The Transgenerational Consequences of Discrimination on African-American Health Outcomes

Disparities in African American health remain pervasive and persist transgenerationally. There is a growing consensus that both structural and interpersonal racial discrimination are key mechanisms affecting African American health. The Biopsychosocial Model of Racism as a Stressor posits that the persistent stress of experiencing discrimination take a physical toll on the health of African Americans and is ultimately manifested in the onset of illness. However, the degree to which the health consequences of racism and discrimination can be passed down from one generation to the next is an important avenue of exploration. In this review, we discuss and link literature across disciplines demonstrating the harmful impact of racism on African American physical health and the health of their offspring. Racial differences in health outcomes in the United States are widespread and stark. Though there have been important technological advances contributing to the increase in population life expectancy in the past 50 years (Gortmaker and Wise 1997), the gap in health outcomes between Whites and certain minority groups remains substantial. According to the Center for the Disease Control’s most recent report, rates of morbidity and mortality over the life course remain higher for African-Americans than for most other race/ethnic groups (CDC/NCHS 2011). Moreover, African-Americans have the highest rates of low birth weight births and substantially higher rates of infant mortality than other racial groups (Williams 2002). African-American children also experience higher rates of chronic health conditions such as asthma and obesity across socioeconomic status (CDC/NCHS 2011), and during adulthood, African-Americans exhibit the highest rates of hypertension and cancer mortality (Williams 2002). Though life expectancy has risen for all populations in the USA, both African-American men and women still exhibit the lowest life expectancy across race ethnic groups with men’s average life expectancy at 70 years old and women’s at 77 compared with 76 for White men and 81 for White women (CDC/NCHS 2011). Sociologists systematically demonstrate the pervasive, harmful nature of social inequality for minority disparities across a range of outcomes including health, education, income, and family processes (Reskin 2012). There is an increasing awareness that racial discrimination is a salient mechanism perpetuating racial gaps in health with African-Americans showing some of the most substantial differences in prevalence and severity of certain health conditions across the life course (Williams 2012). The Biopsychosocial Model of Racism as a Stressor (BMRS) elucidates the psychosocial and biological pathways through which racism functions as a mechanism for perpetuating declines in health, particularly among African-Americans (Clark et al. 1999). Though there have been important strides in uncovering the life course pathways through which racial inequality perpetuates health outcomes across