“Discrimination” versus “Unfair Treatment”: Measuring Differential Treatment and its Association with Health

Abstract

There is consistent evidence of the health‐harming effects of discrimination. However, it remains unclear whether discrimination contributes to persistent racial and ethnic health disparities. One hindrance to documenting the association between discrimination and health disparities is ongoing methodological issues, particularly the role of question wording in assessing self‐reports of discrimination. Using two nationally representative surveys, we investigate whether the prevalence, distribution, and mental and physical health consequences of differential treatment vary by question wording—”discrimination” versus “unfair treatment.” We find that “unfair treatment” yields greater reports of everyday forms of differential treatment relative to reports of “discrimination,” while the latter yields greater reports of major forms of differential treatment. In addition, the negative effect of “unfair treatment” on mental health is stronger than that of “discrimination,” while the latter has a stronger negative effect on physical health. However, the effect of question wording on reports of differential treatment and its association with health is largely unique to non‐Hispanic whites. We conclude that unfair treatment and discrimination reflect distinct concepts that should not be used interchangeably.

Perceived discrimination and health: Paradigms and prospects

“…Health scholars have followed calls for more neutral terminology in recent years, but social science disciplines have yet to follow suit (Grollman & Hagiwara, ). Researchers may express caution when comparing reports of unfair treatment with discrimination, as these are distinct, yet overlapping experiences: though both threaten fairness and equality (Williams et al, ), unfair treatment is based on unique, individual characteristics (personality; Grollman & Hagiwara, ), while discrimination is based on one's social group (race/ethnicity) memberships (Bastos et al, ). Additionally, the ways in which questions ask about perceptions of discrimination or unfair treatment often vary across surveys (Grollman & Hagiwara, ), which presents challenges for researchers, including the ability to compare results or accurately pinpoint when reports of discrimination occurred.…”

“I Didn’t Succumb to the Darkness”: Multi-Modal Reflections on Black Womxn’s Engineering PhD Spirit-Murdering Experiences

“…( Kagome The multi-layered social location that these womxn exist in includes: 1) the United States-which happens to be majority white, 2) their respective doctoral institutions-which are all historically white institutions, and 3) their respective engineering doctoral programs-with roughly 0.56% of engineering doctorates being awarded to Black womxn in the year 2021 (American Society for Engineering Education, 2022). Because of their social location within these environments that they live and operate in, they experience things that only people with those marginalized identities can, and will, experience as a result of their marginalized identities (Charleston et al, 2014;Grollman & Hagiwara, 2019;Wilkins-Yel et al, 2022). Black womxn experience things that other social groups would not, and do not understand because they exist within a different social location within society (Armour-Burton & Etland, 2020).…”