title: Ethnic density and depressive symptoms among African Americans: threshold and differential effects across social and demographic subgroups.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We examined the association between Black ethnic density and depressive symptoms among African Americans. We sought to ascertain whether a threshold exists in the association between Black ethnic density and an important mental health outcome, and to identify differential effects of this association across social, economic, and demographic subpopulations.
  
  
  METHODS
  We analyzed the African American sample (n = 3570) from the National Survey of American Life, which we geocoded to the 2000 US Census. We determined the threshold with a multivariable regression spline model. We examined differential effects of ethnic density with random-effects multilevel linear regressions stratified by sociodemographic characteristics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The protective association between Black ethnic density and depressive symptoms changed direction, becoming a detrimental effect, when ethnic density reached 85%. Black ethnic density was protective for lower socioeconomic positions and detrimental for the better-off categories. The masking effects of area deprivation were stronger in the highest levels of Black ethnic density.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Addressing racism, racial discrimination, economic deprivation, and poor services-the main drivers differentiating ethnic density from residential segregation-will help to ensure that the racial/ethnic composition of a neighborhood is not a risk factor for poor mental health.
authors.affiliation: Laia Bécares and James Nazroo are with the Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity, University of Manchester, UK. James Jackson is with the Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
authors.forename: Laia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bécares
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Nazroo
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Jackson
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003710:Demography; D003863:Depression / Q000208:ethnology*; D005260:Female; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011156:Population Density; D011287:Prejudice; D057216:Propensity Score; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data