Adding Up Peer Beliefs: Experimental and Field Evidence on the Effect of Peer Influence on Math Performance

We studied how gendered beliefs about intellectual abilities transmit through peers and differentially impact girls' academic performance relative to boys'. Study 1 (N = 8,029; 208 classrooms) exploited randomly assigned variation in the proportion of a child's middle school classmates who believe that boys are innately better than girls at learning math. An increase in exposure to peers who report this belief generated losses for girls and gains for boys in math performance. This peer exposure also increased children's likelihood of believing the gender-math stereotype, increased the perceived difficulty of math, and reduced aspirations among girls. Study 2 (N = 547) provided proof of concept that activating a gender-math performance gap among college students reduces women's math performance but not verbal performance. Men's task performance was not affected. Our findings highlight how the prevalence of stereotypical beliefs in one's ambient and peer environment, even when readily contradictable, can shape children's beliefs and academic ability.

Where and with whom does a brief social-belonging intervention promote progress in college?

A promising way to mitigate inequality is by addressing students' worries about belonging. But where and with whom is this social-belonging intervention effective? Here we report a team-science randomized controlled experiment with 26,911 students at 22 diverse institutions. Results showed that the social-belonging intervention, administered online before college (in under 30 minutes), increased the rate at which students completed the first year as full-time students, especially among students in groups that had historically progressed at lower rates. The college context also mattered: The intervention was effective only when students' groups were afforded opportunities to belong. This study develops methods for understanding how student identities and contexts interact with interventions. It also shows that a low-cost, scalable intervention generalizes its effects to 749 4-year institutions in the United States.

“They Keep an Eye on You”: Minority Pressure and its Implications for Dual Identity Among Six Immigrant Groups in the Netherlands

The present study analyses perceived pressure to conform to minority group norms and examines its implications for identity (in-)compatibility among six immigrant groups in the Netherlands ( N = 5,783). We analyzed whether orientation toward the majority and minority and the perceived diversity climate explained individual and group differences in perceived minority pressure. Subsequently, we estimated multigroup models to examine whether perceived pressure moderated the association between minority and majority identifications. We found substantial group differences in perceived pressure that were not well explained by orientation toward the majority and minority groups, or the perceived diversity climate. Immigrants who had spent a larger proportion of their life in the receiving society experienced more, but those who had more work experience in the Netherlands experienced less pressure. Perceived pressure was higher the more the Netherlands was perceived as hospitable for immigrants, but also at higher levels of perceived intergroup hostility. Minority and majority group identifications were negatively associated across all six immigrant groups, but only among the Moroccan-Dutch did perceived pressure significantly moderate this association. Specifically, identifications became more compatible (i.e., more positively associated) at lower levels of pressure, a trend that we also observed among all other groups except the Turkish-Dutch; yet in these groups the interaction, though similar in magnitude and direction, was not statistically significant. We concluded that minority group dynamics may contribute to the (in-)compatibility of multiple group identifications, but more research is needed to understand the group characteristics that explain perceived minority pressure and its implications for minority members’ identification patterns.

Black Nativity and Health Disparities: A Research Paradigm for Understanding the Social Determinants of Health

After more than a century of research and debate, the scientific community has yet to reach agreement on the principal causes of racialized disparities in population health. This debate currently centers on the degree to which "race residuals" are a result of unobserved differences in the social context or unobserved differences in population characteristics. The comparative study of native and foreign-born Black populations represents a quasi-experimental design where race is "held constant". Such studies present a unique opportunity to improve our understanding of the social determinants of population health disparities. Since native and foreign-born Black populations occupy different sociocultural locations, and since populations with greater African ancestry have greater genetic diversity, comparative studies of these populations will advance our understanding of the complex relationship between sociocultural context, population characteristics and health outcomes. Therefore, we offer a conceptual framing for the comparative study of native and foreign-born Blacks along with a review of 208 studies that compare the mental and physical health of these populations. Although there is some complexity, especially with respect to mental health, the overall pattern is that foreign-born Blacks have better health outcomes than native-born Blacks. After reviewing these studies, we conclude with suggestions for future studies in this promising area of social and medical research.

Ethnicity, nativity, and the effects of stereotypes on cardiovascular health among people of African ancestry in the United States: internal versus external sources of racism

OBJECTIVE

The present study tests the hypothesis that ethnicity and nativity moderate the association of negative racial stereotypes versus perceived discrimination to cardiovascular health among Black respondents to the National Survey of American Life (NSAL). It is also hypothesized that the relationship is strongest in African Americans and weakest in foreign-born Caribbean Blacks with U.S.-born Caribbean Blacks falling in the middle. The same pattern of results is expected to occur for the correlation between perceived discrimination and cardiovascular health.

