Brown School of Social Work, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA.
School of Social Welfare, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Feb 13;17(4):1179. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17041179.
There is a growing literature that has documented diminishing health returns on upward social mobility among Black Americans. Due to historical policies and practices, upward social mobility is often an arduous, isolating process for Black Americans, especially as they navigate predominately white educational and workplace settings. This paper advances the literature in several meaningful and innovative ways. The goal of this paper is to provide a qualitative account of the health costs of upward social mobility and describe how these costs could diminish health returns despite greater levels of socioeconomic resources. Focus groups and surveys were the data collection methods for the study. Inclusion criteria for the study were that respondents identified as African American or Black, were 24 years or older and had completed college. The total sample was 32 college-educated Black men ( = 12) and women ( = 20). The mean age for men was 39 (range = 26-50) and 33 years of age (range = 24-59) for women. Key findings highlighted in this paper include (1) hypervisibility and subsequent vigilance; (2) uplift stress; and (3) health costs associated with social mobility. The sum of these stressors is posited to affect multiple health outcomes and elucidate the mechanisms through which socioeconomic returns on health are diminished.
越来越多的文献记录了美国黑人向上社会流动带来的健康回报逐渐减少。由于历史政策和实践，向上的社会流动对美国黑人来说往往是一个艰难、孤立的过程，尤其是当他们在以白人为主的教育和工作环境中穿梭时。本文以几种有意义和创新的方式推进了文献研究。本文的目的是提供一个关于向上社会流动的健康成本的定性描述，并描述尽管社会经济资源水平较高，但这些成本如何降低健康回报。焦点小组和调查是这项研究的数据收集方法。研究的纳入标准是，受访者自认为是非裔美国人或黑人，年龄在 24 岁或以上，并已完成大学学业。总样本为 32 名受过大学教育的黑人男性（=12）和女性（=20）。男性的平均年龄为 39 岁（范围=26-50 岁），女性为 33 岁（范围=24-59 岁）。本文强调的主要发现包括：（1）过度可见性和随之而来的警惕性；（2）振奋压力；（3）与社会流动相关的健康成本。这些压力源的总和被认为会影响多种健康结果，并阐明了社会经济对健康回报减少的机制。
