title: RACE AS LIVED EXPERIENCE: The Impact of Multi-Dimensional Measures of Race/Ethnicity on the Self-Reported Health Status of Latinos.
abstract: A growing body of social science research has sought to conceptualize race as a multidimensional concept in which context, societal relations, and institutional dynamics are key components. Utilizing a specially designed survey, we develop and use multiple measures of race (skin color, ascribed race, and discrimination experiences) to capture race as "lived experience" and assess their impact on Latinos' self-rated health status. We model these measures of race as a lived experience to test the explanatory power of race, both independently and as an integrated scale with categorical regression, scaling, and dimensional analyses. Our analyses show that our multiple measures of race have significant and negative effects on Latinos' self-reported health. Skin color is a dominant factor that impacts self-reported health both directly and indirectly. We then advocate for the utilization of multiple measures of race, adding to those used in our analysis, and their application to other health and social outcomes. Our analysis provides important contributions across a wide range of health, illness, social, and political outcomes for communities of color.
authors.affiliation: Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, University of Michigan.
authors.forename: John A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Garcia
authors.affiliation: Department of Political Science and RWJF Center for Health Policy, University of New Mexico.
authors.forename: Gabriel R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Sanchez
authors.affiliation: Department of Political Science and RWJF Center for Health Policy, University of New Mexico.
authors.forename: Shannon
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sanchez-Youngman
authors.affiliation: Center for Women's Health and Health Disparities Research, University of Wisconsin-Madison.
authors.forename: Edward D
authors.initials: ED
authors.lastname: Vargas
authors.affiliation: Department of Political Science and RWJF Center for Health Policy, University of New Mexico.
authors.forename: Vickie D
authors.initials: VD
authors.lastname: Ybarra
keywords: Ascribed race; Discrimination; Ethnicity; Lived Experience; Race; Self-Reported Health; Skin Color