(Press-News.org) The first of its kind, the review showed 461 cases of links between racism and child and youth health outcomes.
Lead researcher Dr Naomi Priest at the McCaughey VicHealth Centre for Community Wellbeing at the University of Melbourne said the review demonstrated racism as an important factor influencing the health and wellbeing of children and youth.
"The review showed there are strong and consistent relationships between racial discrimination and a range of detrimental health outcomes such as low self-esteem, reduced resilience, increased behaviour problems and lower levels of wellbeing."
The most common types of racism the studies investigated were interpersonal experiences of racism – between people rather than institutional or systemic racism.
Associations between racism and behaviour problems, pregnancy and birth outcomes were common. The studies reviewed found children whose mother experienced racism during pregnancy were more likely to have poorer birth outcomes.
Most studies reviewed were conducted in the US with younger people aged 12-18.
The three most common ethnic/racial groups represented in the studies were African American, Latino/a and Asian, including East Asian, South Asian and other Asian.
Dr Priest said the review identified an important issue that needed to be addressed in society, schools and communities to improve child and youth health.
"We know that children who experience poor health and wellbeing are less likely to engage in education, employment and other activities that support them to lead healthy and productive lives and to participate meaningfully in the community," she said.
The review was conducted in collaboration with Deakin University and University College London.
The research will published in the October edition of the internationally top ranking social science journal Social Science & Medicine.
### END
Racism linked to depression and anxiety in youth
2013-09-17
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Mt. Zion dig reveals possible second temple period priestly mansion
2013-09-17
In excavating sites in a long-inhabited urban area like Jerusalem, archaeologists are accustomed to noting complexity in their finds -- how various occupying civilizations layer over one another during the site's continuous use over millennia. But when an area has also been abandoned for intermittent periods, paradoxically there may be even richer finds uncovered, as some layers have been buried and remainundisturbed by development.
Such appears be the case at an archaeological dig on Jerusalem's Mount Zion, conducted by the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, ...
National Heart Centre Singapore discovers patient-specific cure for dangerous heart rhythm disorder
2013-09-17
The National Heart Centre Singapore (NHCS) research team has successfully and completely reversed the effects of the hERG (human ether-a-go-go-related gene) mutation in long QT syndrome 2 (LQTS 2) in patient-specific heart cells, scoring a world's first. Long QT syndrome 2 is a dangerous heart rhythm disorder that can lead to sudden cardiac death, even in young patients. It is caused by a mutation in a specific gene known as hERG, which helps to control the electrical activity in the heart cells and coordinate its beating rhythm. Using the patient's own skin stem cells ...
Digestive disorder reaches record levels in Scots children
2013-09-17
More children than ever before are living with a debilitating digestive disease, research has shown.
Scientists have found that coeliac disease affects six times more children living in Scotland now than it did in 1990.
A team from the University of Edinburgh and Queen Margaret University analysed the health records of children from South East Scotland aged under 16 years who were newly diagnosed with the condition between 1990 and 2009.
The team – based at Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh – found that the rate of children being newly diagnosed with Coeliac ...
Virginia Tech researchers help people in remote Africa respond to diarrheal disease
2013-09-17
Using a simple survey tool, a team of researchers has done what complex studies have failed to do -- provide data that identifies starting points for preventing diarrheal disease outbreaks in at least one region of Africa.
Diarrheal illness is a leading cause of disease and death in children under 5, and in HIV-plagued Botswana, it is a significant issue for those over 5 as well.
"Yet we still know little about the dynamics of this illness and other infectious diseases," said disease ecologist Kathleen Alexander, an associate professor of wildlife in the College of ...
In patients with acute cholecystitis, surgery should be performed immediately
2013-09-17
Should surgery be performed immediately, or is it better to first administer antibiotics and then perform surgery? A study led by Heidelberg University Hospital Department of Surgery has demonstrated that patients suffering from acute cholecystitis should be operated on immediately. There are no advantages to delaying surgery until antibiotic therapy has been administered for several weeks. After undergoing surgery performed within 24 hours of diagnosis, the patients have fewer complications, are back on their feet earlier, and can leave the hospital more quickly. "With ...
First-time measurements in Greenland snowpack show a drop in atmospheric co since 1950s
2013-09-17
A first-ever study of air trapped in the deep snowpack of Greenland shows that atmospheric levels of carbon monoxide (CO) in the 1950s were actually slightly higher than what we have today. This is a surprise because current computer models predict much higher CO concentrations over Greenland today than in 1950. Now it appears the opposite is in fact true.
In a paper recently published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, Vasilii Petrenko, an assistant professor of earth and environmental sciences, concluded that CO levels rose slightly from 1950 until the ...
Environmental complexity promotes biodiversity
2013-09-17
The study, led by McGill University evolutionary biologist Ben Haller in collaboration with IIASA Evolution and Ecology Program Leader Ulf Dieckmann and IIASA researcher Rupert Mazzucco, suggests that a varied environment spurs the evolution of new species and promotes biodiversity by creating places of refuge—"refugia"—for new organisms to evolve.
The model represents asexual organisms that reproduce like plants. To investigate how environmental variation affects evolution, Haller modeled an environment with complex spatial structure. "We wanted to look at more realistic ...
Mesenchymal stem cell transplantation may heal a mother's childbirth injury
2013-09-17
Putnam Valley, NY. (Sept. 17 2013) – Vaginal delivery presents the possibility of injury for mothers that can lead to "stress urinary incontinence" (SUI), a condition affecting from four to 35 percent of women who have had babies via vaginal delivery. Many current treatments, such as physiotherapy and surgery, are not very effective.
Seeking better methods to alleviate SUI, researchers carried out a study in which female laboratory rats modeled with simulated childbirth injuries received injections of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs; multipotent cells found in connective ...
New class of drug targets heart disease
2013-09-17
(Edmonton) Researchers at the University of Alberta have developed a synthetic peptide that could be the first in a new class of drugs to treat heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.
Researchers at the U of A found that a deficiency in the peptide apelin is associated with heart failure, pulmonary hypertension and diabetes. They also developed a synthetic version that targets pathways in the heart and promotes blood vessel growth.
Lead author Gavin Oudit, an associate professor in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, said the synthetic form of apelin is far ...
Study: Memory problems, emotional stress result in early readmissions of heart patients
2013-09-17
VIDEO:
The study's lead author, Mark W. Ketterer, Ph.D., a psychologist and administrator for Henry Ford Hospital, discusses the implications of the study.
Click here for more information.
DETROIT – Heart patients' mental state and thinking abilities may help predict whether costly and potentially dangerous early hospital readmission will follow their release after treatment, according to the results of a significant new study by Henry Ford Hospital researchers.
The findings ...