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17 results

  • Four More Years! or So What?: The Mental Health Significance of Barack Obama’s 2012 Presidential Re-Election among Black Adults

  • Tony N. Brown, Quintin Gorman, Jr., Julian Culver, Asia Bento
  • Journal:
    Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race / Volume 21 / Issue 2 / Fall 2024
    Published online by Cambridge University Press:
    18 September 2024, pp. 201-222
    • Article
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  • This study investigated the mental health significance of Barack Obama’s 2012 presidential re-election among Blacks. Upon his re-election, we hypothesized Blacks would either feel symbolic empowerment or relative deprivation. They would feel symbolic empowerment because a man who identifies as Black won re-election to the nation’s highest office. His second victory should generate optimism, given his status as a historic first. Alternatively, they would feel relative deprivation because The Great Recession from 2007 to 2009 curtailed what Obama could achieve. More important, he withered when afforded opportunities to challenge White supremacy and championed individual responsibility. Using a quasi-experimental design with nationally representative survey data from the 2012 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), we predicted Blacks’ preelection and postelection poor mental health days. We found no time period main effects. However, Black men with less than a college degree experienced 1.11 more poor mental health days postelection whereas Black men with a college degree or more experienced 2.93 fewer poor mental health days postelection. These findings support relative deprivation theory.

A Handbook for the Study of Mental Health
  • Social Contexts, Theories, and Systems
  • 2nd edition
  • Edited by Teresa L. Scheid, Tony N. Brown
  • Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    16 November 2009
  • The second edition of A Handbook for the Study of Mental Health provides a comprehensive review of the sociology of mental health. Chapters by leading scholars and researchers present an overview of historical, social and institutional frameworks. Part I examines social factors that shape psychiatric diagnosis and the measurement of mental health and illness, theories that explain the definition and treatment of mental disorders and cultural variability. Part II investigates effects of social context, considering class, gender, race and age, and the critical role played by stress, marriage, work and social support. Part III focuses on the organization, delivery and evaluation of mental health services, including the criminalization of mental illness, the challenges posed by HIV, and the importance of stigma. This is a key research reference source that will be useful to both undergraduates and graduate students studying mental health and illness from any number of disciplines.

  • References

  • Edited by Teresa L. Scheid, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, Tony N. Brown, Vanderbilt University, Tennessee
  • Book:
    A Handbook for the Study of Mental Health
    Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    16 November 2009, pp 589-706

  • Summary

    Two prevailing beliefs held by the public (and many professionals) connect mental illness to the criminal justice system: first, a belief that deinstitutionalization has led to criminalization of mental illness, and second, a belief that mentally ill persons are dangerous and likely to commit crimes, especially violent crimes. This chapter reviews the available empirical evidence for these beliefs. Most studies of arrest of persons with mental illness have not controlled for comorbidities, despite existing research that shows that mentally ill persons with character disorders and substance abuse are much more likely to offend and have higher arrest rates than other mentally ill persons. The public's concern about coddling criminals and the subsequent release of not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI) offenders into the community seems to be unwarranted. Mental health and social welfare systems with severely inadequate resources try to ameliorate the effects of such deleterious social conditions.

  • Part II - The Social Context of Mental Health and Illness

  • Edited by Teresa L. Scheid, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, Tony N. Brown, Vanderbilt University, Tennessee
  • Book:
    A Handbook for the Study of Mental Health
    Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    16 November 2009, pp 163-406

  • Summary

    An important issue in assessing the societal burden of mental disorders is whether the evidence of increasing prevalence in recent cohorts is real or a methodological artifact. The chapter begins with a broad overview of results concerning the estimated lifetime prevalence, age-of-onset distributions, projected lifetime risk, cohort effects, and sociodemographic correlates of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual DSM-IV disorders assessed in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (NCS-R). It then turns to a discussion of the prevalence of these same disorders in the year before the NCS-R interview. This is followed by a brief review of data regarding trends in disorder prevalence and treatment in the NCS-R compared to a decade earlier in the baseline NCS. The chapter closes with a discussion of interpretations and implications of these results along with anticipated future directions in the investigation of the prevalence of mental disorders.

  • Part III - Mental Health Systems and Policy

  • Edited by Teresa L. Scheid, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, Tony N. Brown, Vanderbilt University, Tennessee
  • Book:
    A Handbook for the Study of Mental Health
    Published online:
    05 June 2012
    Print publication:
    16 November 2009, pp 407-588

  • Summary

    This chapter presents a discussion of societal factors that affect mental health and illness among African American women. The discussion is guided by the diagram which illustrates that structural location as defined by the triangulation of race, gender, and class can influence mental well-being directly or indirectly by impinging on other more proximate processes. The mental well-being of African American women varies by age, marital status, household headship, parenthood, and employment. Among the social factors that diminish well-being among African American women are stressors resulting from the triangulation of racism, sexism, and low Socioeconomic Status (SES). Access to health care is critical for mental well-being because it contributes to healthier, longer lives. Quality health care for African American women requires access and utilization of mental health services that are culturally appropriate and sensitive to the social context of their lives as well as access and use of primary care.