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Background: Research remains mixed on whether racial-ethnic self-designation impacts psychological health and well-being among Americans of African descent. Existing studies mainly use non-representative samples to address this question. Some scholars argue that Black people who express an African-centered identity should experience improved mental health because it enhances one's sense of self. However, what role self-designation may have on depression, one of the most common forms of disability, is largely unknown among African Americans. There is also limited evidence on whether one's self-concept can help us understand the relationship between self-designation and mental health among African Americans. Methods: Using data from a national probability sample of African American adults ( n = 3,329), I examined whether self-designation as African American, Afro-American, Negro, Black American, or some other label versus Black was associated with self-esteem, mastery, and major depressive episodes. Results: Using OLS models, I found that respondents who preferred the terms African American or Afro-American exhibited higher mastery levels compared to individuals who preferred the label Black, the most common term used among respondents. African American identifying respondents also exhibited significantly higher levels of self-esteem compared to Black identifying individuals. Using logistic regression models, I found that only African American identifying respondents were significantly less likely than Black identifying respondents to meet the criteria for major depressive episodes in the past-year. Higher levels of mastery and self-esteem helped to explain such differences. Conclusion: In sum, among Americans of African descent, identification as African American rather than Black may help fight depressive episodes because such self-designation may enhance one's self-concept. Further research is necessary to explore other possible psychological implications of self-designation among the African American/Black population.

AbstractPublic health literature is replete with evidence on the determinants of preventive healthcare utilization. However, gap exists in the relationship between health literacy, a key social determinant of health, and annual physical checkups, especially among younger adults in the United States. This age group is one of the least likely to utilize such services for screening and prevention of diseases, which can have a significant impact on their long‐term health as they progress through the life course. Using the Andersen Healthcare Utilization framework, this study investigated the association between health literacy, an enabling factor, and uptake of annual physical checkups among emerging adults aged 18–29. A binary logistic regression model was employed to achieve the study objective using data from the 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data (N = 9515). Findings showed that 61% of young adults had physical checkups in the past year. After adjusting for predisposing, need, and other enabling factors, experiencing difficulties with oral and written health literacy and having difficulties obtaining medical information and advice were significantly associated with lower odds of physical checkups in the past year. These findings provide evidence for strategies like Healthy People 2030 that aim to increase preventive healthcare service utilization among emerging adults.

AbstractIdentifying factors linked to the development of group consciousness is important toward bettering our understanding of group formation processes among marginalized ethnoracial groups. This study examines predictors of group consciousness among Asians and Asian Americans in the United States, focusing on numerous dimensions of this concept, including linked fate, panethnic group identification, and four specific sources of perceived group commonality and interests: (1) cultural, (2) economic, (3) political, and (4) racial. We use data from a national survey to examine socio‐structural, political, discrimination, and immigration correlates associated with separate dimensions of Asian group consciousness. We found that perceiving interpersonal discrimination increased the importance of being Asian; heightened the odds of feeling linked fate with other Asian people; and enhanced the odds of identification as "Asian American." Republicans and Independents were less likely to perceive different elements of Asian group consciousness compared to Democrats. Educational attainment, income, gender, employment status, ethnicity, and English‐speaking comfortability had varying effects across certain measures of Asian group consciousness. For Asians and Asian Americans, interpersonal discrimination and certain socio‐structural, political, and immigration factors may be especially meaningful toward the development of linked fate, shared group interests and commonalities, and panethnic identification, all of which are key toward activating group consciousness.

AbstractUsing the ongoing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic as a case study, this paper engages with debates on the assimilation of Asian Americans into the US mainstream. While a burgeoning scholarship holds that Asians are "entering into the dominant group" or becoming "White," the prevalent practices of othering Asians and surging anti‐Asian discrimination since the pandemic outbreak present a challenge to the assimilation thesis. This paper explains how anger against China quickly expands to Asian American population more broadly. Our explanation focuses on different forms of othering practices, deep‐seated stereotypes of Asians, and the role of politicians and media in activating or exacerbating anti‐Asian hatred. Through this scrutiny, this paper augments the theses that Asian Americans are still treated as "forever foreigners" and race is still a prominent factor in the assimilation of Asians in the United States. This paper also sheds light on the limitations of current measures of assimilation. More broadly, the paper questions the notion of color‐blindness or post‐racial America.

