Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 14, 2025
14:43
A Novel Method for Involving Women of Color at High Risk for Preterm Birth in Research Priority Setting
Published on: January 12, 2018
11.8K
Lasting Legacy: The Enduring Relationship Between Racially Restrictive Housing Covenants and Health and Wellbeing
Kristine West1, Elizabeth M Allen2, Rachel Neiwert2
1St. Catherine University, 2004 Randolph Ave, St. Paul, MN, 55105, USA. klwest@stkate.edu.
Journal of Urban Health : Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine
|September 4, 2024
Summary
Racially restrictive covenants in housing deeds created lasting neighborhood disparities. Previously covenanted areas now show better health but reduced child upward mobility, especially for Black children.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Urban Planning
- Sociology
Background:
- Racially restrictive covenants were common in Minnesota housing from the 1910s-1950s.
- These covenants limited housing access for people of color and shaped neighborhoods.
- Though illegal since 1968, their impact persists.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the relationship between historic racially restrictive covenants and current health and wellbeing outcomes.
- To analyze the long-term effects of these housing policies on neighborhoods.
- To statistically confirm anecdotal evidence on racial covenants' role in neighborhood shaping.
Main Methods:
- Utilized novel data from the Mapping Prejudice Project documenting racially restrictive covenants in Hennepin County.
- Employed regression analysis controlling for neighborhood-level covariates.
- Compared health and wellbeing outcomes in previously covenanted neighborhoods versus non-covenanted neighborhoods.
Main Results:
- Previously covenanted neighborhoods exhibit higher life expectancy and lower rates of obesity, diabetes, coronary heart disease, and asthma.
- These neighborhoods show less upward economic mobility for children from poorer households.
- Significant disparities in upward mobility exist between white and Black children in formerly covenanted areas.
Conclusions:
- Racist housing policies like racial covenants leave a lasting imprint on neighborhoods, impacting health and socioeconomic outcomes decades later.
- The study statistically validates the enduring influence of historical racial covenants on contemporary community wellbeing.
- Findings highlight the complex and often contradictory legacy of discriminatory housing practices.
Related Concept Videos
01:21Dimensions of Health and Illness
7.2K
The factors influencing the health-illness continuum can be internal or external and may or may not be under conscious control. They are related to the following eight human dimensions, and each dimension is interrelated to one other.
7.2K
01:29Concepts of Health and Illness
14.3K
Health is a condition of the body, mind, and spirit where an individual remains free from illness. Similarly, wellness is an active state, including living a lifestyle that promotes physical, mental, and emotional health. Physical health is critical for the overall well-being and can be affected by lifestyle, activity level, diet, and behavior. The highest attainable standard of health is a fundamental and universal human right. Consider Lisa, a fifteen-year-old born with congenital...
14.3K
02:55Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination
90.1K
Humans are very diverse and although we share many similarities, we also have many differences. The social groups we belong to help form our identities (Tajfel, 1974). These differences may be difficult for some people to reconcile, which may lead to prejudice toward people who are different. Prejudice is a negative attitude and feeling toward an individual based solely on one’s membership in a particular social group (Allport, 1954; Brown, 2010). Prejudice is common against people who...
90.1K
01:18Factors Affecting Illness
4.2K
When a person's physical, emotional, intellectual, social development or spiritual functioning is compromised, this deviation from a healthy normal state is called illness. Illness creates stress that in turn harms individuals. Irritation, anger, denial, hopelessness, and fear are behavioral and emotional changes an individual experiences in the phases of illness. A variety of factors influence a person's health and well-being.
For instance, risk factors are connected to illness,...
For instance, risk factors are connected to illness,...
4.2K
01:18Models of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention II
1.6K
The person's health status fluctuates continually, varying from being in good health to becoming ill and returning to being healthy. To understand the concept of illness prevention, there are two models. First, the health-illness continuum model is a graphic representation of an individual's wellness. It states that a person is considered healthy in the absence of physical disease and the presence of good emotional health.
The agent-host-environment model states that disease results...
The agent-host-environment model states that disease results...
1.6K
01:29Psychological and Sociocultural Causes of Schizophrenia
81
Schizophrenia, a complex psychiatric disorder, has been historically misunderstood. Early psychological theories attributed its origins to childhood trauma and unresponsive parenting. However, contemporary research largely rejects these notions, favoring the vulnerability-stress hypothesis. This model proposes that individuals with a genetic predisposition to schizophrenia may develop the disorder following exposure to significant environmental stressors. Notably, studies on high-risk...
81