The Measurement of Perceived Discrimination and Its Consequences for Latino Health

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Abstract

Understanding how discrimination limits the life chances of individuals is a central concern in the
study of social stratification and mobility. In recent decades, there has been much interest in the consequences of discrimination among scholars of health inequalities and minority health.
Despite offering evidence that discrimination is harmful to health, one of the limitations of this literature involves the measurement of
discrimination. Although some health studies show that perceived discrimination is a multidimensional latent factor with substantial measurement error, research on Latinos is based on composite scales that may be wrongly assumed to be error-free and unidimensional. Such composite scales can bias any relationship between discrimination and health. Using data from the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS), this study (1) examines Latino ethnic differences on the Everyday Discrimination Scale (EDS), (2) performs a confirmatory factor analysis on the EDS to evaluate its fit and dimensionality for Latino groups, and (3) evaluates how different scaling approaches of the EDS affect the relationship between discrimination and health. Results reveal previously unreported and significant ethnic differences in perceived discrimination, that a second-order factor with two dimensions (subtle and overt)fits well for all Latino groups, and that the relationship between discrimination and health is much stronger when discrimination is measured as a second-order factor. These findings call into question reliance on composite scales, point towards more reliable scaling approaches, and demonstrate how a better measurement of discrimination allows for the detection of larger
effects on health. The implications of these findings for understanding racial/ethnic inequalities in other stratification outcomes are discussed.

Authors

• Giovani Burgos, Adelphi University

• Fernando I. Rivera, University of Central Florida