IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v13y2016i10p1025-d80917.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Two Mechanisms: The Role of Social Capital and Industrial Pollution Exposure in Explaining Racial Disparities in Self-Rated Health

Author

Listed:
  • Kerry Ard

    (School of Environment and Natural Resources, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA)

  • Cynthia Colen

    (Department of Sociology, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA)

  • Marisol Becerra

    (School of Environment and Natural Resources, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA)

  • Thelma Velez

    (School of Environment and Natural Resources, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA)

Abstract

This study provides an empirical test of two mechanisms (social capital and exposure to air pollution) that are theorized to mediate the effect of neighborhood on health and contribute to racial disparities in health outcomes. To this end, we utilize the Social Capital Benchmark Study, a national survey of individuals nested within communities in the United States, to estimate how multiple dimensions of social capital and exposure to air pollution, explain racial disparities in self-rated health. Our main findings show that when controlling for individual-confounders, and nesting within communities, our indicator of cognitive bridging, generalized trust, decreases the gap in self-rated health between African Americans and Whites by 84%, and the gap between Hispanics and Whites by 54%. Our other indicator of cognitive social capital, cognitive linking as represented by engagement in politics, decreases the gap in health between Hispanics and Whites by 32%, but has little impact on African Americans. We also assessed whether the gap in health was explained by respondents’ estimated exposure to toxicity-weighted air pollutants from large industrial facilities over the previous year. Our results show that accounting for exposure to these toxins has no effect on the racial gap in self-rated health in these data. This paper contributes to the neighborhood effects literature by examining the impact that estimated annual industrial air pollution, and multiple measures of social capital, have on explaining the racial gap in health in a sample of individuals nested within communities across the United States.

