Abstract
In this study, we examine race/ethnic consciousness and its associations with experiences of racial discrimination and health in New Zealand. Racism is an important determinant of health and cause of ethnic inequities. However, conceptualising the mechanisms by which racism impacts on health requires racism to be contextualised within the broader social environment. Race/ethnic consciousness (how often people think about their race or ethnicity) is understood as part of a broader assessment of the ‘racial climate’. Higher race/ethnic consciousness has been demonstrated among non-dominant racial/ethnic groups and linked to adverse health outcomes in a limited number of studies. We analysed data from the 2006/07 New Zealand Health Survey, a national population-based survey of New Zealand adults, to examine the distribution of ethnic consciousness by ethnicity, and its association with individual experiences of racial discrimination and self-rated health. Findings showed that European respondents were least likely to report thinking about their ethnicity, with people from non-European ethnic groupings all reporting relatively higher ethnic consciousness. Higher ethnic consciousness was associated with an increased likelihood of reporting experience of racial discrimination for all ethnic groupings and was also associated with fair/poor self-rated health after adjusting for age, sex and ethnicity. However, this difference in health was no longer evident after further adjustment for socioeconomic position and individual experience of racial discrimination. Our study suggests different experiences of racialised social environments by ethnicity in New Zealand and that, at an individual level, ethnic consciousness is related to experiences of racial discrimination. However, the relationship with health is less clear and needs further investigation with research to better understand the racialised social relations that create and maintain ethnic inequities in health in attempts to better address the impacts of racism on health.
Highlights
Racism is a social system underpinned by historical and political inequalities within which racialised hierarchies systematically privileging some groups over others are produced and sustained [1], [2]
New Zealand Health Surveys (NZHS) data is available to researchers as confidentialised unit record files (CURFs)
In line with the study hypotheses, higher ethnic consciousness was associated with an increased likelihood of reporting ever experiencing racial discrimination for all ethnic groupings
Summary
Racism is a social system underpinned by historical and political inequalities within which racialised hierarchies systematically privileging some groups over others are produced and sustained [1], [2]. In recent years, increasing research attention has focused on racism as an important driver of health operating via direct and indirect pathways, including raciallymotivated violence, as a chronic stressor with physiological and mental health impacts, and through the racialised structuring of health determinants and healthcare [3]. The majority of international literature has been undertaken in the United States and has focused on racial discrimination as self-reported by individuals [3], [4]. This research has made important contributions to understanding the pathways by which racism affects health. Self-reported racial discrimination, as measured at the level of the individual alone, is unlikely to capture the complex range of ways in which living in a racialised society may influence health
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