Doctoral Dissertation Research: Social Status and Stress among African American Adolescents

博士论文研究：非裔美国青少年的社会地位和压力

• 批准号: 0514731
• 负责人: Thomas McDade
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: Northwestern University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-07-01 至 2006-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0514731&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Social; Status

Recognition that social inequality and stress play a role in racial health disparities has spurred many biomedical researchers in the United States to use 'race' as a proxy measure of social status differences. However, this practice reinforces assumptions of racial homogeneity and deflects attention from important intra-racial variation in social stress processes. Elevated stress during youth is now recognized to be a significant precursor to the development of adult chronic disease. Thus, understanding the impact of social stress variation among African American adolescents, who are at increased risk for stress-related diseases later in life, is particularly important. This dissertation research by a cultural anthropologist will employ structured ethnographic techniques to create a culturally salient measure of one important stressor - social status - for a high school community in a suburb of Chicago, IL. This measure will then be used to relate individual levels of social status with physical and cognitive/emotional measures of stress among African American youth. In addition to challenging overly-simplistic uses of race variables in biomedical research, this project will advance biocultural research approaches that link cultural, individual, and biological phenomena. Broader Impacts:Racial disparities in health constitute a significant problem in the United States and lead to reduced general well-being and quality of life for many African Americans. While adolescent stress is clearly implicated in adult chronic disease development, black youth have been relatively underrepresented in health disparities and psychosocial stress research. Recent evidence suggests that stress reduction may significantly reduce blood pressure in African American youth. Thus, identifying stress processes related specifically to social status will potentially allow for prevention and intervention programs to be more tailored to meeting the needs of this at-risk group. In addition the project advances the education of a young social scientist.

认识到社会不平等和压力在种族健康差异中发挥了作用，促使美国许多生物医学研究人员使用“种族”作为社会地位差异的替代指标。然而，这种做法强化了种族同质性的假设，并将注意力从社会压力过程中重要的种族内变化转移开来。青年时期的压力升高现在被认为是成年慢性病发展的重要前兆。因此，了解非洲裔美国青少年的社会压力变化的影响，谁是在压力相关疾病的风险增加以后的生活，是特别重要的。本论文的研究由一个文化人类学家将采用结构化的人种志技术，创造一个重要的压力-社会地位-在芝加哥，IL郊区的一所高中社区文化显着的措施。这一措施，然后将被用来与个人的社会地位水平与身体和认知/情绪措施的压力之间的非洲裔美国青年。除了挑战生物医学研究中种族变量的过于简单化的使用外，该项目还将推进将文化，个人和生物现象联系起来的生物文化研究方法。更广泛的影响：健康方面的种族差异是美国的一个重大问题，导致许多非洲裔美国人的总体福祉和生活质量下降。虽然青少年的压力显然与成人慢性病的发展有关，但黑人青年在健康差距和心理社会压力研究中的代表性相对不足。最近的证据表明，减轻压力可能会显着降低非裔美国青年的血压。因此，识别与社会地位具体相关的压力过程将可能使预防和干预计划更适合于满足这一风险群体的需求。此外，该项目还促进了青年社会科学家的教育。