METHOD

A representative sample of 3570 (100%) African American and 1419 (87.4%) of 1623 Caribbean Black respondents to the NSAL had complete data for use in this study. The Caribbean subsample was divided by nativity into 373 (26.3%) U.S.-born and 1044 (73.7%) foreign-born participants. Structural equation modeling (SEM) tested the measurement model for effects of internalized racism and perceived racism on cardiovascular health mediated by perceived mastery and performance apprehension.

RESULTS

SEM analyses revealed that perceived discrimination had a much stronger effect on cardiovascular health than internalized racism for African Americans and foreign-born Caribbean Blacks, but the diametrically opposite pattern was the case for U.S.-born Caribbean Blacks who reported greater effects for internalized racism than perceived discrimination.

CONCLUSION

Interventions and policies to eliminate disparities in cardiovascular health for the U.S. Black population must address internal and external sources of racism by ethnicity and nativity.

“AmeriKenyan”: Lived Acculturation and Ethnic Identification of Kenyan Natives During Their Youth

This qualitative study investigated the immigration, acculturation process, and ethnic identity experiences of six Kenyan emerging adults who immigrated to the United States during their adolescent years. Themes emerged from the data to describe their (a) immigration experience, (b) acculturation process into an individualistic culture with more of a Western worldview, (c) ethnic and racial identity, and (d) emotional response and coping. Subthemes and additional factors illustrated their experience as it relates to social life, academics, cultural context, family values, and more. Implications for multicultural psychology research and practice are addressed.

APPLYING THE LIFESPAN MODEL OF ETHNIC-RACIAL IDENTITY: EXPLORING AFFECT, BEHAVIOR, AND COGNITION TO PROMOTE WELL-BEING

This paper presents an application of the Lifespan Model of Ethnic-Racial Identity (ERI) Development (see Williams, et al., in press). Using a tripartite approach, we present the affective, behavioral, and cognitive aspects of ERI in a framework that can be adapted for group and individual psychosocial interventions across the lifespan. These A-B-C anchors are presented in developmental contexts as well as the larger social contexts of systemic oppression and current and historical sociopolitical climates. It is ultimately the aspiration of this identity work that individuals will engage in ERI meaning-making, drawing from the implicit and explicit aspects of their A-B-Cs, to support a healthy and positive sense of themselves and others as members of ethnic-racial social groups.

What Do We Mean by “Ethnicity” and “Race”? A Consensual Qualitative Research Investigation of Colloquial Understandings

Lack of clarity and questionable congruence between researcher and participant understandings of ethnicity and race challenge the validity and impact of research utilizing these concepts. We aimed to both elucidate the multiple meanings that research participants in the United States might bring to questions about ethnicity and race and examine their relation to formal conceptualizations of these variables. We used consensual qualitative research-modified analyses to conduct thematic content analysis of 151 responses to open-ended survey questions about meanings of ethnicity and race. Participants included a racially diverse sample of 53 males, 87 females, and 11 unidentified gender with a mean age of 28.71 years. Results indicated that the most frequent colloquial meanings of ethnicity included origin, culture, ancestry, related or similar to race, social similarity, religion, and identity. The most frequent colloquial meanings of race included physical characteristics, ethnicity, origin, social grouping, ancestry, and imposed categorization. Results also illustrated how participants approached defining ethnicity and race. Results support the acknowledged and critiqued colloquial confounding of ethnicity and race and indicate a lack of agreed upon meaning between lay representations/meanings and formal meanings used by social scientists. This incongruence threatens valid operationalizations for research and challenges our ability to use these concepts in interventions to promote social justice and psychological health.

How Does Gender Stereotype Affect the Memory of Advertisements? A Behavioral and Electroencephalography Study

Previous studies have shown equivocal results about whether atypical or unusual events, compared with typical ones, facilitate or inhibit memory. We suspect that the indefinite findings could be partly due to the recall task used in these studies, as the participants might have used inference instead of recall in their responses. In the present study, we tested the recognition memory for real (Experiment 1) and fabricated (Experiment 2) advertisements, which could be congruent or incongruent with gender stereotypes. In congruent advertisements, a female endorser presented a traditionally considered feminine product or a male endorser presented a traditionally considered masculine product, whereas the gender-product type matching reversed in incongruent advertisements. The results of both behavioral experiments revealed that the participants’ memory performance for stereotype-incongruent advertisements was higher than for congruent ones. In the event-related potential (ERP) recordings in Experiment 3, larger positive amplitudes were found for stereotype-incongruent advertisements than for congruent advertisements on the left parietal sites, suggesting a deeper encoding process for stereotype-incongruent information than for stereotype-congruent information.

