Racial Difference in the Relationship Between Health and Happiness in the United States

BACKGROUND: Although health is a prerequisite for happiness, the salience of health for maintaining happiness may be diminished for Blacks when compared to Whites, a phenomenon which can be explained by the Black-White mental health paradox and minorities’ diminished returns. AIM: To understand if Black and White adult Americans differ in the effects of self-rated health (SRH) on happiness. METHODS: This cross-sectional study used data from the General Social Survey (GSS; 1972–2018), a nationally representative survey in the US. Our analytical sample included 42,201 Black and White adults. The independent variable was SRH. Happiness was the dependent variable. Sociodemographic factors were covariates. Race was the moderator. Logistic regression was used to analyze the data without and with interaction terms between race and SRH. RESULTS: Overall, good SRH was positively associated with happiness, however, there was a significant interaction between race/ethnicity and good SRH on the outcome (i.e. happiness) . This finding suggested that the boosting effect of good SRH on happiness is weaker for Black than White people. CONCLUSION: In the United States, due to a weaker concordance between good health and happiness, Blacks who have poor SRH are more likely to report happiness. At the same time, Whites who are healthy report happiness, however, Blacks who are healthy do not necessarily report happiness. Disjointed link between health and happiness may be due to different racial, ethnic, and cultural perceptions of physical health and happiness as well as salience of physical health as a component of happiness. This may be an adaptive response of Blacks to sociopolitical as well as health-related adversities over centuries as a result of the combination of oppression, injustice, and poverty.