This study examined the effects of public housing relocation on the physical and mental health and overall self-reported health status of relocated residents. As a contrast, health outcomes of relocated residents were compared to residents of the larger community who did not live in public housing. The sample was drawn from a historically Black community (HBC) near central Florida. Data used for this study were collected as part of the Choices Neighborhood Initiatives' grant. In several regression models, the moderating effects of social cohesion on the relationship between resident status and health were assessed. Results showed relocated public housing residents reported more physical and mental health problems and poorer self-reported health compared to current residents of the broader community. In the fully adjusted models, social cohesion moderated the association between resident status and mental health. Our results suggest higher levels of social cohesion within public housing environments may be protective of poor mental health postrelocation for relocated residents.

AbstractObjectiveWe examine the association between college education and the number of medications used/misused in the past year. We also consider the possibility of differential socioeconomic returns to health for racial/ethnic minorities.MethodsThe data come from the 2015–2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health (n = 144,589).ResultsIn accordance with human capital theory, we found that, in the full sample and white subsample, college education was associated with lower levels of polypharmacy, even with adjustments for financial insecurity, health, and lifestyle. Consistent with the diminished return theory, we observed that college education was mostly unrelated to polypharmacy among black and Hispanic individuals. While health commodity theory was supported among Asians, health disparity theory was confirmed among individuals of other races and ethnicities.ConclusionThe most important implication of our study is that polypharmacy can be simultaneously structured by durable systems of social stratification, including education, race, and ethnicity.

Asians are now the fastest growing racial minority group in the United States. Nearly 18 million Asians and Asian Americans currently reside in the country. Approximately 44 million African Americans also live in the United States. To improve their limited social, economic, and political clout, Asians and Asian Americans in the United States (AAAUS) could benefit from the formation of mutually beneficial political alliances with African Americans, another historically marginalized racial group. However, complicated relational dynamics between African Americans and AAAUS may drastically reduce the chances of political unity. Using the 2008 National Asian American Survey, the authors examine the effects of three factors—group consciousness, linked fate, and experiences of discrimination—on perceptions of political commonality with African Americans among AAAUS. The findings show that group consciousness and linked fate positively and strongly increase the odds of perceptions of political commonality with African Americans; however, experiences of discrimination do not. The results suggest that the cultivation of mutually beneficial political alliances between African Americans and AAAUS would first require AAAUS to develop a heightened sense of group consciousness and linked fate. The potential impact of these factors on future political alliances between both groups are discussed, as are the limitations of this study.

Background: Studies that link urbanicity to mental health are mixed depending on outcome and context. More research is needed to examine whether the urban upbringing effect holds true across racial populations in a large and diverse country like the United States. Methods: We analyzed two large datasets that were administered contemporaneously with similar methods: The National Comorbidity Survey-Replication (NCS-R, Whites) and the National Survey of American Life (NSAL, Blacks). We ran multivariable logistic regression models to examine the associations between area of upbringing (urban/large city, other, rural) and six psychiatric disorders, controlling for sex, age, years of education and income-to-poverty ratio (and ethnicity in the NSAL). We performed these analyses in both the NCS-R and the NSAL separately. Results: The majority (58.97%) of the White sample grew up in the 'other' category (i.e. small town, small city, or suburb of a large city), whereas a much larger percentage (39.89%) of the Black sample grew up in a large city. In the White sample, urban upbringing was not associated with any of the psychiatric disorders at a conventional level of statistical significance. In the Black sample, urban upbringing was associated with greater odds of having mood disorder, alcohol use disorder and drug use disorder, but was not significantly associated with anxiety disorders, PTSD, or eating disorders. Conclusions: Urban upbringing was not associated with psychiatric disorders among Whites, but was associated with greater odds of mood disorders, alcohol us disorder and drug use disorder among Blacks. Future research can elucidate how differences in urban upbringing between Whites and Blacks are linked to differences in risk for psychiatric disorders.