The moderating role of race/ethnicity and nativity in the relationship between perceived discrimination and overweight and obesity: results from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions

BACKGROUND

The overweight/obesity epidemic is a public health issue in the United States (US), that disproportionately affect certain racial/ethnic minority groups. Perceived discrimination has been implicated as a health risk factor. However, research on race/ethnicity, perceived discrimination, and obesity has been mixed. Researchers suggest that perceptions of discrimination may be dependent upon nativity status. This study evaluated the role that nativity status and race/ethnicity play in the relationship between perceived discrimination and overweight/obesity.

METHODS

We used Wave 2 of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (2004-2005) [N = 33,319]). Multinomial logistic regression assessed a three-way interaction (perceived discrimination × race/ethnicity × nativity) on overweight and obesity, adjusting for sociodemographic factors and health-related behaviors.

RESULTS

The three-way interaction was significant for overweight [F (17, 49) = 3.35; p < 0.001] and obesity [F (17, 49) = 5.05; p < 0.001]. Among US-born individuals, US-born non-Hispanic Blacks had a decreased risk of being obese compared to US-born non-Hispanic Whites at mean levels of perceived discrimination [aRRR = 0.71; 95% CI (0.51-0.98); p = 0.04). Among foreign-born individuals, foreign-born South Americans had an increased risk of being overweight at mean levels of perceived discrimination compared to foreign-born non-Hispanic Whites [aRRR = 8.07; 95% CI (1.68-38.77); p = 0.01], whereas foreign-born Dominicans had a decreased risk of being obese compared to foreign-born non-Hispanic Whites [aRRR = 0.05; 95% CI (0.01-0.20); p < 0.001].

CONCLUSION

Perceived racial discrimination is a risk factor for overweight/obesity for certain groups. Race/ethnicity and nativity may play important roles in the relationship between perceived discrimination and overweight/obesity. Future research is needed to identify the behavioral and psychological pathways that link perceived discrimination and overweight/obesity.

Can Identity Conflicts Impede the Success of Ethnic Minority Students? Consequences of Discrepancies Between Ethnic and Ideal Selves

Because of stigma and underrepresentation, many ethnic minority students may find it difficult to align their ethnicities with their ideal selves. However, these difficulties and their potential consequences have been empirically neglected. To inform this gap in the literature, we propose that the novel concept of ethnic/ideal self-discrepancies (i.e., perceived mismatches between who a person aspires to be and this person's conception of their ethnic self) is associated with the academic outcomes of ethnic minority students. As hypothesized, large ethnic/ideal self-discrepancies predict high academic disengagement, according to cross-sectional data from Study 1 ( n = 147) and Study 2 ( n = 105), as well as high academic disengagement 2 months later according to half-longitudinal data from Study 2 ( n = 78). In Study 3 ( n = 99), ethnic minority students experimentally induced to perceive high ethnic/ideal self-discrepancies reported significantly higher academic disengagement than ethnic minority students in a low discrepancy condition.

Challenges From and Beyond Symptomatology: Stereotype Threat in Young Adults With ADHD

OBJECTIVE

Stereotype threat-faced when one confronts a personally relevant stereotype in a domain-relevant context-can significantly jeopardize individual performance in test-taking situations. Research has overlooked the potential for mental health labels to serve as bases for stereotype threat in such situations. This study examines whether ADHD, a disorder frequently serving as a basis for standardized testing accommodation, may trigger stereotype threat in testing situations.

METHOD

Drawing from a sample of 114 participants (53 reporting a history of ADHD and 61 not reporting a history of ADHD), this study considers whether stereotype threat invoked on the basis of ADHD hinders performance on Graduate Record Examination (GRE) questions beyond the impact of symptomatology.

RESULTS

Participants reporting ADHD achieved significantly lower scores on verbal and quantitative GRE questions than participants without ADHD. Participants between the ages of 18 and 24 reporting ADHD who were explicitly exposed to stereotype threat achieved significantly lower scores on quantitative GRE questions than their ADHD-reporting peers who were not explicitly exposed to stereotype threat.

CONCLUSION

Domain-relevant mental health labels may trigger stereotype threat in test-taking situations.

Asthma in children of Caribbean descent living in the inner-city: comparing Puerto Rican and Afro-Caribbean children

Ethnic minority children bear a disproportionate amount of the US asthma burden. We compared asthma morbidity and pulmonary function (%FEV1) in two Caribbean groups living in the Bronx, NY: Puerto Rican and Afro-Caribbean children. Caregiver-child dyads (Puerto Rican: n = 113, M age = 9.89 ± 2.05; Afro-Caribbean: n = 47, Mage = 10.35 ± 2.08) responded to sociodemographic and asthma-related questions, and children's %FEV1 was measured. Puerto Rican children had significantly greater (past year) asthma morbidity, yet there were no significant differences in %FEV1. This discrepancy between objective pulmonary function and asthma morbidity suggests the importance of considering sociocultural factors in pediatric asthma care.

