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When Is Hope Enough? Hopefulness, Discrimination and Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Allostatic Load.
- Source :
-
Behavioral medicine (Washington, D.C.) [Behav Med] 2020 Jul-Sep; Vol. 46 (3-4), pp. 189-201. - Publication Year :
- 2020
-
Abstract
- Hopefulness is associated with better health and may be integral for stress adaptation and resilience. Limited research has prospectively examined whether hopefulness protects against physiological dysregulation or does so similarly for U.S. whites, blacks and Hispanics. We examined the association between baseline hopefulness and future allostatic load using data from the Health and Retirement Study (nā=ā8,486) and assessed differences in this association by race/ethnicity and experiences of discrimination. Four items measured hopefulness and allostatic load was a count of seven biomarkers for which a respondent's measured value was considered high-risk for disease. A dichotomous variable assessed whether respondents experienced at least one major act of discrimination in their lifetime. We used Poisson regression to examine the association between hopefulness and allostatic load and included a multiplicative interaction term to test racial/ethnic differences in this association. Subsequent analyses were stratified by race/ethnicity and tested the interaction between hopefulness and discrimination within each racial/ethnic group. Hopefulness was associated with lower allostatic load scores, but its effects varied significantly by race/ethnicity. Race-stratified analyses suggested that hopefulness was protective among whites and not associated with allostatic load among Hispanics irrespective of experiencing discrimination. Hopefulness was associated with lower allostatic load among blacks reporting discrimination but associated with higher allostatic load among those who did not. Findings suggest that hopefulness plays differing roles for older whites, blacks and Hispanics and, for blacks, its protective effects on physiological dysregulation are intricately tied to their experiences of discrimination.
- Subjects :
- Black or African American psychology
Aged
Aged, 80 and over
Biomarkers
Databases, Factual
Female
Health Status Disparities
Hispanic or Latino psychology
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Race Factors trends
Racism psychology
Racism trends
Resilience, Psychological
Stress, Psychological physiopathology
United States
White People psychology
Allostasis physiology
Ethnicity psychology
Hope physiology
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 0896-4289
- Volume :
- 46
- Issue :
- 3-4
- Database :
- MEDLINE
- Journal :
- Behavioral medicine (Washington, D.C.)
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 32787721
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1080/08964289.2020.1729086