{"id":10537,"date":"2020-04-16T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-16T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/?p=10537"},"modified":"2020-04-20T22:26:47","modified_gmt":"2020-04-20T22:26:47","slug":"how-childrens-discrimination-harms-mothers-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/2020\/04\/16\/how-childrens-discrimination-harms-mothers-health\/","title":{"rendered":"How Children\u2019s Discrimination Harms Mothers\u2019 Health"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n Cynthia G. Colen, Qi Li, Corinne Reczek, and David R. Williams, <\/span>“The Intergenerational Transmission of Discrimination: Children\u2019s Experiences of Unfair Treatment and Their Mothers\u2019 Health at Midlife,” Journal of Health and Social Behavior<\/em>,<\/a><\/span> 2020<\/span><\/div>\n\n
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Photo by Lori Newman, public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

We know that children\u2019s health depends on their parents in many ways, from genetics to life experiences. New research<\/a> shows that the reverse is also true: children\u2019s experiences impact their parents\u2019 health. Specifically, this research shows that children\u2019s experiences of discrimination influence their mothers\u2019 health. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cynthia G. Colen<\/a>, Qi Li<\/a>, Corinne Reczek<\/a>, and David R. Williams<\/a> used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth, a survey following women and their children. They looked at mothers\u2019 self-rated health assessments from the mid 2000s, when mothers were 40 and 50 years old, to determine how their health changed. The sample of mothers\u2019 health assessments varied significantly by race. By age 50, only 17% of white mothers reported poor health, while 31% of Black and 26% of Hispanic mothers reported poor health. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div> The researchers also looked at data on children\u2019s experiences of unfair treatment when the children were young adults. Unfair treatment fell in two categories: major experiences or \u201cacute discrimination,\u201d and everyday or \u201cchronic discrimination.\u201d Acute discrimination included specific incidences like being unfairly fired or denied promotion and being unfairly searched or abused by police. Chronic discrimination highlighted the frequency of unfair treatment, like how often respondents had been treated with less respect than others, called names or harassed, or how often other people had treated respondents as if they were not smart.  Overall, children\u2019s exposure to discrimination — both acute and chronic —  was associated with significant declines in their mothers\u2019 health at midlife <\/span> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, children\u2019s exposure to discrimination — both acute and chronic —  was associated with significant declines in their mothers\u2019 health at midlife (from age 40 to 50). This is an important finding because most research on intergenerational health focuses on how parents affect their children\u2019s health. Studies like these can help us to understand how disadvantage is reproduced through generations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>The researchers wondered whether Black and Hispanic mothers\u2019 poor health was a result of their children experiencing more discrimination than children of white mothers. They found this to be true for Black mothers, but not for Hispanic mothers. Specifically, children\u2019s experiences of discrimination explained about 10% of the Black-white health gap, but very little of the Hispanic-white health gap for mothers. Stressors, like unfair treatment, can have \u201cspillover effects\u201d — in this case, leading to declines in the health of family members. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, Black mothers\u2019 health declined at a slower rate compared to white mothers\u2019 health, even when their children experienced high levels of discrimination. One explanation for this finding is that Black mothers spend a lifetime preparing to and dealing with discrimination, whereas white mothers may not and thus have fewer coping skills to deal with feelings of helplessness when their children experience discrimination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This research helps us to understand how discrimination is more than just an individual experience. Stressors, like unfair treatment, can have \u201cspillover effects\u201d — in this case, leading to declines in the health of family members. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cynthia G. Colen, Qi Li, Corinne Reczek, and David R. Williams, “The Intergenerational Transmission of Discrimination: Children\u2019s Experiences of Unfair Treatment and Their Mothers\u2019 Health at Midlife,” Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 2020 We know that children\u2019s health depends on their parents in many ways, from genetics to life experiences. New research shows that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2020,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,33,13,14],"tags":[126011,35,126010,470,37335,37334,109520,105262,2881,37332,71,126012,126009,126008,31393,3109,17572,4374,8962,37333,36852,4225,82,126014,126007],"class_list":["post-10537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gender","category-health","category-inequality","category-race","tag-acute-discrimination","tag-children","tag-chronic-discrimination","tag-discrimination","tag-gender","tag-health","tag-health-inequalities","tag-health-inequality","tag-illness","tag-inequality","tag-intergenerational","tag-intergenerational-health","tag-later-in-life","tag-middle-age","tag-mother","tag-motherhood","tag-mothers","tag-parenting","tag-parents","tag-race","tag-racial-inequalities","tag-racial-inequality","tag-racism","tag-spillover-effects","tag-unfair-treatment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2020"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10537"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10537\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10563,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10537\/revisions\/10563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/discoveries\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}