The Roles of Shared Racial Fate and a Sense of Belonging With African Americans in Black Immigrants’ Race-Related Stress and Depression

Objectives: The first goal was to examine whether race-related stress was associated with depression in Black immigrants, as has been found in African Americans. The second goal was to determine whether intergroup relations identity factors—Black immigrants’ shared racial fate or sense of belonging with African Americans—were related to depression, above and beyond race-related stress. Third, we examined if Black immigrants’ shared racial fate or a sense of belonging with African Americans moderated the relationship between race-related stress and depression. Method: Data were collected from 110 individuals who identified as first- or second-generation Black immigrants. Results: Greater race-related stress was related to higher depression. Greater endorsement of a sense of belonging with African Americans was related to lower depression over and above the influence of race-related stress; this was not the case for shared racial fate, which was not associated with depression. Neither shared racial fate nor a sense of belonging with African Americans moderated the association between race-related stress and depression. Intergroup relations facilitate our understanding of well-being in immigrant populations.

Exploring Black Immigrants’ and Nonimmigrants’ Understanding of “Acting Black” and “Acting White”

Immigrant and nonimmigrant Black adolescents’ perceptions of “acting Black” and “acting White” were compared using a concurrent mixed-methods approach. Using the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study data set, 39 second-generation African and Caribbean adolescent immigrants and a matched set of 39 nonimmigrant Black peers responded to the question “What does it mean to act Black/White?” Their responses were examined for differences and change over time. Quantitative analyses revealed that all Black youth shifted in their perspectives of acting White and acting Black but immigrant youth differed significantly from their nonimmigrant counterparts. Analysis of secondary qualitative text further highlighted respondents’ development and change at Time 2. These results underscore a racial cultural orientation process under the tridimensional model that acknowledges Black immigrants’ acculturation to African American culture in the United States.

Discrimination, internalized racism, and depression: A comparative study of African American and Afro-Caribbean adults in the US

Emerging research suggests that both perceptions of discrimination and internalized racism (i.e., endorsement of negative stereotypes of one's racial group) are associated with poor mental health. Yet, no studies to date have examined their effects on mental health with racial/ethnic minorities in the US in a single study. The present study examined: (a) the direct effects of everyday discrimination and internalized racism on risk of DSM-IV criteria of past-year major depressive disorder (MDD); (b) the interactive effects of everyday discrimination and internalized racism on risk of past-year MDD; and (c) the indirect effect of everyday discrimination on risk of past-year MDD via internalized racism. Further, we examined whether these associations differed by ethnic group membership. We utilized nationally representative data of Afro-Caribbean (N = 1,418) and African American (N = 3,570) adults from the National Survey of American Life. Results revealed that experiencing discrimination was associated with increased odds of past-year MDD among the total sample. Moreover, for Afro-Caribbeans, but not African Americans, internalized racism was associated with decreased odds of meeting criteria for past-year MDD. We did not find an interaction effect for everyday discrimination by internalized racism, nor an indirect effect of discrimination on risk of past-year MDD through internalized racism. Collectively, our findings suggest a need to investigate other potential mechanisms by which discrimination impacts mental health, and examine further the underlying factors of internalized racism as a potential self-protective strategy. Lastly, our findings point to the need for research that draws attention to the heterogeneity within the U.S. Black population.

Being smart or getting smarter: Implicit theory of intelligence moderates stereotype threat and stereotype lift effects

This research explores implicit theory of intelligence (TOI) as a moderator of stereotype activation effects on test performance for members of negatively stereotyped and of favourably stereotyped groups. In Germany, Turkish-origin migrants are stereotyped as low in verbal ability. We predicted that on a test diagnostic of verbal intelligence, endorsement of an entity TOI predicts stereotype threat effects for Turkish-origin students and stereotype lift effects for German students. This effect could account for some of the performance gap between immigrants and host society members after stereotype activation. Study 1 (N = 107) established structural equivalence of implicit theories across the ethnic groups. In two experimental studies (Study 2: N = 182, Study 3: N = 190), we tested the moderating effect of TOI in a 2 (stereotype activation: diagnostic vs. non-diagnostic test) × 2 (ethnicity: German vs. Turkish migration background) experimental design. The results showed that when the test was described as diagnostic of verbal intelligence, higher entity theory endorsement predicted stereotype threat effects for Turkish-origin students (Study 2 and Study 3) and stereotype lift effects for German students (Study 3). The results are discussed in terms of practical implications for educational settings and theoretical implications for processes underlying stereotype activation effects.

