Social contexts and Black men’s cardiovascular health: The role of gender norms and college attendance

ABSTRACT

The relationship between endorsement of traditional masculinity with adverse physical health outcomes warrants more research scrutiny among Black men because enactment of masculine behaviors in predominantly White, educated settings has unique consequences. To better understand these relationships, the present exploratory study compared college-educated Black men with their non-college educated counterparts in cross-sectional analyses of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. Results indicated that traditional masculinity and college attendance interacted to predict objective physical health measures for Black men (i.e., systolic blood pressure, body mass index, and glycated hemoglobin); endorsement of high traditional masculinity was associated with worse health for college-educated men and better health for their counterparts that did not attend college. Findings imply that the social context of Black men’s lives may shape consequences of masculinity endorsement on their physical health since less-educated men may endure social sanctions for violating traditional gender norms.

KEYWORDS:

• Black men
• Masculinity
• Cardiovascular health disparities
• Socioeconomic status
• Unfair treatment

Acknowledgements

The author thanks several anonymous reviewers for their insights and helpful suggestions on earlier versions of this manuscript. Thanks also to the International Conference on Social Identity and Health attendees for their supportive feedback when this work was presented in Lausanne, Switzerland.