Recognition that social inequality and stress play a role in racial health disparities has spurred many biomedical researchers in the United States to use 'race' as a proxy measure of social status differences. However, this practice reinforces assumptions of racial homogeneity and deflects attention from important intra-racial variation in social stress processes. Elevated stress during youth is now recognized to be a significant precursor to the development of adult chronic disease. Thus, understanding the impact of social stress variation among African American adolescents, who are at increased risk for stress-related diseases later in life, is particularly important. This dissertation research by a cultural anthropologist will employ structured ethnographic techniques to create a culturally salient measure of one important stressor - social status - for a high school community in a suburb of Chicago, IL. This measure will then be used to relate individual levels of social status with physical and cognitive/emotional measures of stress among African American youth. In addition to challenging overly-simplistic uses of race variables in biomedical research, this project will advance biocultural research approaches that link cultural, individual, and biological phenomena. Broader Impacts: Racial disparities in health constitute a significant problem in the United States and lead to reduced general well-being and quality of life for many African Americans. While adolescent stress is clearly implicated in adult chronic disease development, black youth have been relatively underrepresented in health disparities and psychosocial stress research. Recent evidence suggests that stress reduction may significantly reduce blood pressure in African American youth. Thus, identifying stress processes related specifically to social status will potentially allow for prevention and intervention programs to be more tailored to meeting the needs of this at-risk group. In addition the project advances the education of a young social scientist.