Discrimination and Depressive Symptoms Among Black American Men: Moderated-Mediation Effects of Ethnicity and Self-Esteem

Discrimination is related to depression and poor self-esteem among Black men. Poorer self-esteem is also associated with depression. However, there is limited research identifying how self-esteem may mediate the associations between discrimination and depressive symptoms for disparate ethnic groups of Black men. The purpose of this study was to examine ethnic groups as a moderator of the mediating effects of self-esteem on the relationship between discrimination and depressive symptoms among a nationally representative sample of African American (n = 1201) and Afro-Caribbean American men (n = 545) in the National Survey of American Life. Due to cultural socialization differences, we hypothesized that self-esteem would mediate the associations between discrimination and depressive symptoms only for African American men, but not Afro-Caribbean American men. Moderated-mediation regression analyses indicated that the conditional indirect effects of discrimination on depressive symptoms through self-esteem were significant for African American men, but not for Afro-Caribbean men. Our results highlight important ethnic differences among Black men.

Place of birth effects on self-reported discrimination: Variations by type of discrimination

Researchers have suggested that perceptions of discrimination may vary depending on place of birth and the length of time spent living in the U.S., variables related to acculturation. However, the existing literature provides a mixed picture, with data suggesting that the effects of acculturation on perceptions of discrimination vary by race and other sociodemographic factors. This study evaluated the role of place of birth (POB: defined as U.S.-born vs. foreign-born), age at immigration, and length of residence in the U.S. on self-reported discrimination in a sample of urban-dwelling Asian and Black adults (n= 1454). Analyses examined POB effects on different types of discrimination including race-related stigmatization, exclusion, threat, and workplace discrimination. Sociodemographic variables (including age, gender, employment status and education level) were tested as potential moderators of the relationship between POB and discrimination. The results revealed a significant main effect for POB on discrimination, with U.S.-born individuals reporting significantly more discrimination than foreign-born individuals, although the effect was reduced when sociodemographic variables were controlled. Across the sample, POB effects were seen only for race-related stigmatization and exclusion, not for threat and workplace discrimination. With the exception of limited effects for gender, sociodemographic variables did not moderate these effects. Younger age at immigration and greater years of residence in the U.S. were also positively associated with higher levels of perceived discrimination. These findings suggest increasing acculturation may shape the experience and perception of racial and ethnic discrimination.

Grolar Bears, Social Class, and Policy Relevance: Extraordinary Agendas for the Emerging 21st Century

This Agenda article first considers whether social psychology is in the best or worst of times and suggests that we are instead in extraordinary times, given exciting agendas and potential policy relevance, if we are careful. The article illustrates with two current research agendas-the hybrid vigor of multiple categories and the psychology of social class-that could inform policy. The essay then reflects on how we know when our work is indeed ready for the public arena. Regarding hybrids: World immigration, social media, and global businesses are increasing. How will this complicate people's stereotypes of each other? One agenda could build on the existing social and behavioral science of people as social hybrids, emerging with a framework to synthesize existing work and guide future research that better reflects our changing world. Policy implications already emerge from our current knowledge of hybrids. Regarding the social psychology of social class: We do not know enough yet to give advice, except to suggest questioning some common stereotypes, e.g., about the economic behavior of lower-income people. Before the budding social psychology of class can be ready for policy export, the research results need replication, validation, and generality. Overall, principles of exportable policy insights include peer-reviewed standards, honest brokering, nonpartisan advice, and respectful, trustworthy communication. Social psychology can take advantage of its extraordinary times to be innovative and useful.

Discrimination and Health Inequities

In 1999, only 20 studies in the public health literature employed instruments to measure self-reported experiences of discrimination. Fifteen years later, the number of empirical investigations on discrimination and health easily exceeds 500, with these studies increasingly global in scope and focused on major types of discrimination variously involving race/ethnicity, indigenous status, immigrant status, gender, sexuality, disability, and age, separately and in combination. And yet, as I also document, even as the number of investigations has dramatically expanded, the scope remains narrow: studies remain focused primarily on interpersonal discrimination, and scant research investigates the health impacts of structural discrimination, a gap consonant with the limited epidemiologic research on political systems and population health. Accordingly, to help advance the state of the field, this updated review article: ( a) briefly reviews definitions of discrimination, illustrated with examples from the United States; ( b) discusses theoretical insights useful for conceptualizing how discrimination can become embodied and produce health inequities, including via distortion of scientific knowledge; ( c) concisely summarizes extant evidence—both robust and inconsistent—linking discrimination and health; and ( d) addresses several key methodological controversies and challenges, including the need for careful attention to domains, pathways, level, and spatiotemporal scale, in historical context.

