Seo, Jiyeong;
Jivraj, Stephen;
(2024)
Ethnic Density and Mental Health: Does it Matter Whether the Ethnic Density is Co-ethnic or Multi-ethnic and How Important is Change in Ethnic Density?
Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities
10.1007/s40615-024-02071-4.
(In press).
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Abstract
The ethnic density thesis suggests a protective health benefit for ethnic minorities living in places with higher concentration of co-ethnic residents. This paper aims to make a step change in the examination of this thesis by proposing ethnic diversity rather than co-ethnic density will be more protective for mental health. The paper proposes ethnic diversity could be a community asset that benefits the health of all people in a neighbourhood regardless of their own ethnic group. Individual data is taken from the UK Household Longitudinal Study, 2009–2019 linked to aggregate data from the 2001 and 2011 Censuses to test the association between co-ethnic density, ethnic diversity and mental health using the General Health Questionnaire 12-item scale. The paper takes a novel approach by measuring pre-existing (in 2001) and change in (2001–2011) co-ethnic density and ethnic diversity. Moderating effects of individual ethnic group, neighbourhood deprivation and perceived social cohesion are tested. Results show lower pre-existing co-ethnic density is related to lower mental health amongst the White British ethnic group but not in most ethnic minority groups. Greater pre-existing ethnic diversity in more deprived neighbourhoods is associated with better mental health regardless of individual ethnic group. A point of contention in the findings is no association between change in ethnic diversity and mental health.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Ethnic Density and Mental Health: Does it Matter Whether the Ethnic Density is Co-ethnic or Multi-ethnic and How Important is Change in Ethnic Density? |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s40615-024-02071-4 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s40615-024-02071-4 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Population Health Sciences > Institute of Epidemiology and Health > Epidemiology and Public Health |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10195109 |
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