Race and Ethnic Differences in Depressed Mood Following the Transition from High School

Abstract

370Racial and ethnic disparities in health are a central problem in medical sociology and key to understanding the inequality-health nexus.

Integrated Schools, Segregated Curriculum: Effects of Within-School Segregation on Adolescent Health Behaviors and Educational Aspirations

“…Indeed, low-level curricula often leave students unchallenged, discouraged, and unprepared to attend college 42 ; their resultant effects on educational achievement may lead to higher rates of unemployment and poverty, greater engagement in risky health behaviors, and increased likelihood of premature morbidity and mortality. [45][46][47] Limitations Our measure of within-school segregation likely underestimated the extent of segregation within a school because it focused on how unevenly Blacks and Whites were distributed across levels of the English curriculum. Segregation across math, science, and social science courses also occurs and is likely to exist in schools that use academic tracking in the English curriculum, 17 but our ability to calculate the dissimilarity measure was limited because of the greater variability in requirements for these subjects.…”

“…15 Dropping out of high school decreases access to economic and social resources in adulthood that have been linked to better physical and mental health. [45][46][47] In addition, students who are tracked into low-ability courses are less likely to attend or complete college because they do not have the prerequisite coursework to apply to college 18 or do not have access to important postsecondary informational networks. 20 We examined the extent to which withinschool segregation, as measured by racial segregation across levels of the English curriculum, was associated with smoking, drinking, and the educational aspirations of Black and White adolescents.…”

Gender Differences in Longitudinal Links between Neighborhood Fear, Parental Support, and Depression among African American Emerging Adults

“…Earlier work examining prevalence of depression in an epidemiologically defined sample of 1197 African American young adults ages 18-22 living in Baltimore City found a 9.4 percent lifetime MDD prevalence among their study population [10]. These findings are largely explained by socioeconomic disadvantage and living in stressful conditions [11].…”

“…Although young adults are working to individuate from parents during this developmental period, research has suggested that young adults may be in particular need of parental support [13]. Research has shown a negative relationship between parental support and depressive symptoms during the transition to adulthood [11,35]. Yet, variation in the relationship between parental support and depressive symptoms may emerge based on race, gender, and socioeconomic status [35].…”

A scalable goal-setting intervention closes both the gender and ethnic minority achievement gap

“…Finally, students from poorer families obtain worse grades and lower standardized test scores, miss more school, drop out of high school more frequently, and are less likely to attend and/or graduate from post-secondary institutions, although the effects are also dependent on timing, depth and duration of poverty, as well as provision of learning experiences at home (Brooks-Gunn et al, 2005). The existence of ethnic-group-based inequality is often attributed to social factors such as negative stereotyping (Cohen et al, 2009;Miyake et al, 2010) and differences in peer and parental relations (Gore and Aseltine, 2003). However, the relationship between such factors and the gender gap remains unclear and, overall, the causes of both gaps are poorly understood (cf.…”