Structural Racism and Adverse Birth Outcomes in the US South: A Multigenerational Perspective (5R01MD016046-02)
Project Description
Chronic material deprivation and the ‘wear and tear’ of everyday discrimination are key social factors thought to contribute to Black women’s poor birth outcomes. These processes are embedded within structural racism, which is the larger system of policies, practices, ideologies, and institutions that reinforces racial inequality by creating differential access to resources and opportunities. To date, however, most research on structural racism and poor birth outcomes considers maternal exposure to only one or two dimensions of structural racism, at a single point in time, thereby underestimating its contribution to Black women’s birth outcomes. The goal of this project is to examine the effects of multigenerational exposure to structural racism on birth outcomes among Black women in the US South.
Aims
- Quantify Black women’s exposure to four dimensions of structural racism in South Carolina.
- Examine the association between four dimensions of structural racism and adverse birth
outcomes both within and across generations of Black mothers in South Carolina.
2022
Needham BL, Ali T, Allgood KL, Ro A, Hirschtick JL, Fleischer NL. Institutional Racism and Health: a Framework for Conceptualization, Measurement, and Analysis. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2022. doi: 10.1007/s40615-022-01381-9.
2019
Fleischer NL, Abshire C, Margerison CE, Nitcheva D, Smith MG. The South Carolina Multigenerational Linked Birth Dataset: Developing Social Mobility Measures Across Generations to Understand Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Adverse Birth Outcomes in the US South. Matern Child Health J. 2019. doi: 10.1007/s10995-018-02695-z.