ArticlePsychology research and behavior management2020
Racial Difference in the Relationship Between Health and Happiness in the United States.
Article in Psychology research and behavior management, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- Happiness and Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms as Mediated by Subjective Health Conditions: A Nationwide Cross-Sectional Internet Survey.Neuropsychopharmacology reports · 2026Article
- Disparities in childhood human capital investments in the United States.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Academic performance and college students' subjective well-being.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Race, Ethnicity, and Gender Differences in Patient Reported Well-Being and Cognitive Functioning Within 3 Months of Symptomatic Illness During COVID-19 Pandemic.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2025Article
- Immigrants' diminished protective effects of parental education and employment on youth mood disorders in Sweden.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Black Americans' Diminished Health Returns of Professional Occupations: A Thirty-Year Follow-Up Study of Middle-Aged and Older Adults.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2025Article
- Health literacy as the most important covariate of self-rated health in adolescents.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- "To Be Twice as Good to Get Half": Minorities' Diminished Returns.Journal of biomedical and life sciences · 2025Article
- Subjective Well-Being among African Americans: Findings from the National Survey of American LifeSociological focus · 2025Article
- Race, College Graduation, and Time of Retirement in the United States: A Thirty-Year Longitudinal Cohort of Middle-Aged and Older Adults.Open journal of educational research · 2024Article
- Unequal Effect of Educational Attainment on Reducing Poverty and Welfare; Diminished Returns of American Indian/Alaska Native Populations.Journal of rehabilitation therapy · 2024Article
- Immigration, Educational Attainment, and Subjective Health in the United States.Journal of mental health & clinical psychology · 2024Article
- Association between School Achievement and Tobacco Susceptibility among US Adolescents: Ethnic Differences.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Article
- Race and Ethnic Differences in the Protective Effect of Parental Educational Attainment on Subsequent Perceived Tobacco Norms among US Youth.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2023Article
- Does exercise participation promote happiness?: Mediations and heterogeneities.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Number of Chronic Medical Conditions and Quality of Life of Ethnic Minority Older Adults.Geriatrics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Feasibility of Race by Sex Intersectionality Research on Suicidality in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Race, Family Conflict and Suicidal Thoughts and Behaviors among 9-10-Year-Old American Children.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAlthough health is a prerequisite for happiness, the salience of health for maintaining happiness may be diminished for Blacks when compared to Whites, a phenomenon which can be explained by the Black-White mental health paradox and minorities' diminished returns.
aimTo understand if Black and White adult Americans differ in the effects of self-rated health (SRH) on happiness.
methodsThis cross-sectional study used data from the General Social Survey (GSS; 1972-2018), a nationally representative survey in the US. Our analytical sample included 42,201 Black and White adults. The independent variable was SRH. Happiness was the dependent variable. Sociodemographic factors were covariates. Race was the moderator. Logistic regression was used to analyze the data without and with interaction terms between race and SRH.
resultsOverall, good SRH was positively associated with happiness, however, there was a significant interaction between race/ethnicity and good SRH on the outcome (i.e. happiness) . This finding suggested that the boosting effect of good SRH on happiness is weaker for Black than White people.
conclusionIn the United States, due to a weaker concordance between good health and happiness, Blacks who have poor SRH are more likely to report happiness. At the same time, Whites who are healthy report happiness, however, Blacks who are healthy do not necessarily report happiness. Disjointed link between health and happiness may be due to different racial, ethnic, and cultural perceptions of physical health and happiness as well as salience of physical health as a component of happiness. This may be an adaptive response of Blacks to sociopolitical as well as health-related adversities over centuries as a result of the combination of oppression, injustice, and poverty.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.