The proposed 1999-2000 National Survey of African American Mental Health builds upon the 1979-80 National Survey of Black Americans. Its purpose is to explore inter-and intra-group racial and ethnic differences in psychological distress and mental disorders, as well as the influences of a wide variety of stressors, stress, coping resources, and individual coping and help-seeking strategies among national samples of African Americans (N=4,000), non-Hispanic blacks of Caribbean descent (N=1,000), and non-Hispanic whites (N=1,800). The study will be conducted over three years and will include one cross-section, computer-assisted, face-to-face data collection. The stress of minority status perspective predicts that blacks should have higher rates of psychopathology than whites, since it is generally assumed that they experience stressors (e.g., racism, discrimination, prejudice) to which whites are not exposed. Over the past 20 years, a number of puzzling findings have been identified regarding differential racial vulnerability for serious mental disorders. Early studies found that levels of psychological distress and mental disorder rates under treatment were higher among blacks than whites. Recent epidemiological studies, however, report rates of many major mental disorders that are lower among blacks than whites. To our knowledge, studies have not measured simultaneously rates of psychological distress, psychiatric symptoms, mental disorders, coping, and help-seeking, over time, in large, heterogenous, national samples of blacks. The five specific aims of the study involve the estimation and examination of inter-and intra-group racial and ethnic differences in the: 1) prevalence of mental disorders, including substance abuse, assessed through the most recent version of the W.H.O. C.I.D.I.; 2) prevalence of physical, social and psychological impairments associated with individuals who meet psychiatric criteria for major mental disorders; 3) role of psychosocial factors in help-seeking and the utilization of general health and specialty mental health services for serious mental disorders; 4) exposure to different levels of multiple types of stressors; and 5) vulnerability and responsiveness to stressors and in the use of social and psychological coping resources and strategies.
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