Socioeconomic status and psychologic distress in adult blacks

Most epidemiologic studies of race and mental health are conducted on regional data sets which contain very small numbers of black respondents. As a result, the amount of data compiled on risk groups within the black population is limited. This paper argues that better information on risk groups can be gathered from special surveys of minority group populations. Data are analyzed from the National Survey of Black Americans, a nationally representative sample of the adult (18 years and older) black population collected in 1979-1980 (n = 2,107). The paper extends prior work on these data by exploring the relation between three socioeconomic status indicators and psychologic distress for different problem situations with an eight-item symptom checklist. Regression analyses revealed that personal income, family income, and a poverty index were all negatively related to distress--but only among respondents who indicated that they were upset because of an economic or physical health problem. These three indicators were positively related to distress among those with an emotional adjustment problem. The implications of these findings for psychiatric epidemiology and preventive intervention programs are discussed.