ReviewSocial science & medicine (1982)2021
Evaluating hypothesized explanations for the Black-white depression paradox: A critical review of the extant evidence.
Review in Social science & medicine (1982), 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 35 papers.
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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
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Who cites it
35 citing papers in PubMed, 50 citations in OpenAlex.
- Prevalence and predictors of decisional conflict among older African Americans with advanced chronic kidney disease.Innovation in aging · 2026Article
- Examining polygenic scores for depression, depressive symptoms from childhood to adolescence, and adolescent substance use in a diverse sample: The moderating impact of a family-centered intervention.Development and psychopathology · 2025Article
- Prevalence estimates of depression and anxiety symptoms among adolescents in Bermuda, according to age, gender and race.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2025Article
- Goal-Striving Stress and Bodily Pain among Working-Age Black and White Americans.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2025Article
- Social Determinants of Health and Health Care Utilization among Hispanic and Non-Hispanic Black Men at Risk for Hypertension.Ethnicity & disease · 2025Article
- Does the Black-White mental health paradox persist across U.S. geographical regions?SSM. Mental health · 2025Article
- Area-level credit scores and symptoms of depression and anxiety in adults.American journal of epidemiology · 2025Article
- Medical Mistrust and Willingness to Use Mental Health Services Among a Cohort of Black Adults.Psychiatric services (Washington, D.C.) · 2025Article
- Upward Mobility Context and Health Outcomes and Behaviors during Transition to Adulthood: The Intersectionality of Race and Sex.Journal of health and social behavior · 2025Article
- Depression at the intersection of race/ethnicity, sex/gender, and sexual orientation in a nationally representative sample of US adults: a design-weighted intersectional MAIHDA.American journal of epidemiology · 2024Article
- Social Vulnerability, COVID-19, Racial Violence, and Depressive Symptoms: a Cross-sectional Study in the Southern United States.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2024Article
- Patient-Reported Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Patients With Ulcerative Colitis: Results From the National Health and Wellness Survey.Crohn's & colitis 360 · 2024Article
- Neighborhood eviction trajectories and odds of moderate and serious psychological distress during pregnancy among African American women.American journal of epidemiology · 2024Article
- Ethno-racial differences in anxiety and depression impairment among emerging adults in higher education.SSM - population health · 2024Article
- Built Environment, Natural Environment, and Mental Health.GeoHealth · 2024Article
- Similarities and Differences in the Longitudinal Trajectories of Depressive Symptoms from Mid-Adolescence to Young Adulthood: the Intersectionality of Gender, Race/Ethnicity, and Levels of Depressive Symptoms.Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities · 2024Article
- Stress Exposure and Cardiovascular Disease Risk among US Black Women: Ethnicity and Nativity Intersections.Population research and policy review · 2024Article
- Everyday Discrimination and Trajectories of Transdiagnostic Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety among Young Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic.Stigma and health · 2024Article
- Racial and ethnic differences in the association between depressive symptoms and cognitive outcomes in older adults: Findings from KHANDLE and STAR.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2024Article
- Disparate Dementia Risk Factors Are Associated with Cognitive Impairment and Rates of Decline in African Americans.Annals of neurology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
The Black-white Depression paradox, the lower prevalence of major depression among non-Hispanic Black (relative to non-Hispanic white) individuals despite their greater exposure to major life stressors, is a phenomenon that remains unexplained. Despite a decade plus of research, there is little clarity as to whether the paradoxical observations are an invalid finding, spuriously produced by selection bias, information bias, or confounding, or are a valid finding, representative of a true racial patterning of depression in the population. Though both artefactual and etiologic mechanisms have been tested, a lack of synthesis of the extant evidence has contributed towards an unclear picture of the validity of the paradox and produced challenges for researchers in determining which proposed mechanisms show promise, which have been debunked, and which require further study. The objective of this critical review is to assess the state of the literature regarding explanations for the Black-white depression paradox by examining some of the more prominent hypothesized explanatory mechanisms that have been proposed and assessing the state of the evidence in support of them. Included mechanisms were selected for their perceived dominance in the literature and the existence of at least one, direct empirical test using DSM major depression as the outcome. This review highlights the very limited evidence in support of any of the extant putative mechanisms, suggesting that investigators should redirect efforts towards identifying novel mechanisms, and/or empirically testing those which show promise but to date have been relatively understudied. We conclude with a discussion of the broader implications of the evidence for well-accepted social theories and raise questions regarding the use of DSM major depression to assess mental health burden in Black communities.
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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.