Suggested Citation

  • Kerry Ard & Cynthia Colen & Marisol Becerra & Thelma Velez, 2016. "Two Mechanisms: The Role of Social Capital and Industrial Pollution Exposure in Explaining Racial Disparities in Self-Rated Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-16, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:13:y:2016:i:10:p:1025-:d:80917
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/10/1025/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/13/10/1025/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Do, D. Phuong & Finch, Brian Karl & Basurto-Davila, Ricardo & Bird, Chloe & Escarce, Jose & Lurie, Nicole, 2008. "Does place explain racial health disparities? Quantifying the contribution of residential context to the Black/white health gap in the United States," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(8), pages 1258-1268, October.
    2. Baodong Liu & Sharon D. Wright Austin & Byron D'Andrá Orey, 2009. "Church Attendance, Social Capital, and Black Voting Participation," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 90(3), pages 576-592, September.
    3. Sundquist, Jan & Johansson, Sven-Erik & Yang, Min & Sundquist, Kristina, 2006. "Low linking social capital as a predictor of coronary heart disease in Sweden: A cohort study of 2.8 million people," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(4), pages 954-963, February.
    4. Geronimus, Arline T., 1996. "Black/white differences in the relationship of maternal age to birthweight: A population-based test of the weathering hypothesis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 589-597, February.
    5. Sampson, R.J. & Morenoff, J.D. & Raudenbush, S., 2005. "Social anatomy of racial and ethnic disparities in violence," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 95(2), pages 224-232.
    6. Zullig, K.J. & Hendryx, M., 2011. "Health-related quality of life among central appalachian residents in mountaintop mining counties," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 101(5), pages 848-853.
    7. Victor Brajer & Jane V. Hall, 2005. "Changes in the Distribution of Air Pollution Exposure in the Los Angeles Basin from 1990 to 1999," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 23(1), pages 50-58, January.
    8. Melissa P L Chan & Robert S Weinhold & Reuben Thomas & Julia M Gohlke & Christopher J Portier, 2015. "Environmental Predictors of US County Mortality Patterns on a National Basis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(12), pages 1-25, December.
    9. Bzostek, Sharon & Goldman, Noreen & Pebley, Anne, 2007. "Why do Hispanics in the USA report poor health?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(5), pages 990-1003, September.
    10. Dovidio, John F. & Penner, Louis A. & Albrecht, Terrance L. & Norton, Wynne E. & Gaertner, Samuel L. & Shelton, J. Nicole, 2008. "Disparities and distrust: The implications of psychological processes for understanding racial disparities in health and health care," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 478-486, August.
    11. Diez Roux, A.V., 2016. "Neighborhoods and health: What do we know? what should we do?," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 106(3), pages 430-431.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Roberto Pasetto & Benedetta Mattioli & Daniela Marsili, 2019. "Environmental Justice in Industrially Contaminated Sites. A Review of Scientific Evidence in the WHO European Region," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-20, March.
    2. Jayajit Chakraborty & Timothy W. Collins & Sara E. Grineski, 2016. "Environmental Justice Research: Contemporary Issues and Emerging Topics," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-5, November.
    3. Ruoyu Wang & Desheng Xue & Ye Liu & Penghua Liu & Hongsheng Chen, 2018. "The Relationship between Air Pollution and Depression in China: Is Neighbourhood Social Capital Protective?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-13, June.
    4. Frances M. Nilsen & Jazmin D.C. Ruiz & Nicolle S. Tulve, 2020. "A Meta-Analysis of Stressors from the Total Environment Associated with Children’s General Cognitive Ability," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(15), pages 1-35, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Arnold, Michael & Hsu, Ling & Pipkin, Sharon & McFarland, Willi & Rutherford, George W., 2009. "Race, place and AIDS: The role of socioeconomic context on racial disparities in treatment and survival in San Francisco," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 121-128, July.
    2. Siddiqi, Arjumand & Jones, Marcella K. & Bruce, Donald J. & Erwin, Paul C., 2016. "Do racial inequities in infant mortality correspond to variations in societal conditions? A study of state-level income inequality in the U.S., 1992–2007," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 49-58.
    3. Paul D. Juarez & Mohammad Tabatabai & Robert Burciaga Valdez & Darryl B. Hood & Wansoo Im & Charles Mouton & Cynthia Colen & Mohammad Z. Al-Hamdan & Patricia Matthews-Juarez & Maureen Y. Lichtveld & D, 2020. "The Effects of Social, Personal, and Behavioral Risk Factors and PM 2.5 on Cardio-Metabolic Disparities in a Cohort of Community Health Center Patients," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(10), pages 1-19, May.
    4. Hanibuchi, Tomoya & Murata, Yohei & Ichida, Yukinobu & Hirai, Hiroshi & Kawachi, Ichiro & Kondo, Katsunori, 2012. "Place-specific constructs of social capital and their possible associations to health: A Japanese case study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(1), pages 225-232.
    5. Miguel Clemente & Zara Elena Diaz & Pablo Espinosa, 2021. "Differential Child Perceptions of the Parents’ Care and Concerns as a Custody Measure: the Children’s Preference Scale (CPS)," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 14(3), pages 1089-1104, June.
    6. Brown, Laura J & Sear, Rebecca, 2020. "Do parenting, reproductive and health traits cluster together in distinct trajectories? Evidence from two UK cohort studies," OSF Preprints r8jvw, Center for Open Science.
    7. Melissa P L Chan & Robert S Weinhold & Reuben Thomas & Julia M Gohlke & Christopher J Portier, 2015. "Environmental Predictors of US County Mortality Patterns on a National Basis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(12), pages 1-25, December.
    8. Kelly Pierce & Diana Sun & Ben Feldmeyer, 2023. "Staying under the Radar? Immigration Effects on Overdose Deaths and the Impact of Sanctuary Jurisdictions," Societies, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-19, May.
    9. Mike Males, 2015. "Age, Poverty, Homicide, and Gun Homicide," SAGE Open, , vol. 5(1), pages 21582440155, March.
    10. Islam, M. Kamrul & Gerdtham, Ulf-G. & Gullberg, Bo & Lindström, Martin & Merlo, Juan, 2008. "Social capital externalities and mortality in Sweden," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 19-42, March.
    11. Helen Lee & Sarah Shea Crowne & Melanie Estarziau & Keith Kranker & Charles Michalopoulos & Anne Warren & Tod Mijanovich & Jill H. Filene & Anne Duggan & Virginia Knox, "undated". "The Effects of Home Visiting on Prenatal Health, Birth Outcomes, and Health Care Use in the First Year of Life: Final Implementation and Impact Findings from the Mother and Infant Home Visiting Progra," Mathematica Policy Research Reports a9626a8d90bf4f01811d0c9d7, Mathematica Policy Research.
    12. Johnson, Rucker C. & Schoeni, Robert F. & Rogowski, Jeannette A., 2012. "Health disparities in mid-to-late life: The role of earlier life family and neighborhood socioeconomic conditions," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(4), pages 625-636.
    13. Stephanie M. DiPietro & Robert J. Bursik Jr., 2012. "Studies of the New Immigration," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 641(1), pages 247-267, May.
    14. Slaughter-Acey, Jaime C. & Brown, Tony N. & Keith, Verna M. & Dailey, Rhonda & Misra, Dawn P., 2020. "A tale of two generations: Maternal skin color and adverse birth outcomes in Black/African American women," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    15. Cook, Jonathan E. & Purdie-Vaughns, Valerie & Meyer, Ilan H. & Busch, Justin T.A., 2014. "Intervening within and across levels: A multilevel approach to stigma and public health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 101-109.
    16. Allen, Jonathan & Cancino, Jeffrey M., 2012. "Social disorganization, Latinos and juvenile crime in the Texas borderlands," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 152-163.
    17. Cebula, Richard J., 2022. "Coal Mining, Health, and Morbidity: A Brief Overview of the Empirical Scholarly Literature from a Regional Science Perspective," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 52(01), October.
    18. Liu, Xiaoxiao & Ben Liu, Qianqian, 2024. "Superior medical resources or geographic proximity? The joint effects of regional medical resource disparity, geographic distance, and cultural differences on online medical consultation," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 350(C).
    19. Sizhe Liu & Wei Zhang & Bei Wu, 2024. "The Reciprocity of Intergenerational Support and Self-rated Health Among Chinese Older Adults," SAGE Open, , vol. 14(3), pages 21582440241, August.
    20. Surber, Sarah J. & Simonton, D. Scott, 2017. "Disparate impacts of coal mining and reclamation concerns for West Virginia and central Appalachia," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 1-8.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:13:y:2016:i:10:p:1025-:d:80917. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.