Health Status among African Americans: Do Social Capital and Financial Satisfaction Make a Difference?

ABSTRACT

The purpose of the current study was to investigate whether various types of social capital influence self-rated health among African Americans, while accounting for objective and subjective economic well-being. This cross-sectional study included a nationally representative sample of 231 African American adults that participated in the Community Benchmark Survey. Hierarchical multiple regression results show that the health status was influenced by a positive Black identity, friendships, the quality of the communities in which they live, and objective and subjective SES factors. These are social resources and psychological assets that are germane in promoting better health appraisals among African Americans.

KEYWORDS:

• African Americans
• self-rated health
• social capital
• subjective financial well-being

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Ethics approval and consent to participate

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. This secondary data analysis was approved by the University of Mississippi’s ethics committee.

Additional information

Funding

No external funding was obtained for the current study.