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Title: Residential Segregation, Socioeconomic Status, and Disability: A Multi-Level Study of Puerto Ricans in the United States
Citation Type: Working Paper
Publication Year: 2011
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Abstract: This paper draws on the social structure and personality framework and place stratification perspectives to examine if socioeconomic status mediates the effects of segregation on disability among Puerto Ricans. Although evidence on the harmful effects that residential racial segregation has on the health of African Americans continues to mount, there is little work on Latinos at the national level, and only a couple multilevel studies that examine the effects of segregation on the health of Puerto Ricans. More research is needed on Latinos, and particularly Puerto Ricans, as they are one of the largest Latino ethnic groups in the United States. Puerto Ricans also suffer from high rates of economic disadvantage and poor health. Heeding calls for multilevel analyses on the pathways that link segregation to health, four questions are addressed. First, do Puerto Ricans still suffer from poor health, as previous studies have shown? Second, does county-level segregation affect likelihood that Puerto Ricans have a disability? Third, are higher levels of segregation associated with lower socioeconomic status (SES)? Fourth, does SES mediate the relationship between segregation and disability? Longitudinal multi-level analyses were conducted by merging individual-level data from the 2006 American Community Survey to data from the 2000 U.S. Census (Summary Files 1 & 3). Our literature review shows that Puerto Ricans suffer from serious health disparities when compared to other groups, including other Latinos. Empirical results reveal that segregation increases individuals probability of having a disability above and beyond the effects of other county-level and individual-level risk factors of poor health. The findings also show that higher levels of segregation are associated with lower levels of SES. Consistent with the theoretical expectations of the place stratification perspective, segregation harms health directly and indirectly through SES. Overall, these findings indicate that residential segregation continues to structure the life chances of people of color in the U.S., and also informs calls for hierarchical research that examines other pathways through which racism harms health.
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Authors: Burgos, Giovani; Rivera, Fernando
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Publication Number: 2011-02
Institution: McGill University Department of Sociology
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Publisher Location: Montreal, Quebec
Data Collections: IPUMS USA
Topics: Housing and Segregation
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