ArticleSocial science & medicine (1982)2022
Shades of health: Skin color, ethnicity, and mental health among Black Americans.
Article in Social science & medicine (1982), 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
What it found
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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.
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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.
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Who cites it
6 citing papers in PubMed, 12 citations in OpenAlex.
- Racial discrimination, racial trauma, and complex post-traumatic stress disorder: the role of emotion dysregulation as a mediating factor in Black, African, and Afrodiasporic people in Germany.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Article
- Colorism and Sexual Health: A Rapid Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2026Review
- An mHealth App to Increase Engagement in Mental Health Services for Depression and Anxiety: Protocol for a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.JMIR research protocols · 2026Article
- Skin color and mental health in Peru: the mediating role of experiences of discrimination among university students.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Examining racial identity invalidation and well-being among Biracial adolescents using the identity capital model.Journal of research on adolescence : the official journal of the Society for Research on Adolescence · 2025Article
- Perceived Homonegativity and Psychological Distress in Gay Men in Brazil: Does Skin Color Matter?Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Skin color is an important predictor of health outcomes among Black Americans. Black Americans with darker complexions experience worse physical and psychological functioning than those with lighter complexions. However, most research on the health effects of colorism focuses solely on African Americans, omitting the experiences of other Black subpopulations. Using data from the National Survey of American Life (NSAL), we investigate the relationship between skin color and mental health among African Americans (N = 3393) and Caribbean Blacks (N = 1378). Findings from multivariate logistic regressions reveal that Black Americans with the lightest complexions-regardless of ethnicity-report worse psychological functioning. However, the shape of the association between skin tone and mental health varies significantly based on ethnicity and the specific psychiatric outcome under study. For Caribbean Blacks, the association between skin color and any mental disorders and mood disorders is linear, while the relationship for anxiety disorders is curvilinear. For African Americans, the relationship between skin color and mental health shows an elevated risk among only those with the lightest skin tones. These results illustrate the heterogeneity within the Black community and highlight the importance of recognizing ethnicity in health disparities research.
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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.