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Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
Published in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 10/2016

01-10-2016 | Invited Review

Disparities at the intersection of marginalized groups

Authors: John W. Jackson, David R. Williams, Tyler J. VanderWeele

Published in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology | Issue 10/2016

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Abstract

Purpose

Mental health disparities exist across several dimensions of social inequality, including race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status and gender. Most investigations of health disparities focus on one dimension. Recent calls by researchers argue for studying persons who are marginalized in multiple ways, often from the perspective of intersectionality, a theoretical framework applied to qualitative studies in law, sociology, and psychology. Quantitative adaptations are emerging but there is little guidance as to what measures or methods are helpful.

Methods

Here, we consider the concept of a joint disparity and its composition, show that this approach can illuminate how outcomes are patterned for social groups that are marginalized across multiple axes of social inequality, and compare the insights gained with that of other measures of additive interaction. We apply these methods to a cohort of young men from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, examining disparities for black men with low early life SES vs. white men with high early life SES across several outcomes that predict mental health, including unemployment, wages, and incarceration.

Results and conclusions

We report striking disparities in each outcome, but show that the contribution of race, SES, and their intersection varies.
Appendix
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Metadata
Title
Disparities at the intersection of marginalized groups
Authors
John W. Jackson
David R. Williams
Tyler J. VanderWeele
Publication date
01-10-2016
Publisher
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Published in
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology / Issue 10/2016
Print ISSN: 0933-7954
Electronic ISSN: 1433-9285
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-016-1276-6

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