How community stress affects Black Americans’ mental health and well-being

How community stress affects Black Americans’ mental health and well-being May 30, 2024 Editors’ notes This article has been reviewed according to Science X’s editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content’s credibility: fact-checked peer-reviewed publication trusted source proofread by Marianne Stein, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain Residential segregation is an example of the long history of structural racism in the United States. Black Americans are more likely to live in low-quality neighborhoods, which contributes to disparities in health outcomes. A new study from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign looks at how community stress affects the mental and emotional health of Black men and women in the U.S. “Community stress refers to the effects of living in disadvantaged areas. This includes objective aspects, such as buildings in disrepair and lower median income. There is also a subjective aspect—do I feel safe and comfortable where I am living? “We were interested in seeing how both aspects are related to mental and emotional health for Black Americans, and whether there are differences for men and women,” said lead author August Jenkins, a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Human Development and...