Investigating the Relationship between Socially-Assigned Ethnicity, Racial Discrimination and Health Advantage in New Zealand

PLOS ONE, Dec 2019

Background While evidence of the contribution of racial discrimination to ethnic health disparities has increased significantly, there has been less research examining relationships between ascribed racial/ethnic categories and health. It has been hypothesized that in racially-stratified societies being assigned as belonging to the dominant racial/ethnic group may be associated with health advantage. This study aimed to investigate associations between socially-assigned ethnicity, self-identified ethnicity, and health, and to consider the role of self-reported experience of racial discrimination in any relationships between socially-assigned ethnicity and health. Methods The study used data from the 2006/07 New Zealand Health Survey (n = 12,488), a nationally representative cross-sectional survey of adults 15 years and over. Racial discrimination was measured as reported individual-level experiences across five domains. Health outcome measures examined were self-reported general health and psychological distress. Results The study identified varying levels of agreement between participants' self-identified and socially-assigned ethnicities. Individuals who reported both self-identifying and being socially-assigned as always belonging to the dominant European grouping tended to have more socioeconomic advantage and experience less racial discrimination. This group also had the highest odds of reporting optimal self-rated health and lower mean levels of psychological distress. These differences were attenuated in models adjusting for socioeconomic measures and individual-level racial discrimination. Conclusions The results suggest health advantage accrues to individuals who self-identify and are socially-assigned as belonging to the dominant European ethnic grouping in New Zealand, operating in part through socioeconomic advantage and lower exposure to individual-level racial discrimination. This is consistent with the broader evidence of the negative impacts of racism on health and ethnic inequalities that result from the inequitable distribution of health determinants, the harm and chronic stress linked to experiences of racial discrimination, and via the processes and consequences of racialization at a societal level.

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Investigating the Relationship between Socially-Assigned Ethnicity, Racial Discrimination and Health Advantage in New Zealand

Racial Discrimination and Health Advantage in New Zealand. PLoS ONE 8(12): e84039. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0084039 Investigating the Relationship between Socially- Assigned Ethnicity, Racial Discrimination and Health Advantage in New Zealand Donna M. Cormack 0 Ricci B. Harris 0 James Stanley 0 Rob Stephenson, Rollins School of Public Health, United States of America 0 1 Department of Public Health, University of Otago , Wellington , New Zealand , 2 Dean's Department, University of Otago , Wellington , New Zealand Background: While evidence of the contribution of racial discrimination to ethnic health disparities has increased significantly, there has been less research examining relationships between ascribed racial/ethnic categories and health. It has been hypothesized that in racially-stratified societies being assigned as belonging to the dominant racial/ethnic group may be associated with health advantage. This study aimed to investigate associations between socially-assigned ethnicity, self-identified ethnicity, and health, and to consider the role of self-reported experience of racial discrimination in any relationships between socially-assigned ethnicity and health. Methods: The study used data from the 2006/07 New Zealand Health Survey (n = 12,488), a nationally representative crosssectional survey of adults 15 years and over. Racial discrimination was measured as reported individual-level experiences across five domains. Health outcome measures examined were self-reported general health and psychological distress. Results: The study identified varying levels of agreement between participants' self-identified and socially-assigned ethnicities. Individuals who reported both self-identifying and being socially-assigned as always belonging to the dominant European grouping tended to have more socioeconomic advantage and experience less racial discrimination. This group also had the highest odds of reporting optimal self-rated health and lower mean levels of psychological distress. These differences were attenuated in models adjusting for socioeconomic measures and individual-level racial discrimination. Conclusions: The results suggest health advantage accrues to individuals who self-identify and are socially-assigned as belonging to the dominant European ethnic grouping in New Zealand, operating in part through socioeconomic advantage and lower exposure to individual-level racial discrimination. This is consistent with the broader evidence of the negative impacts of racism on health and ethnic inequalities that result from the inequitable distribution of health determinants, the harm and chronic stress linked to experiences of racial discrimination, and via the processes and consequences of racialization at a societal level. - Funding: The Crown is the owner of the copyright of the data and the Ministry of Health is the funder of the data collection. This current study was funded by the Health Research Council of New Zealand as a 3-year project grant. The project number is 10/416. The funders website is: www.hrc.govt.nz. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. The results presented in this paper are the work of the authors. Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. As in many other countries with histories of colonization, New Zealand has entrenched inequities in health between ethnic groups, with persistent disparities in morbidity and mortality rates, life expectancy, and access to and experiences of healthcare [1]. Measuring and monitoring health disparities and other social outcomes between ethnic groups often uses administrative or routinely-collected data. In New Zealand, official statistical approaches to ethnicity are formally based on the concept that individuals are able to self-identify with one or more ethnic groups [2]. This has been a change over time from historical approaches based on ancestry or blood quantum to a contemporary understanding of ethnicity as a measure of self-identified cultural affiliation [2]. Accompanying this has been a shift in terminology away from race to use of the term ethnicity in official statistics in New Zealand, although the term race continues to be used interchangeably with ethnicity in many social contexts, as is the case internationally [3]. While self-identification is now generally accepted as a central tenet of official approaches to ethnicity data collection, in everyday social interactions an individuals race or ethnicity is also sociallyassigned. Socially-assigned race/ethnicity relates to an understanding that in societies underpinned by racialized social hierarchies and with histories of race-based social stratification, including New Zealand, the labels race and ethnicity are not simply a matter of self-identification or cultural affiliation, but are also externally ascribed to individuals and groups as part o (...truncated)


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Donna M. Cormack, Ricci B. Harris, James Stanley. Investigating the Relationship between Socially-Assigned Ethnicity, Racial Discrimination and Health Advantage in New Zealand, PLOS ONE, 2013, 12, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0084039