Reconceptualizing the Measurement of Multiracial Status for Health Research in the United StatesPosted in Articles, Health/Medicine/Genetics, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, United States on 2011-05-18 04:28Z by Steven |
Reconceptualizing the Measurement of Multiracial Status for Health Research in the United States
Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race
Volume 8, Issue 1 (2011) (Special Issue: Racial Inequality and Health)
pages 25-36
DOI: 10.1017/S1742058X11000038
Meghan Woo, Senior Analyst
Abt Associates Inc.
S. Bryn Austina, Director of Fellowship Research Training in the Division of Adolescent/Young Adult Medicine
Children’s Hospital, Boston
David R. Williams, Florence and Laura Norman Professor of Public Health; Professor of African and African American Studies and of Sociology
Harvard University
Gary G. Bennett, Associate Professor of Psychology and Global Health
Duke University
The assessment of multiracial status in U.S. health research is fraught with challenges that limit our ability to enumerate and study this population. This paper reconceptualizes the assessment of multiracial status through the development of a model with three dimensions: mixed ancestry multiracial status, self-identified multiracial status, and socially assigned multiracial status. We present challenges to studying multiracial populations and provide recommendations for improving the assessment of multiracial status in health research.