Self-Rated Health, Discrimination, and Racial Group Identity: the Consequences of Ethnicity and Nativity Among Black Americans

In this study, we examine how ethnic heterogeneity and nativity shape the relationships among self-rated health, discrimination, and racial group identity for a representative sample of African Americans, U.S.-born Caribbean Blacks, and foreign-born Caribbean Blacks (National Survey of American Life; N = 4091). Our study includes two forms of discrimination, major lifetime discrimination and day-to-day discrimination, as well as two forms of racial group identity, closeness to other Blacks and Black group evaluation. Closeness to other Blacks improves the self-rated health of U.S.-born Caribbean Blacks who reported experiencing high levels of major discrimination. Black group evaluation improved the health of foreign-born Caribbean Blacks, who reported low levels of major discrimination, and African Americans, with high levels of major discrimination. Finally, for both foreign-born Caribbean Blacks and African Americans, who experience high discrimination, Black group evaluation weakens the influence of day-to-day discrimination on self-rated health.