@article {6670, title = {Relations among Socioeconomic Status Indicators and Health for African-Americans and Whites.}, journal = {J Health Psychol}, volume = {4}, year = {1999}, note = {John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Network on Socioeconomic Status and Health and National Institute of Health Training grants.}, month = {1999 Jul}, pages = {451-63}, publisher = {4}, abstract = {

This investigation explored the relationship of socioeconomic status (SES) to physical and mental health in two nationally representative samples of whites and African-Americans. We examined the interrelations among SES variables and assessed their contribution to health for the two racial groups. Throughout, we assessed the contribution of a less traditional indicator of SES-wealth-in the SES-health relationship. As we expected, African-Americans had lower levels of education, household income, and wealth than whites. Unexpectedly, however, the strength of the interrelationships among the three SES indicators did not differ for African-Americans and whites. In addition, we found that SES operated to affect health in a very similar fashion for African-Americans and whites. We found that wealth, in addition to more traditional indicators of SES (education and household income), made a unique and significant contribution to explaining both physical and mental health. Examining relations of different SES indicators to health across groups is critical to eliminating persistent social inequalities in health.

}, issn = {1359-1053}, doi = {10.1177/135910539900400401}, author = {Ostrove, Joan M. and Feldman, Pamela and Nancy E Adler} }