Education, perceived discrimination and risk for depression in a southern black cohort

Abstract

Objectives: Assess whether education moderates associations between discrimination and depression risk within a southern Black/African American cohort in a labor market shifting from manufacturing and farming to education-intensive industries, such as health care and technology.

Methods: Data are from the Pitt County (NC) Study (n = 1154) collected in 2001. Depression risk was assessed with the Center for Epidemiologic Study-Depression (CES-D) scale. Discrimination was measured using a subset from the Everyday Discrimination Scale. Education was categorized as completion of less than high school (HS), HS/GED (General Educational Development), or any college.

Results: Completing any college mitigated the association between discrimination and CES-D among men (b = −1.33, 95% CI = −2.56, −0.09) but not women (b = −0.19, 95% CI = −1.36, 0.98).

Conclusions: Education is protective for depression risk related to discrimination for men but not women. Recent macroeconomic changes placed a premium on higher levels of education in 2018, as in the 1990s. Because racial discrimination remains a stressor in the everyday lives of African Americans regardless of education level, the health benefits of higher education for working-aged African Americans in shifting labor markets warrants further investigation.

Keywords:

• Depressive symptoms
• discrimination
• education
• African Americans
• economic growth

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Institute on Aging and the Health Services and Resources Administration.