Health Disparities Across Borders: Global Approaches to Understanding Racism, Health, and Human Development

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Abstract

Racialized health disparities are public health crises for Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) nations. These disparities pose threats to WEIRD nations’ ideals as equitable and democratic, as chronic inequities can reproduce intergenerational inequities between racial groups. Our three papers illustrate processes through which racial inequities are perpetuated across generations and suggest strategies as possible solutions. Paper 1 uses a national sample of early-adolescent siblings in the United States to show that racial discrimination predicts advances in youth’s pubertal development (a proxy of allostatic load) and identifies household characteristics that instill youth with resilience. Paper 2 discusses the arrival of socio-genomics in Germany in light of recent research on the continued existence of racialized inequality. Paper 3 illustrates the intersections of young adults’ racial and neuro-diversities in the United Kingdom and the practices that UK-based higher education can utilize to prepare school staff and adults to meet the needs of such youth from diverse backgrounds. Altogether, these papers provide a picture of health inequities across human development and generations within WEIRD countries and provide implications for practices that reduce racial disparities around the world.

Sub Unit

• Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Chair

• Juan Del Toro, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

Discussant

• Andrew J Fuligni, University of California - Los Angeles

Individual Presentations

• Adolescents’ Resilience to Ethnic/Racial Discrimination: A Within-Family Design Reveals the Protective Role of Parents’ Ethnic/Racial Identities - Presenting Author: Juan Del Toro, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities; Riana Elyse Anderson, University of Michigan - Ann Arbor; Xiaoran Sun, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities; Richard M Lee, University of Minnesota - Twin Cities

• 90 Years Later: Biosocial Research in Post-Genomic Germany - Presenting Author: Muna Aikins, Max Planck Institute for Human Development; Laurel Raffington, University of Texas at Austin

• Come As You Are: Sociological Reflections on Race, Neuro-Diversity & Higher Education - Presenting Author: Chantelle Jessica Lewis, University of Oxford; Jason Arday, University of Glasgow