Age, class and race discrimination: their interactions and associations with mental health among Brazilian university students

João Luiz Bastos,Roger Keller Celeste,Eduardo Faerstein,Aluisio J D Barros,Yin Paradies

doi:10.1590/0102-311x00163812

Abstract

Although research on discrimination and health has progressed significantly, it has tended to focus on racial discrimination and US populations. This study explored different types of discrimination, their interactions and associations with common mental disorders among Brazilian university students, in Rio de Janeiro in 2010. Associations between discrimination and common mental disorders were examined using multiple logistic regression models, adjusted for confounders. Interactions between discrimination and socio-demographics were tested. Discrimination attributed to age, class and skin color/race were the most frequently reported. In a fully adjusted model, discrimination attributed to skin color/race and class were both independently associated with increased odds of common mental disorders. The simultaneous reporting of skin color/race, class and age discrimination was associated with the highest odds ratio. No significant interactions were found. Skin color/race and class discrimination were important, but their simultaneous reporting, in conjunction with age discrimination, were associated with the highest occurrence of common mental disorders.

Highlights

More than a century of scientific interest in the question of discrimination has resulted in numerous attempts at defining and conceptualizing it, as well as developing techniques to measure it 1
The simultaneous reporting of skin color/race, class and age discrimination was associated with the highest odds ratio
This study, which is without parallel among previous investigations, showed that (1) discrimination attributed to skin color/race and class were both independently associated with a four-fold increase in the odds of common mental disorders; and that (2) the simultaneous reporting of skin color/race, class and age discrimination was associated with the highest odds ratio

Summary

Introduction

More than a century of scientific interest in the question of discrimination has resulted in numerous attempts at defining and conceptualizing it, as well as developing techniques to measure it 1. In the field of public health, in which studies were primarily devised to assess effects of discrimination on health, the literature from the 1990s onwards was generally successful in addressing the following two major research questions: (a) how specific health-related outcomes (e.g. blood pressure 3) were related to discrimination; and (b) which persistent and often unjust racial health differentials were, at least partially, attributable to race-related discriminatory experiences 4. Mental health conditions have inspired substantial theoretical reflection and empirical scrutiny, as regards their association with discrimination 5. A literature review by Williams et al 6 revealed that 80% (n = 20) of the original studies assessing the link between racial discrimination and stress showed a positive association between these two constructs. Williams & Mohammed 9 confirmed the consistency of these associations with racial discrimination in an additional literature review

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