Perceived discrimination, race and health in South Africa

Abstract

To assess the levels of perceived acute and chronic racial and non-racial discrimination in South Africa, their association with health, and the extent to which they contribute to racial differences in physical and mental health, data were used from a national probability sample of adults, the South African Stress and Health Study (SASH). All Black groups in South Africa (African, Coloured and Indian) were two to four times more likely than Whites to report acute and chronic experiences of racial discrimination. Africans and Coloureds report higher levels of ill health than Whites, but acute and chronic racial discrimination were unrelated to ill health and unimportant in accounting for racial differences in self-rated health. In contrast, all Black groups had higher levels of psychological distress than Whites, and perceived chronic discrimination was positively associated with distress. Moreover, these experiences accounted for some of the residual racial differences in distress after adjustment for socioeconomic status. Our main findings indicate that, in a historically racialized society, perceived chronic racial and especially non-racial discrimination acts independently of demographic factors, other stressors, psychological factors (social desirability, self-esteem and personal mastery), and multiple SES indicators to adversely affect mental health.

Differential reporting of discriminatory experiences in Brazil and the United States

“…The two studies used different variations of the Major Experiences of Discrimination Scale to capture lifetime discrimination experiences 3 . ELSA-Brasil collected information using a stem question "Have you ever been unfairly treated, due to discrimination", that was followed up with five possible domains: (1) (4) "Have you ever been unfairly prevented from moving into a neighborhood because the landlord or a realtor refused to sell or rent you a house or apartment?".…”

“…Most of the extant research on perceived discrimination has been conducted in the United States, a society with a long history of institutionalized racial discrimination, but one that experienced a Civil Rights movement in the 1960s that led to legal restrictions on racial discrimination, and a need to monitor compliance with these new laws. Researchers in other societies have also begun to explore the prevalence of perceived racial discrimination in the context of their own distinctive social and legal histories around race, such as South Africa 3 and Brazil 4,5,6,7 . Brazil stands out as a society without racially-discriminatory laws after the abolition of slavery, and a unique reputation as a supposed "racial democracy" as compared to other multiracial societies, but only recently has begun to officially acknowledge the persistence of racebased inequalities and discrimination.…”

Stigma, prejudice and discrimination in global public health

“…A large body of work has emerged, particularly in the United States, that has sought to measure the experience of discrimination 10,11 . In countries such as the Unites States and South Africa, that have experienced a long history of intense racial discrimination, research has been carried out with the aim of understanding the differential experience of "acute" as opposed to "chronic" racial and non-racial discrimination, and their impacts in relation to a range of stressors and psychological factors (such as social desirability, self-esteem and personal mastery) 12,13 . Both stigma and prejudice-related discrimination has been examined in relation to what Meyer and colleagues describe as "minority stress" 14 .…”

Stigma, prejudice, discrimination and health

“…Issue is based on a national probability sample of 4351 South Africans (Williams et al, 2008). Their main contribution lies in the exploration of the deleterious health consequences of race discrimination in an underexplored, but highly relevant, national context and the diversity of Blacks (African, Coloured and Indian) within the sample.…”