Perceived discrimination and chronic health in adults from nine ethnic subgroups in the USA

OBJECTIVE

This comparative analysis examines the association between chronic cardiovascular, respiratory and pain conditions, race, ethnicity, nativity, length of residency, and perceived discrimination among three racial and nine ethnic subgroups of Asian Americans (Vietnamese, Filipino, and Chinese), Latino-American (Cuban, Portuguese, and Mexican), and Afro-Caribbean American (Haitian, Jamaican, and Trinidadian/Tobagonian) respondents.

DESIGN

Analysis used weighted Collaborative Psychiatric Epidemiology Surveys-merged data from the National Latino and Asian American Study and the National Survey of American Life. Logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine which groups within the model were more likely to report perceived discrimination effects.

RESULTS

Afro-Caribbean subgroups were more likely to report perceived discrimination than Asian American and Latino-American subgroups were. Logistic regression revealed a significant positive association with perceived discrimination and chronic pain only for Latino-American respondents.

CONCLUSION

Significant differences in reports of perceived discrimination emerged by race and ethnicity. Caribbean respondents were more likely to report high levels of perceived discrimination; however, they showed fewer significant associations related to chronic health conditions compared to Asian Americans and Latino-Americans. Examination of perceived discrimination across ethnic subgroups reveals large variations in the relationship between chronic health and discrimination by race and ethnicity. Examining perceived discrimination by ethnicity may reveal more complex chronic health patterns masked by broader racial groupings.

"Which box should I check?": examining standard check box approaches to measuring race and ethnicity

OBJECTIVE

This study examined methodological concerns with standard approaches to measuring race and ethnicity using the federally defined race and ethnicity categories, as utilized in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funded research.

DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING

Surveys were administered to 219 economically disadvantaged, racially and ethnically diverse participants at Boston Women Infants and Children (WIC) clinics during 2010.

STUDY DESIGN

We examined missingness and misclassification in responses to the closed-ended NIH measure of race and ethnicity compared with open-ended measures of self-identified race and ethnicity.

PRINCIPAL FINDINGS

Rates of missingness were 26 and 43 percent for NIH race and ethnicity items, respectively, compared with 11 and 18 percent for open-ended responses. NIH race responses matched racial self-identification in only 44 percent of cases. Missingness and misclassification were disproportionately higher for self-identified Latina(o)s, African-Americans, and Cape Verdeans. Race, but not ethnicity, was more often missing for immigrant versus mainland U.S.-born respondents. Results also indicated that ethnicity for Hispanic/Latina(o)s is more complex than captured in this measure.

CONCLUSIONS

The NIH's current race and ethnicity measure demonstrated poor differentiation of race and ethnicity, restricted response options, and lack of an inclusive ethnicity question. Separating race and ethnicity and providing respondents with adequate flexibility to identify themselves both racially and ethnically may improve valid operationalization.

Racism and Health I: Pathways and Scientific Evidence

This article reviews the scientific research that indicates that despite marked declines in public support for negative racial attitudes in the United States, racism, in its multiple forms, remains embedded in American society. The focus of the article is on the review of empirical research that suggests that racism adversely affects the health of non-dominant racial populations in multiple ways. First, institutional racism developed policies and procedures that have reduced access to housing, neighborhood and educational quality, employment opportunities and other desirable resources in society. Second, cultural racism, at the societal and individual level, negatively affects economic status and health by creating a policy environment hostile to egalitarian policies, triggering negative stereotypes and discrimination that are pathogenic and fostering health damaging psychological responses such as stereotype threat and internalized racism. Finally, a large and growing body of evidence indicates that experiences of racial discrimination are an important type of psychosocial stressor that can lead to adverse changes in health status and altered behavioural patterns that increase health risks.

Cultural Racism–Related Stress in Black Caribbean Immigrants

Scholars maintain that with greater length of residence, the U.S. context adversely affects Black immigrants (e.g., via racism-related stress). Yet, the psychological mechanisms that account for increases in racism-related stress over time are unclear. Racial identity scholarship provides reason to suspect Black immigrants’ racial identities may partially explain these increases. In this study, Black Americans and Black Caribbean immigrants ( N = 171) responded to measures of cultural racism–related stress and the “identity” (importance of racial group membership to the self-concept) component of racial identity. We expected identity importance to (a) positively predict cultural racism–related stress for both populations and (b) mediate the association between length of residence and cultural racism–related stress in Black Caribbean immigrants. Although no significant mean difference in identity importance existed between groups, identity predicted cultural racism–related stress only in Black Americans. In Black Caribbean immigrants, identity was not a mediator, but length of residence positively predicted cultural racism–related stress. Differences in results across the two populations may indicate important distinctions in racial identity function between Black Caribbean immigrants and Black Americans.

