Experiencing discrimination can fuel high levels of stress and health disparities among Americans, according to a recent report.
Sixty-nine percent of Americans said they experienced some form of discrimination, according to the American Psychological Association’s “Stress in America: The Impact of Discrimination” report released in March. The association has released an annual stress report since 2007.
In the report’s 10-point stress scale, where 10 equals “a great deal of stress,” stress levels were higher among people who dealt with discrimination compared to people who did not. For example, the average score on the stress scale among blacks who did not experience discrimination was 3.8 compared with 5.5 among those who did.
“For many adults, dealing with discrimination results in a state of heightened vigilance and changes in behavior, which in itself can trigger stress responses — that is, even the anticipation of discrimination is sufficient to cause people to become stressed,” the report said.
The report surveyed more than 3,300 U.S. adults in 2015 between Aug. 3 and Aug. 31. Participants were surveyed to determine their race and ethnicity; access to emotional support; whether they identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender; and level of disability, if any.
Respondents were then asked about their experience with day-to-day discrimination, such as how often they felt threatened or treated with less respect than others, and their experience with “major” forms of discrimination, such as being unfairly denied for a promotion or questioned by the police.
Sixty-one percent said they encountered day-to-day discrimination, such as receiving poorer service than others at retail shops or restaurants. Thirty-four percent of American Indian and Alaska Native Americans reported dealing with day-to-day discrimination, followed by 23 percent of blacks, 19 percent of Hispanics and 11 percent for both whites and Asians.
Nearly half of participants experienced major forms of discrimination. Employment-related discrimination, such as being unfairly fired from a job, was the most common type of major discrimination, according to the report. Among Asians, for example, more than one in three Asian men said they were unfairly turned down for a promotion.
The report also looks at how chronic illness, disability and access to care affect stress. Hispanics, for example, reported having the least amount of access to a non-emergency doctor, at 33 percent, followed by Asians at 31 percent, blacks at 29 percent, whites at 23 percent and American Indian and Alaska Natives at 21 percent.
Stress can result in multiple health issues, such as depression, diabetes and high blood pressure, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.
“It’s clear that discrimination is widespread and impacts many people, whether it is due to race, ethnicity, age, disability, gender or sexual orientation,” said Jaime Diaz-Granados, PhD, the American Psychological Association’s executive director for education in a March 10 news release. “And when people frequently experience unfair treatment, it can contribute to increased stress and poorer health.”
Overall, Americans said their top sources of stress were money, followed by work and family responsibilities. But access to emotional support often made the difference in how well Americans handled stress, the report said, especially when dealing with discrimination. Sixty-five percent of adults who had emotional support after dealing with discrimination said they were able to cope well compared to 37 percent of people who endured discrimination but lacked emotional support, the report found.
For more information, visit www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress.
- Copyright The Nation’s Health, American Public Health Association
