Skin Tone and the Health Returns to Higher Status

This study addresses two questions. First, why do Black Americans exhibit worse health outcomes than White Americans even at higher levels of socioeconomic status (SES)? Second, are diminished health returns to higher status concentrated among Black Americans with darker skin color? Novel hypotheses...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inDemography Vol. 59; no. 5; pp. 1791 - 1819
Main Authors DeAngelis, Reed T., Hargrove, Taylor W., Hummer, Robert A.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Duke University Press 01.10.2022
Duke University Press, NC & IL
Subjects
Adolescent
Adolescents
Adult
African Americans
Black or African American
Black People
Economics
Health status
Heterogeneity
Humans
Inflammation
Life course
Life stress
Life transitions
Panel data
Peers
Population Studies
Racial differences
Skin
Skin color
Skin Pigmentation
Social Class
Socioeconomic status
Socioeconomics
Sociology
White People
Diminished returns
Black–White disparities
Biosocial
Colorism
Skin tone
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:This study addresses two questions. First, why do Black Americans exhibit worse health outcomes than White Americans even at higher levels of socioeconomic status (SES)? Second, are diminished health returns to higher status concentrated among Black Americans with darker skin color? Novel hypotheses are tested with biosocial panel data from Add Health, a nationally representative cohort of Black and White adolescents who have transitioned to adulthood. We find that White and light-skin Black respondents report improved health after achieving higher SES, on average, while their darker-skin Black peers report declining health. These patterns persist regardless of controls for adolescent health status and unmeasured between-person heterogeneity. Moreover, increased inflammation tied to unfair treatment and perceptions of lower status helps to account for patterns of diminished health returns for dark-skin Black groups. Our study is the first to document skin tone heterogeneity in diminished health returns and one of few studies to identify life course stress processes underlying such disparities. We consider additional processes that could be examined in future studies, as well as the broader health and policy implications of our findings.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ISSN:0070-3370
1533-7790
1533-7790
DOI:10.1215/00703370-10191675