Revisiting the Cost of Skin Color: Discrimination, Mastery, and Mental Health among Black Adolescents

Abstract

This article investigates the association between skin tone and mental health in a nationally representative sample of black adolescents. The mediating influences of discrimination and mastery in the skin tone–mental health relationship also are considered. Findings indicate that black adolescents with the darkest skin tone have higher levels of depressive symptoms than their lighter skin tone peers. This is not the case for mental disorder. For disorder, a skin tone difference appeared only between black adolescents with very dark skin tone and black adolescents with medium brown skin tone. Discrimination partially mediates the association between skin tone and depression, while mastery fully mediates this association, indicating that the impact of skin tone on depression operates primarily through lower mastery. Similar patterns were observed for disorder. By extending the discussion of skin tone and health to black adolescents and treating skin tone as a set of categories rather than a linear gradient, I provide new insights into the patterning of skin tone and depression/disorder.

Agency and subjective health from early adulthood to mid-life: evidence from the prospective Youth Development Study

“…Confirming Pearlin's early findings, mounting evidence supports the conclusion that mastery is a significant coping resource, mediating and moderating the effects of stressors on mental health. For example, mastery was found to fully mediate the effect of skin tone on depression among Black adolescents [32]. It also partially mediated the effect of unemployment on depression in a cohort of young Australians, ages 20-24, studied for 8 years [33].…”

Do Racial Differences in Coping Resources Explain the Black–White Paradox in Mental Health? A Test of Multiple Mechanisms

“…Furthermore, the depressive symptoms measure demonstrates the entire distribution of depression in the population (Mirowsky and Ross 2002), whereas the disorder measure reflects severe impairment and dysfunction beyond a given threshold (Horwitz 2007; Kessler 2002). As such, some have argued that disorder measures may be less sensitive to social variables because they are correlated with higher levels of impairment than continuous measures of mental health (Horwitz 2007; Kessler 2002; Louie 2019). Because depressive symptoms and disorder measure different dimensions of mental health, the use of both measures provides a more complete specification of the conditions under which specific coping resources explain the relationship between race and mental health (Mirowsky and Ross 2003).…”

The Gender of Colorism: Understanding the Intersection of Skin Tone and Gender Inequality

“…The near ubiquity of colorism has been well researched, particularly among black Americans, although the phenomenon has been documented in almost every country in the world (Hunter 2005). In addition to wages and income, relative to darker skinned black Americans, lighter skinned black Americans have been shown to enjoy better mental and physical health (Diette et al 2015;Hargrove 2018a, b;Laidley et al 2019;Louie 2019;Monk 2015;Perreira et al 2018), experience fewer negative encounters with the criminal justice system (Blair et al 2004;Finkeldey and Demuth 2019;Monk 2018;Viglione et al 2011), are punished less and less harshly in schools (Hannon et al 2013), and are viewed as more attractive (Reece 2016). Moreover, the pernicious effects of colorism have remained persistent since before emancipation, operating through a system of light skin preference and long-term accumulated economic advantage (Bodenhorn 2002(Bodenhorn , 2006(Bodenhorn , 2011Bodenhorn 2007;Green and Hamilton 2013;Gullickson 2010;Reece 2018a, b;Saperstein and Gullickson 2013).…”

“…As we continue to establish that color stratification is a constant throughout American society, we must also develop our understanding of how it works. Although we have made recent strides in developing theories to explain the mechanisms (such as Goldsmith et al 2007;Hargrove 2018a, b;Finkeldey and Demuth 2019;Louie 2019;Monk 2015;Painter et al 2015;Reece 2018a, b, c), we still have ways to go. One vital step is to examine how different groups are affected by color stratification.…”