Housing Discrimination and Health of Public Housing Residents in Korea: An Examination of Gender Heterogeneity

While research has highlighted discrimination and its health impacts, whether and how housing-related discrimination is related to the health of public housing residents remains understudied. This paper places discrimination in the public housing context to disentangle the relationship between discrimination and health outcomes, and the moderating role of gender in such a link to fill knowledge gaps. Using an individual-level longitudinal dataset in Seoul, Korea, this paper employed individual fixed effects models and also included interaction terms to estimate how such associations differ by gender. First, about 7% of public housing residents experience housing discrimination. Second, individuals who experience housing-related discrimination report significantly higher levels of stress. Discrimination is linked to an increase in unhealthy behaviors, including smoking initiation and alcohol drinking. Also, the effect of discrimination on stress is significantly greater for women. In contrast, there are no significant gender differences in the effect of discrimination on smoking initiation or the frequency of alcohol consumption. This paper not only confirmed the negative effect of housing discrimination on stress and unhealthy behaviors but also gender differences in the negative association between housing discrimination and stress. The findings highlight the need for gender-sensitive interventions to address the health impacts of discriminatory housing experiences.