The Influence of Contested Racial Identity and Perceived Everyday Discrimination Exposure on Body Mass Index in US Adults.

Contested racial identity-the discrepancy between one's self-identified race and socially assigned race-is a social determinant of health and may contribute to overweight and obesity. Obesity is associated with a host of short- and long-term health conditions, including cardiovascular disease, a leading cause of death. Individuals racialized as Black, Hispanic, and Latino are at the greatest risk of obesity. Previous research indicates that experiencing interpersonal discrimination is associated with higher body mass index (BMI) in adults, and individuals with a contested racial identity are disproportionately exposed to interpersonal discrimination. However, the association between BMI and contested racial identity is unknown. This cross-sectional study measured the relationship between contested racial identity and perceived everyday discrimination on BMI in a nationally representative sample of US adults. Contested racial identity was measured with a binary variable indicating agreement between participants' self-identified race and socially assigned race. Weighted unadjusted and adjusted multiple linear regression models quantified the associations between BMI and contested racial identity with and without the mean discrimination score. Covariates included nativity status, income, education, racial identity salience, gender, and age. Among 1689 participants, 18.3% had a contested racial identity. Contested identity was associated with significantly higher BMI (ß = 1.01, 95% CI = 0.06, 1.92), but the relationship was attenuated when adjusting for interpersonal discrimination, suggesting that individuals with contested identity may face a greater risk of obesity due to their disproportionately high exposure to interpersonal racial discrimination. Further research is needed to elucidate the impact of racism on BMI and obesity risk.

Assessing equity in health, wealth, and civic engagement: a nationally representative survey, United States, 2020.

BACKGROUND: The principle of equity is fundamental to many current debates about social issues and plays an important role in community and individual health. Traditional research has focused on singular dimensions of equity (e.g., wealth), and often lacks a comprehensive perspective. The goal of this study was to assess relationships among three domains of equity, health, wealth, and civic engagement, in a nationally representative sample of U.S. residents. METHODS: We developed a conceptual framework to guide our inquiry of equity across health, wealth, and civic engagement constructs to generate a broad but nuanced understanding of equity. Through Ipsos' KnowledgePanel service, we conducted a cross-sectional, online survey between May 29-June 20, 2020 designed to be representative of the adult U.S. POPULATION: Based on our conceptual framework, we assessed the population-weighted prevalence of health outcomes and behaviors, as well as measures of wealth and civic engagement. We linked individual-level data with population-level environmental and social context variables. Using structural equation modeling, we developed latent constructs for wealth and civic engagement, to assess associations with a measured health variable. RESULTS: We found that the distribution of sociodemographic, health, and wealth measures in our sample (n = 1267) were comparable to those from other national surveys. Our quantitative illustration of the relationships among the domains of health, wealth, and civic engagement provided support for the interrelationships of constructs within our conceptual model. Latent constructs for wealth and civic engagement were significantly correlated (p = 0.013), and both constructs were used to predict self-reported health. Beta coefficients for all indicators of health, wealth, and civic engagement had the expected direction (positive or negative associations). CONCLUSION: Through development and assessment of our comprehensive equity framework, we found significant associations among key equity domains. Our conceptual framework and results can serve as a guide for future equity research, encouraging a more thorough assessment of equity.

Navigating marginalization and invisibility as Asian Americans in the U.S.

In this paper, we articulate a conceptual model for the process of ethnic identity development and integration among Asian American children and youth that offers potential explanations for their marginalization as they negotiate multiple facets of their identities and locate themselves in local and national contexts. The conceptual model is based on an integration of theory and empirical research on the intertwined processes of ethnic identity development and socialization of children and youth in Asian American families and is anchored in the developmental domain of identity formation and integration. We present the conceptual model as three overlapping circles to represent salient features of physical and social contexts, prevalent metanarratives that have been empirically established as salient meaning-making frames pertinent to the lived experience of Asian Americans in the United States, and the dynamic individual-context interplay and mutual adjustment that is part of developmental process. We then build on the work of scholars who have advanced the theoretical and empirical literature on the Asian American experience in the United States, to illustrate how the three components (features of context, master narratives, and developmental processes) intersect in the overlapping spaces of the model to foreground the dialectic processes whereby identity is constructed as contextualized in place. The primary contribution of the model is to facilitate generating research questions that can unravel the complexities of how specific ethnic backgrounds (e.g., immigration and settlement histories), developmental status, individual position on societal racial/ethnic hierarchy, and prevalent societal metanarratives contextualize the development of an Asian American ethnic-racial identity. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).