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Workplace Racial Composition Explains High Perceived Discrimination of High Socioeconomic Status African American Men

Background: Sociological and epidemiological literature have both shown that socioeconomic status (SES) protects populations and individuals against health problems. Recent research, however, has shown that African Americans gain less from their SES and African Americans of high SES, particularly ma...

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Autores principales: Assari, Shervin, Moghani Lankarani, Maryam
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6120025/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30060492
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci8080139
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author Assari, Shervin
Moghani Lankarani, Maryam
author_facet Assari, Shervin
Moghani Lankarani, Maryam
author_sort Assari, Shervin
collection PubMed
description Background: Sociological and epidemiological literature have both shown that socioeconomic status (SES) protects populations and individuals against health problems. Recent research, however, has shown that African Americans gain less from their SES and African Americans of high SES, particularly males, may be vulnerable to perceived discrimination, as explained by the Minorities’ Diminished Returns theory. One potential mechanism for this phenomenon is that high SES African Americans have a higher tendency to work in predominantly White workplaces, which increases their perceived discrimination. It is, however, unknown if the links between SES, working in predominantly White work groups and perceived discrimination differ for male and female African Americans. Aim: To test the associations between SES, workplace racial composition and perceived discrimination in a nationally representative sample of male and female African American adults. Methods. This study included a total number of 1775 employed African American adults who were either male (n = 676) or female (n = 1099), all enrolled from the National Survey of American Life (NSAL). The study measured gender, age, SES (educational attainment and household income), workplace racial composition and perceived discrimination. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was applied in the overall sample and also by gender. Results: In the pooled sample that included both genders, high education and household income were associated with working in a predominantly White work group, which was in turn associated with more perceived discrimination. We did not find gender differences in the associations between SES, workplace racial composition and perceived discrimination. Conclusion: Although racial composition of workplace may be a mechanism by which high SES increases discriminatory experiences for African Americans, males and females may not differ in this regard. Policies are needed to reduce discrimination in racially diverse workplaces. This is particularly the case for African Americans who work in predominantly White work environments.
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spelling pubmed-61200252018-09-06 Workplace Racial Composition Explains High Perceived Discrimination of High Socioeconomic Status African American Men Assari, Shervin Moghani Lankarani, Maryam Brain Sci Article Background: Sociological and epidemiological literature have both shown that socioeconomic status (SES) protects populations and individuals against health problems. Recent research, however, has shown that African Americans gain less from their SES and African Americans of high SES, particularly males, may be vulnerable to perceived discrimination, as explained by the Minorities’ Diminished Returns theory. One potential mechanism for this phenomenon is that high SES African Americans have a higher tendency to work in predominantly White workplaces, which increases their perceived discrimination. It is, however, unknown if the links between SES, working in predominantly White work groups and perceived discrimination differ for male and female African Americans. Aim: To test the associations between SES, workplace racial composition and perceived discrimination in a nationally representative sample of male and female African American adults. Methods. This study included a total number of 1775 employed African American adults who were either male (n = 676) or female (n = 1099), all enrolled from the National Survey of American Life (NSAL). The study measured gender, age, SES (educational attainment and household income), workplace racial composition and perceived discrimination. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) was applied in the overall sample and also by gender. Results: In the pooled sample that included both genders, high education and household income were associated with working in a predominantly White work group, which was in turn associated with more perceived discrimination. We did not find gender differences in the associations between SES, workplace racial composition and perceived discrimination. Conclusion: Although racial composition of workplace may be a mechanism by which high SES increases discriminatory experiences for African Americans, males and females may not differ in this regard. Policies are needed to reduce discrimination in racially diverse workplaces. This is particularly the case for African Americans who work in predominantly White work environments. MDPI 2018-07-27 /pmc/articles/PMC6120025/ /pubmed/30060492 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci8080139 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Assari, Shervin
Moghani Lankarani, Maryam
Workplace Racial Composition Explains High Perceived Discrimination of High Socioeconomic Status African American Men
title Workplace Racial Composition Explains High Perceived Discrimination of High Socioeconomic Status African American Men
title_full Workplace Racial Composition Explains High Perceived Discrimination of High Socioeconomic Status African American Men
title_fullStr Workplace Racial Composition Explains High Perceived Discrimination of High Socioeconomic Status African American Men
title_full_unstemmed Workplace Racial Composition Explains High Perceived Discrimination of High Socioeconomic Status African American Men
title_short Workplace Racial Composition Explains High Perceived Discrimination of High Socioeconomic Status African American Men
title_sort workplace racial composition explains high perceived discrimination of high socioeconomic status african american men
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6120025/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30060492
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci8080139
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