Discrimination, perceived control, and psychological health among African Americans with hypertension

Emily A. Vargas; Diana A. Chirinos; Ramaswami Mahalingam; Riley A. Marshall; Mandy Wong; Kiarri N. Kershaw

doi:10.1177/1359105320937073

Discrimination, perceived control, and psychological health among African Americans with hypertension

Emily A. Vargas^*, Diana A. Chirinos, Ramaswami Mahalingam, Riley A. Marshall, Mandy Wong, Kiarri N. Kershaw

^*Corresponding author for this work

Preventive Medicine

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

Hypertensive individuals represent a “vulnerable” population regarding psychological health. While African Americans are disproportionally burdened with hypertension, pathways predicting their psychological health remain understudied. We examine if discrimination is associated with psychological health, through an indirect effect of perceived control within a sample of African American individuals with prevalent hypertension (n = 990). Discrimination was significantly associated with an increase psychological distress and a decrease in psychological well-being through a reduction in perceived control, supporting Minority Stress Theory. Cardiovascular disease risk factor management implications are discussed.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	2841-2850
Number of pages	10
Journal	Journal of Health Psychology
Volume	26
Issue number	14
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105320937073
State	Published - Dec 2021

Keywords

African Americans
discrimination
hypertension
perceived control
psychological health

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Applied Psychology

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1177/1359105320937073

Cite this

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title = "Discrimination, perceived control, and psychological health among African Americans with hypertension",

abstract = "Hypertensive individuals represent a “vulnerable” population regarding psychological health. While African Americans are disproportionally burdened with hypertension, pathways predicting their psychological health remain understudied. We examine if discrimination is associated with psychological health, through an indirect effect of perceived control within a sample of African American individuals with prevalent hypertension (n = 990). Discrimination was significantly associated with an increase psychological distress and a decrease in psychological well-being through a reduction in perceived control, supporting Minority Stress Theory. Cardiovascular disease risk factor management implications are discussed.",

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note = "Funding Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: EAV is funded by the T32 Research Training Program in Cardiovascular Epidemiology and Prevention at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Preventive Medicine. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2020.",

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AU - Mahalingam, Ramaswami

AU - Marshall, Riley A.

AU - Wong, Mandy

AU - Kershaw, Kiarri N.

N1 - Funding Information: The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article: EAV is funded by the T32 Research Training Program in Cardiovascular Epidemiology and Prevention at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine, Department of Preventive Medicine. Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2020.

PY - 2021/12

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N2 - Hypertensive individuals represent a “vulnerable” population regarding psychological health. While African Americans are disproportionally burdened with hypertension, pathways predicting their psychological health remain understudied. We examine if discrimination is associated with psychological health, through an indirect effect of perceived control within a sample of African American individuals with prevalent hypertension (n = 990). Discrimination was significantly associated with an increase psychological distress and a decrease in psychological well-being through a reduction in perceived control, supporting Minority Stress Theory. Cardiovascular disease risk factor management implications are discussed.

AB - Hypertensive individuals represent a “vulnerable” population regarding psychological health. While African Americans are disproportionally burdened with hypertension, pathways predicting their psychological health remain understudied. We examine if discrimination is associated with psychological health, through an indirect effect of perceived control within a sample of African American individuals with prevalent hypertension (n = 990). Discrimination was significantly associated with an increase psychological distress and a decrease in psychological well-being through a reduction in perceived control, supporting Minority Stress Theory. Cardiovascular disease risk factor management implications are discussed.

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Discrimination, perceived control, and psychological health among African Americans with hypertension

Abstract

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

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