Stress and the Mental Health of Populations of Color: Advancing Our Understanding of Race-related Stressors

2018/11/28 by David R. Williams · 997 citations
Health Professions · Medicine · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Affect (linguistics) #Clinical psychology #Disadvantaged #Employment and Welfare Studies #Ethnic group #Gender studies #Health equity #Hostility #Institutional racism #Medicine #Mental health #Migration, Health and Trauma #Political science #Psychiatry #Psychology #Public health #Race (biology) #Race and health #Racial and Ethnic Identity Research #Racism #Social psychology #Sociology #Stressor

paper · doi:10.1177/0022146518814251

published in Journal of Health and Social Behavior 59(4), 466-485 (SAGE Publishing)

openalex publication_date 2018/11/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

This article provides an overview of research on race-related stressors that can affect the mental health of socially disadvantaged racial and ethnic populations. It begins by reviewing the research on self-reported discrimination and mental health. Although discrimination is the most studied aspect of racism, racism can also affect mental health through structural/institutional mechanisms and racism that is deeply embedded in the larger culture. Key priorities for research include more systematic attention to stress proliferation processes due to institutional racism, the assessment of stressful experiences linked to natural or manmade environmental crises, documenting and understanding the health effects of hostility against immigrants and people of color, cataloguing and quantifying protective resources, and enhancing our understanding of the complex association between physical and mental health.

Citations

• Stress, Health, and the Life Course: Some Conceptual Perspectives

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