title: Discrimination and social anxiety disorder among African-Americans, Caribbean blacks, and non-Hispanic whites.
abstract: The present study investigated the relationship between discrimination and social anxiety disorder (SAD) in a sample of African-Americans, Caribbean blacks, and non-Hispanic whites using the National Survey of American Life, the most comprehensive study of psychopathology among American blacks to date (N = 6082). Previous work has highlighted a strong association between discrimination and mental health symptoms (Keith, Lincoln, Taylor, and Jackson [Sex Roles 62:48-59, ]; Kessler, Mickelson, and Williams [J Health Soc Behav 40:208-230, 1999]; Soto, Dawson-Andoh, and BeLue [J Anxiety Disord 25:258-265, ]). However, few studies have examined the effects of particular types of discrimination on specific anxiety disorders or among different black subgroups. In this study, logistic regression analyses indicated that everyday but not major experiences of discrimination are associated with SAD for African-Americans, Caribbean blacks, and non-Hispanic whites. This study adds to the extant literature by demonstrating that specific types of discrimination may be uniquely associated with SAD for different ethnic/racial groups.
authors.affiliation: *Department of Psychology, †School of Social Work, ‡Department of Psychiatry, and §Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Ann Arbor, MI.
authors.forename: Debra Siegel
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Levine
authors.forename: Joseph A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Himle
authors.forename: Jamie M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Abelson
authors.forename: Niki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Matusko
authors.forename: Nikhil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Dhawan
authors.forename: Robert Joseph
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Taylor
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000208:ethnology; D044383:Black People / Q000208:ethnology*; D017691:Caribbean Region / Q000208:ethnology; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000208:ethnology*; D063508:Social Discrimination / Q000208:ethnology*; D014481:United States / Q000208:ethnology; D044465:White People / Q000208:ethnology