Miles to go before we sleep: racial inequities in health

Large, pervasive, and persistent racial inequalities exist in the onset, courses, and outcomes of illness. A comprehensive understanding of the patterning of racial disparities indicates that racism in both its institutional and individual forms remains an important determinant. There is an urgent need to build the science base that would identify how to trigger the conditions that would facilitate needed societal change and to identify the optimal interventions that would confront and dismantle the societal conditions that create and sustain health inequalities.

Counterspaces: a unit of analysis for understanding the role of settings in marginalized individuals' adaptive responses to oppression

Research and theory on the intervening variables that enable individuals who experience marginalization and oppression to achieve well-being have historically relied on an individual level of analysis. Yet, there is a growing body of literature that highlights the roles that contexts play in facilitating processes that result in wellness among marginalized individuals. This paper proposes a conceptual framework that highlights a specific type of setting, referred to as "counterspaces," which promotes the psychological well-being of individuals who experience oppression. Counterspaces are theorized to enhance well-being by challenging deficit-oriented societal narratives concerning marginalized individuals' identities. The conceptual frame proposed here suggests that "challenging" can occur through at least three processes: (1) narrative identity work, (2) acts of resistance, and (3) direct relational transactions. This paper articulates each of these challenging processes. Additionally, the utility of using the Counterspaces framework for thinking critically about and investigating how settings-and the transactional processes that unfold within them-are associated with the promotion of psychological wellness for various marginalized populations is discussed.

Methods for the scientific study of discrimination and health: an ecosocial approach

The scientific study of how discrimination harms health requires theoretically grounded methods. At issue is how discrimination, as one form of societal injustice, becomes embodied inequality and is manifested as health inequities. As clarified by ecosocial theory, methods must address the lived realities of discrimination as an exploitative and oppressive societal phenomenon operating at multiple levels and involving myriad pathways across both the life course and historical generations. An integrated embodied research approach hence must consider (1) the structural level-past and present de jure and de facto discrimination; (2) the individual level-issues of domains, nativity, and use of both explicit and implicit discrimination measures; and (3) how current research methods likely underestimate the impact of racism on health.

Revisiting the Underclass Debate

The “underclass” concept pervades social science research on poverty, racial relations, and more recently, immigration. In this article, we elaborate and extend Massey’s critique of the underclass concept by briefly reviewing the history of this concept and emphasizing its contemporary application to immigrants and undocumented workers. We also explore how the term as well as popular variants, including the “rainbow underclass,” are ambiguously defined yet legitimated by contemporary researchers and, as a result, have become more deeply embedded in social science scholarship. Furthermore, we critique the prevalent use of this term in describing minority groups and highlight its potential to reaffirm individualistic, racist views of immigrants while obscuring social processes that perpetuate inequality. We conclude with a call to scholars and policy analysts to replace this term with pointed analyses of the structural conditions that shape the lives of disadvantaged groups.

Ethnic stigma, academic anxiety, and intrinsic motivation in middle childhood

Previous research addressing the dynamics of stigma and academics has focused on African American adolescents and adults. The present study examined stigma awareness, academic anxiety, and intrinsic motivation among 451 young (ages 6-11) and diverse (African American, Chinese, Dominican, Russian, and European American) students. Results indicated that ethnic-minority children reported higher stigma awareness than European American children. For all children, stigma awareness was associated with higher academic anxiety and lower intrinsic motivation. Despite these associations, ethnic-minority children reported higher levels of intrinsic motivation than their European American peers. A significant portion of the higher intrinsic motivation among Dominican students was associated with their higher levels of school belonging, suggesting that supportive school environments may be important sources of intrinsic motivation among some ethnic-minority children.

Dual Identity as a Two-Edged Sword

Some members of ethnic minority groups respond to identity threat in ways that are detrimental to their school career, while others persist despite an unwelcoming school environment. It was hypothesized that ethnic and national identities, as combined in “separated,” “assimilated,” or “dual identity” strategies, moderate consequences of identity threat for minority school performance and that the adaptive value of different identity strategies depends on the intergroup context. Random samples of Turkish Belgian young adults ( N = 576) were interviewed about their school performance (i.e., high, middle, or low success) and past experiences of discrimination in school as an indicator of identity threat. Results revealed that Turkish Belgians with “separated” or “assimilated” identity strategies were less likely than “dual” identifiers to disengage from school when perceived threat was high. Conversely, dual identifiers were most successful when perceived threat was low. Implications of the up- and downsides of dual identity for minority school performance are discussed.

