Discrimination, or perceived discrimination, negatively affects physical and mental health. (Pascoe & Richman, 2009)
There are three pathways in which this occurs:
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A
Perceived discrimination can have a direct effect on mental and physical health.
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B
Perceived discrimination and mental and physical health can be mediated by psychological and physiological stress responses such as decreased positive emotion and increased negative emotion, or cardiovascular reactivity and cortisol responses, respectively. Continuous experiences of perceived discrimination can cause these responses to be activated on a more regular basis, which can impact mental and physical health.
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C
Perceived discrimination can lead to health risk behaviours that emerge as possible coping mechanisms, which can have detrimental effects on health.
The graph below illustrates these pathways, including the effect of variables such as social support, stigma identification and coping style, which may moderate the relationship between perceived discrimination and health.
- Pathway A
- Pathway B
- Pathway C
+ Stigma identification ⇗
+ Coping style ⇗
Heightened stress response
⇗ ⇘Perceived discrimination
⟹Mental & physical health
⇘ ⇗+ Stigma identification ⇘
+ Coping style ⇘
Health behaviours
Although discrimination and racism involve discussion of unjust treatment, a related discussion could be the importance of having hope and a reason to exist, an idea from Indigenous wellness wheels. Indigenous wellness wheels acknowledge that societal structures should ensure that all individuals have a sense of belonging and a sense of purpose, which in turn acts as an important social determinant of health (Assembly of First Nations & Health Canada, 2015)..