Low-Income African-American Mothers’ Perception of Exposure to Racial Discrimination and Infant Birth Weight

Collins, James W.; David, Richard J.; Symons, Rebecca; Handler, Adren; Wall, Stephen; Dwyer, Lisa

doi:10.1097/00001648-200005000-00019

Cited by 156 publications

(122 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Our study complements the few existing empirical studies of racism and infant health outcomes. However, not unlike other studies that have investigated racism and birth outcomes, [28][29][30]48 our observed association between racism and low birth weight did not attain statistical significance in adjusted analyses, and therefore our empirical findings are only mildly suggestive of a relationship. We relied on retrospective selfreports of birth outcomes from a sample birth cohort that cannot be generalized to the counties, and our sample may have been inadequately powered for the measured associations.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

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Racism, Health Status, and Birth Outcomes: Results of a Participatory Community-Based Intervention and Health Survey

et al. 2011

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Many community-based participatory research (CBPR) partnerships address social determinants of health as a central consideration. However, research studies that explicitly address racism are scarce in the CBPR literature, and there is a dearth of available community-generated data to empirically examine how racism influences health disparities at the local level. In this paper, we provide results of a crosssectional, population-based health survey conducted in the urban areas of Genesee and Saginaw Counties in Michigan to assess how a sustained community intervention to reduce racism and infant mortality influenced knowledge, beliefs, and experiences of racism and to explore how perceived racism is associated with self-rated health and birth outcomes. We used ANOVA and regression models to compare the responses of intervention participants and non-participants as well as African Americans and European Americans (N=629). We found that intervention participants reported greater acknowledgment of the enduring and differential impact of racism in comparison to the non-intervention participants. Moreover, survey analyses revealed that racism was associated with health in the following ways: (1) experiences of racial discrimination predicted self-rated physical health, mental health, and smoking status; (2) perceived racism against one's racial group predicted lower self-rated physical health; and (3) emotional responses to racism-related experiences were marginally associated with lower birth-weight births in the study sample. Our study bolsters the published findings on perceived racism and health outcomes and highlights the usefulness of CBPR and community surveys to empirically investigate racism as a social determinant of health.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

“…[21][22][23] Perceived discrimination has been associated with low selfrated mental and physical health, [24][25][26] low birth weight, [27][28][29] and preterm delivery 30,31 among African Americans. Perceived discrimination has also been associated with hypertension 32,33 and smoking, 34 which are risk factors during pregnancy.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Racism, Health Status, and Birth Outcomes: Results of a Participatory Community-Based Intervention and Health Survey

et al. 2011

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“…Racism has a strong and lasting impact on the health of minorities [66][67][68][69][70] ; however, few respondents endorsed racism and discrimination as a significant childhood stressor. We expected the large percentage of racial/ethnic minorities participating in our study, having grown up in disadvantaged racially segregated communities, would list discrimination as one of the predominant stressors in their lives.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adverse Childhood Experiences of Low-Income Urban Youth

Wade¹,

et al. 2014

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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Current assessments of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) may not adequately encompass the breadth of adversity to which low-income urban children are exposed. The purpose of this study was to identify and characterize the range of adverse childhood experiences faced by young adults who grew up in a low-income urban area. METHODS: Focus groups were conducted with young adults who grew up in low-income Philadelphia neighborhoods. Using the nominal group technique, participants generated a list of adverse childhood experiences and then identified the 5 most stressful experiences on the group list. The most stressful experiences identified by participants were grouped into a ranked list of domains and subdomains. RESULTS: Participants identified a range of experiences, grouped into 10 domains: family relationships, community stressors, personal victimization, economic hardship, peer relationships, discrimination, school, health, child welfare/juvenile justice, and media/technology. Included in these domains were many but not all of the experiences from the initial ACEs studies; parental divorce/separation and mental illness were absent. Additional experiences not included in the initial ACEs but endorsed by our participants included single-parent homes; exposure to violence, adult themes, and criminal behavior; personal victimization; bullying; economic hardship; and discrimination. CONCLUSIONS: Gathering youth perspectives on childhood adversity broadens our understanding of the experience of stress and trauma in childhood. Future work is needed to determine the significance of this broader set of adverse experiences in predisposing children to poor health outcomes as adults.

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“…Collins et al investigated the causal mechanisms of this association. When other risk factors, such as socioeconomic condition, levels of support, cigarette smoking, alcohol and illicit drug use were excluded, they reported that African American mothers with very low birth weight infants, less than 1500g, were twice as likely to report experiences of racial discrimination during pregnancy than women who had infants of normal birth weight (more than 2500g) (Collins, et al, 2000). This elevated rate may account for the difference in the pre-term birth rate between the USA and other countries.…”

Section: Ethnicitymentioning

confidence: 99%