The title of the article is “Skin Color, Perception of Racism and Depression among Adolescents in Urban Brazil. It was written by Naomar Almeida-Filho, Vilma Santana, Sharon P. Cooper and Robert Roberts. The reference list comprises “Perceptions of and Preferences for Skin Color, Black Racial Identity, and Self-Esteem Among African Americans” by Coard, Breland & Raskin, “Skin colour, perception of racism and depression among adolescents in urban Brazil” by Santana, Almeida-Filho, Roberts & Cooper and “Exploring how Skin Color and Racial Identity Modify the Relationship between Perceptions of Racism and Psychological Distress among Latinas/os” by Victoria The focus of the article was to pinpoint the fact that racial discrimination was more prevalent among people with darker skin tones. It was done based on studies that were concluded in the city of Salvador, Brazil, where a large amount of the population is black. It also alluded to the fact that because of this discrimination, the affected people were more prone to thoughts of suicide, had lower self-esteem, lower self worth and sometimes experienced mental problems (Santana, Almeida-Filho, Roberts & Cooper, 2007).
The contents of the article specify that, because of racial prejudice, people experience depression and state that individuals do not possess any type of resilience toward the determinants of this psychological problem,which is ethnically induced. It also states that a person’s socio-economic status was not taken into consideration and no evidence was found that proved that an individual’s self esteem was lowered by racial prejudice or discrimination. It states that a particular situation that is perceived by the individual to be stressful is not necessarily so, but because of their situation, it would seem that way. There is a possibility, however, that if the individual has an efficient coping mechanism that is culturally ingrained, then they will be able to counter these feelings of inadequacy (Coard, Breland & Raskin, 2001).
The article was an empirical study that took into consideration, the individuals sex, age and socio-economic status. I think that the article was not accurate, because there are many people of dark skin color who are able to rise above discrimination and be people of substance. I think that it depends on how robust a person’s self-identity is and how the individual perceives himself. I think that the study should take into consideration, just how many people of color have resilience and can rise above negativity and show the percentages of those who have done so as well. “Hierarchical regression analyses indicated that experiences of racial discrimination were positively associated with psychological distress. Results found no association between skin color and experiences of racial discrimination” (Victoria, 2014).
The hypothesis was that adolescents who were tested, who had dark skin color and who experienced racial prejudice were prone to depressive symptoms when their sex, age and socio-economic status were taken into consideration. The research concluded that the prevalence of depression was more often found in individuals who suffered from racial discrimination. The results remain unchanged when the same variables were used to get an adjusted estimate. It also found that, more often than not, depression was experienced by sufferers of racial discrimination, as opposed to those who experienced lethargy and problems with eating.
No, I do not agree with the conclusion on the basis that it seems biased. There were other articles were done on the same topic, but involved different ethnicities and the conclusions were different. I think that depression is as a result of an individual’s mental state and not their skin color. The information in the article was relevant to health psychology as mental health and depression are considered health-related topics.
References
Coard, S., Breland, A., & Raskin, P. (2001). Perceptions of and Preferences for Skin Color, Black Racial Identity, and Self-Esteem Among African Americans1. Journal Of Applied Social Psychology, 31(11), 2256--2274.
Santana, V., Almeida-Filho, N., Roberts, R., & Cooper, S. (2007). Skin colour, perception of racism and depression among adolescents in urban Brazil. Child And Adolescent Mental Health, 12(3), 125--131.
Victoria, R. (2014). Exploring how Skin Color and Racial Identity Modify the Relationship between Perceptions of Racism and Psychological Distress among Latinas/os.
