks have higher allostatic load (i.e. physiological dysregulation) than whites. Skin tone is a source of intragroup variation in allostatic load among blacks. Black-white differences in allostatic load vary by blacks’ perceived skin tone. Allostatic load disparity is smallest between whites and light-skinned blacks. Results show importance of self-identified and socially assigned race measures.