Psychological impact of discrimination on health
The psychological impact of discrimination on health refers to the cognitive pathways through which discrimination impacts mental and physical health in members of marginalized, subordinate, and low-status groups (e.g. racial and sexual minorities). Research on the relation between discrimination and health became a topic of interest in the 1990s, when researchers proposed that persisting racial/ethnic disparities in health outcomes could potentially be explained by racial/ethnic differences in experiences with discrimination. Although the bulk of the research tend to focus on the interactions between interpersonal discrimination and health, researchers studying discrimination and health in the United States have proposed that institutional discrimination and cultural racism also give rise to conditions that contribute to persisting racial and economic health disparities.A stress and coping framework is often applied to investigate how discrimination influences health outcomes in racial, gender, and sexual minorities, as well as on immigrants and indigenous populations. Findings indicate that experiences of discrimination tend to translate into worse physical and mental health and lead to increased participation in unhealthy behaviors.