Explaining the Black-white depression paradox: Interrogating the Environmental Affordances Model.

ABSTRACT: The Environmental Affordances (EA) model posits that Black Americans' engagement with unhealthy behaviors (i.e. smoking, alcohol use, eating calorie-dense foods) to cope with stressor exposure may simultaneously account for their observed greater risk of chronic physical illness, and their observed equal or lesser prevalence of depression, relative to white Americans - the so-called "Black-white depression paradox." However, the specific mechanisms through which such effects might arise have been theorized and analyzed inconsistently across studies, raising concerns regarding the appropriateness of existing empirical tests of the model as well as the validity of the conclusions. We specify the two mechanisms most consistent with the EA model - 'Mediation-only' and 'Mediation and Modificati

SUBMITTER: Pamplin JR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8119386 | biostudies-literature | 2021 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature