Discrimination, symptoms of depression, and self-rated health Among African American women in Detroit: Results from a longitudinal analysis (2006)
A longitudinal study of African American women residing in Detroit’s east side found that perceived discrimination, of the day-to-day variety, was associated with an increase depressive symptoms and self-reported health. Three hundred forty-three women were surveyed both in 1996 and 2001. They responded to a 5-item everyday-discrimination scale, an 11-item depression scale, and one item about their health status. After the first survey, the researchers found that perceived discrimination was associated with poorer health status. Analysis after the second data collection point (2001) found that changes in perceived discrimination were positively associated with changes in symptoms of depression. This means that as discrimination increases over time, so do the number or depressive symptoms. These findings take into account that there was no significant change in income or education between the two samples of African American women. The importance of this longitudinal study design is that it permitted the researchers to compare responses of the cohort at two distinct (5 years apart) time points. For the purposes of data analysis, this design also allowed each participant’s changes to be compared to the baseline responses. (B was not only compared to A, but B was analyzed in terms of B – A.) Schulz et al. noted that because the sample was drawn from population that was primarily Black (97%), there may already be some (cultural, ethnic identity) buffers in place that attenuated the relationship between discrimination and health.
Relevance to documentary: Because a cross-sectional research doesn’t always carry the weight that longitudinal studies do, these results are especially important to relationship between discrimination and health.
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