“White Box” Epidemiology and the Social Neuroscience of Health Behaviors: The Environmental Affordances Model

Briana Mezuk*, Cleopatra M. Abdou, Darrell Hudson, Kiarri N. Kershaw, Jane A. Rafferty, James S. Jackson, Hedwig Lee

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

201 Scopus citations

Abstract

Crucial advances have been made in our knowledge of the social determinants of health and health behaviors. Existing research on health disparities, however, generally fails to address a known paradox in the literature: While blacks have higher risk of medical morbidity relative to non-Hispanic whites, blacks have lower rates of common stress-related forms of psychopathology such as major depression and anxiety disorders. In this article we propose a new theoretical approach, the Environmental Affordances Model, as an integrative framework for the origins of both physical and mental health disparities. We highlight early empirical support and a growing body of experimental animal and human research on self-regulatory health behaviors and stress coping that is consistent with the proposed framework. We conclude that transdisciplinary approaches, such as the Environmental Affordances Model, are needed to understand the origins of group-based disparities to implement effective solutions to racial and ethnic group inequalities in physical and mental health.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)79-95
Number of pages17
JournalSociety and Mental Health
Volume3
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2013

Funding

The authors would like to acknowledge support from the National Institute of Health (K01-MH093642-01A1, P60-MD002249-06, R01-MD006085, and P30-AG043073), the MacArthur Foundation (MCARTR 10-97060-000), the Robert Wood Johnson Senior Health Policy Program (67864), and the Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholars Program at the University of Michigan. The sponsors had no role in the design, interpretation, analysis, or presentation of this study. The authors would also like to acknowledge the constructive feedback from their peer-reviewers, which they feel helped substantially improve this manuscript.

Keywords

  • allostatic load
  • mental health
  • race/ethnicity
  • stress-buffering effects

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
  • Psychiatry and Mental health

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