人际间、社区和社会压力因素对黑人和白人记忆差异起中介作用。
Interpersonal, Community, and Societal Stressors Mediate Black-White Memory Disparities.
机构信息
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
Department of Human Development and Community Health, Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana, USA.
出版信息
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2024 Nov 1;79(11). doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbae163.
OBJECTIVES
Structural racism creates contextual stressors that disproportionately affect Black, relative to White, older adults in the United States and may contribute to worse cognitive health. We examined the extent to which interpersonal, community, and societal stressors uniquely explain Black-White disparities in initial memory and memory change.
METHODS
The sample included 14,199 non-Latino Black and White older adults (Mage = 68.32, 19.8% Black) from the U.S. Health and Retirement Study who completed psychosocial questionnaires at baseline and a word list memory task every 2 years over an 8-year period. Interpersonal, community, and societal stressors were operationalized as self-reported everyday discrimination, neighborhood physical disorder, and subjective societal status, respectively. Latent growth curves modeled longitudinal memory performance. Stressors were modeled simultaneously and allowed to correlate. Covariates included age, sex, education, wealth, parental education, and Southern residence.
RESULTS
Compared to White participants, Black participants experienced more discrimination (β = -0.004, standard error [SE] = 0.001, p < .001), more neighborhood physical disorder (β = -0.009, SE = 0.002, p < .001), and lower perceived societal status (β = -0.002, SE = 0.001, p = .001), each of which uniquely mediated the racial disparity in initial memory. Sensitivity analyses utilizing proxy-imputed memory scores revealed an additional racial disparity in memory change, wherein Black participants evidenced a faster decline than White participants. This disparity in memory change was only uniquely mediated by more everyday discrimination among Black participants.
DISCUSSION
Elements of structural racism may contribute to cognitive disparities via disproportionate stress experiences at multiple contextual levels among Black older adults. Future research should consider multilevel protective factors that buffer against negative impacts of racism on health.
目的
结构性种族主义造成的环境压力对美国的黑人和白人老年人产生了不成比例的影响，可能导致认知健康状况恶化。我们研究了人际、社区和社会压力源在多大程度上可以单独解释黑人与白人老年人初始记忆和记忆变化方面的差异。
方法
该样本包括来自美国健康与退休研究的 14199 名非拉丁裔黑人和白人老年人（平均年龄 68.32 岁，19.8%为黑人），他们在基线时完成了社会心理问卷，并在 8 年的时间里每两年进行一次单词列表记忆任务。人际、社区和社会压力源分别被定义为自我报告的日常歧视、邻里物理障碍和主观社会地位。潜在增长曲线对纵向记忆表现进行建模。压力源同时建模并允许相关。协变量包括年龄、性别、教育、财富、父母教育和南方居住。
结果
与白人参与者相比，黑人参与者经历了更多的歧视（β=-0.004，标准误差[SE]=0.001，p<0.001）、更多的邻里物理障碍（β=-0.009，SE=0.002，p<0.001）和更低的社会地位感知（β=-0.002，SE=0.001，p=0.001），这些因素都单独调节了初始记忆的种族差异。利用代理数据估算记忆分数的敏感性分析显示，记忆变化方面存在额外的种族差异，黑人参与者的记忆下降速度快于白人参与者。在黑人参与者中，更多的日常歧视是导致这种记忆变化差异的唯一因素。
讨论
结构性种族主义的因素可能通过在多个环境层面上给黑人老年人带来不成比例的压力体验，从而导致认知方面的差异。未来的研究应该考虑多层次的保护因素，以缓冲种族主义对健康的负面影响。
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