A New Perspective on the Relationships Among Race, Social Class, and Psychological Distress
- 1 June 1986
- journal article
- research article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Journal of Health and Social Behavior
- Vol. 27 (2), 107-115
- https://doi.org/10.2307/2136310
Abstract
Over the past decade, a body of research has developed which purports to show that the well-established relationship between race and psychological distress is due entirely to social class. In our paper we demonstrate that this view is incorrect: Most prior research has assumed that the effects of race and social class are additive; our analysis shows that they are actually interactive. The form of intractions is such that the true effect of race is suppressed and the true effect of social class is magnified in a model that fails to take the interaction into consideration. An analysis of eight different epidemiologic surveys documents this result and shows that race differences in psychological distress are particularly pronounced among people with low incomes. On the basis of this result we call for renewed interest in the effect of race on mental health.This publication has 6 references indexed in Scilit:
- Use of the SADS-RDC in a Tri-Ethnic Community SurveyArchives of General Psychiatry, 1982
- RATES OF SYMPTOMS OF DEPRESSION IN A NATIONAL SAMPLEAmerican Journal of Epidemiology, 1981
- PREVALENCE OF DEPRESSION IN LOS ANGELES COUNTY1American Journal of Epidemiology, 1981
- Rates and risks of depressive symptoms in a United States urban communityActa Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 1978
- A Self-Rating Depression ScaleArchives of General Psychiatry, 1965
- A Twenty-Two Item Screening Score of Psychiatric Symptoms Indicating ImpairmentJournal of Health and Human Behavior, 1962