Dissertation

Racism, racial identity, and blood pressure

Ferguson, Lucie Lancaster

2002

Overview

Hypertension, a major risk factor in the development of cardiovascular disease, accounts for the greatest disparity in mortality between Blacks and Whites in the United States. Psychosocial factors, including responses to stress, are known to influence the development of hypertension. Racism, as a psychosocial stressor, and psychological responses to racism have been linked to physiological responses to stress. Racism has been suspected as one factor in explaining the health status disparities between Whites and minority groups. Responses to racism such as denial, hostility, and a behavioral coping pattern named John Henryism have been associated with elevated blood pressure readings, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease. A correlation between positive racial identity and blood pressure has been reported. This cross-sectional study examined specific responses to racism and racial identity in a convenience sample of 186 hypertensive and normotensive Blacks from an inner city neighborhood. The interactions of race with biological, social, cultural and political factors, and their influence on health outcomes were examined using a modified version of the King and Williams framework. The purpose of the study was to determine whether racial identity and specific psychological responses to racism could predict hypertensive or normotensive status in a sample of Black adults. The study tested the following research questions: (1) Are responses to racism and racial identity correlated? (2) Can responses to racism and racial identity predict normotensive or hypertensive status in Blacks, controlling for known risk factors and demographic variables? This study did not find that responses to racism could predict normotensive or hypertensive status in the sample of Black adults, except for one subscale of racial identity, public regard. Hostility was significantly correlated with several subscales of racial identity and John Henryism. John Henryism was correlated with the private regard subscale of racial identity. Several known hypertensive risk factors did not significantly predict blood pressure status raising issues of sample representativeness. No gender differences related to responses to racism and racial identity were found. Future research should address several methodological concerns including conceptual clarity of variables, psychometric evaluation of instruments, and sample size.

• Publisher: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
• Subject: African Americans / Black studies / Blood pressure / Nursing / Public health / Racism / Social identity
• ISBN: 9780493719078, 0493719075