Impact of Experiences With Racism on African-Descent Persons’ Susceptibility to Stereotype Threat Within the United Kingdom

The present study examines the impact of experiences with individual, institutional, cultural, and collective racism on susceptibility to stereotype among African-descent persons within the United Kingdom ( n = 103). Results of hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that (contrary to hypotheses) experiences with individual, institutional, and cultural racism were not significantly or marginally related to susceptibility to stereotype threat when entered together in Model 1. However (consistent with hypotheses), experience with collective racism was a significant positive predictor of susceptibility to stereotype threat after controlling for the effects of experiences with individual, institutional, and cultural racism in Model 2. Moreover (and unexpectedly), once experience with collective racism was added, experience with cultural racism emerged as a marginal negative predictor of susceptibility to stereotype threat. Implications for the continuing relevance of Erving Goffman’s symbolic interactionist theory and construct of stigma, along with Claude Steele’s construct of stereotype threat, to the field of Black psychology is discussed.

Gender Identification Moderates Social Identity Threat Effects on Working Memory

This investigation examined whether gender identification moderates women’s working memory following exposure to situations that threaten the integrity of their gender group. Young adults read sentences that either threatened women’s gender identity (in the social identity threat condition) or did not threaten this identity (in the control condition). During this sentence-reading task, participants were also asked to remember numerous neutral words. Women who were more strongly gender-identified recalled fewer of the neutral words when these words were presented in conjunction with sentences that threatened women’s gender identity compared to when the words were presented with non-identity threatening sentences. More weakly gender-identified women, as well as men, did not show working memory impairments when exposed to threatening as compared to nonthreatening sentences. This study provides insight into who is most vulnerable to experiencing working memory impairments following a threat to their social identity. It also has practical implications for promoting environments that increase the likelihood that members of devalued groups can more optimally draw on their reserves of memory. For instance, workplaces that permit the expression of sexism may find that this behavior actually decreases the performance of female employees who identify with their gender group.

Ethnic-Racial Socialization Messages in the Identity Development of Second-Generation Haitians

This study utilized qualitative inquiry to investigate the role of ethnic-racial socialization messages on ethnic and racial identity development among second-generation Haitians. Nine participants, ranging in age from 15 to 26, took part in individual semistructured qualitative interviews. The data were reviewed for emergent themes, as well as themes present in the ethnic-racial socialization and identity literature. Participants reported receiving positive messages (i.e., Cultural Socialization, Mainstream Socialization, and Preparation for Bias messages) directed at their ethnic groups in the home context and negative messages (i.e., Promotion of Mistrust and discriminatory messages) about their racial group in the home, peer, and societal contexts. In addition, participants who received positive messages directed at their ethnic group reported engaging in identity exploration and endorsing a stable commitment to the identity. Conversely, participants who received negative messages directed at either their ethnic or racial identity reported little to no exploration and exhibited a less stable commitment to that identity. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Sociology: A Lost Connection in Social Psychology

For the first half of the 20th century, sociology was one of the closest allies of social psychology. Over the past four decades, however, the connection with sociology has weakened, whereas new connections with neighboring disciplines (e.g., biology, economics, political science) have formed. Along the way, the sociological perspective has been largely lost in mainstream social psychology in the United States. Most social psychologists today are not concerned with collective phenomena and do not investigate social structural factors (e.g., residential mobility, socioeconomic status, dominant religion, political systems). Even when the social structural factors are included in the analysis, psychologists typically treat them as individual difference variables. Sociologist C. Wright Mills famously promoted sociological imagination, or the ability to see distal yet important social forces operating in a larger societal context. By comparing sociological perspectives to psychological perspectives, this article highlights the insights that the sociological perspective and sociological imagination can bring to social psychology.

IMAGES OF BLACK AMERICANS: Then, "Them," and Now, "Obama!"

Images of Black Americans are becoming remarkably diverse, enabling Barack Obama to defy simple-minded stereotypes and succeed. Understood through the Stereotype Content Model's demonstrably fundamental trait dimensions of perceived warmth and competence, images of Black Americans show three relevant patterns. Stereotyping by omission allows non-Blacks to accentuate the positive, excluding any lingering negativity but implying it by its absence; specifically, describing Black Americans as gregarious and passionate suggests warmth but ignores competence and implies its lack. Obama's credentials prevented him from being cast as incompetent, though the experience debate continued. His legendary calm and passionate charisma saved him on the warmth dimension. Social class subtypes for Black Americans differentiate dramatically between low-income Blacks and Black professionals, among both non-Black and Black samples. Obama clearly fit the moderately warm, highly competent Black-professional subtype. Finally, the campaign's events (and nonevents) allowed voter habituation to overcome non-Blacks' automatic emotional vigilance to Black Americans.