The Political Context of Inequalities PERCEIVED RACIAL DISCRIMINATION AND MENTAL HEALTH IN LOW-INCOME, URBAN-DWELLINGWHITES

This study examined the relationship between perceived racial discrimin-ation and the presence of anxiety and depression in a sample of low-income, urban-dwelling whites. Data were analyzed from a cross-sectional survey of low-income whites living in an inner-city neighborhood in the mid-Atlantic United States. Perceived racial discrimination was reported by 39 percent of participants. Rates of depression in the population exceed prevalence rates in the general U.S. population. Those who perceived racial discrimination and were bothered by it experienced significantly greater odds of being depressed (OR = 2.78, 95 % CI 1.60–4.82) and had higher anxiety scores (b = 2.02, SE 0.55, p = 0.000) than those who did not perceive racial discrimination. Low-income, urban white populations have been largely ignored in public health research. This study demonstrates that perceived racial discrimination is common in poor urban whites. Further, exposure to discrimination that is perceived as a stressor is associated with mental illness. Unfair treatment resulting from discrimination (racial/ethnic, gender, or sexual orientation) has been studied as a predictor of health outcomes since the early 1980s. A majority of these studies examined racial/ethnic discrimination and mental health outcomes (1). In addition, mental health outcomes have demon-strated the “strongest and most consistent association ” with discrimination. Psychological distress and well-being (e.g., life satisfaction, happiness) have been the two most commonly studied mental health outcomes, with a majority of these studies demonstrating a positive association whereby exposure t