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Question 1

When explaining how social structures influence and contribute to health disparities, social stress theory helps determine how disadvantaged social status groups are likely to be exposed to stressors. This is because they are highly susceptible to stress sourced from inadequate psychosocial coping resources. This instance shows an example of people in the marginalized groups in the social hierarchy and their susceptibility to healthcare disparities. Sternthal et al. write on racial health disparities, where they establish the distribution of stress across racial groups (Sternthal, 2011). When examining different racial groups, the authors found that black communities have a higher prevalence of stress levels than white communities do. Under segregation, black communities’ lives are under adverse conditions, which expose them highly to stressor factors. They are associated with poor living conditions, high unemployment levels, and poverty, which results in multiple stressors. In relation to health disparities, financial constraints and identified stressors contribute to poor health, as they lack adequate capital to finance sufficient and conclusive healthcare services (Sternthal, 2011). These living conditions as marginalized or segregated groups in social hierarchy limit their access to material resources, and their stressful living environments equally promote high health disparities.

In addition, Thomeer et al. find that black men who have experienced adverse childhood experiences develop poor health in the future, which is opposite among white men. These childhood adversaries, as outlined and explained above, make black men vulnerable to poor health (Thomeer, 2014). Moreover, the socio-economic and marital status among black people has been used to explain health disparities. They have constrained choices, which maximizes their stressor factors and minimizes options of coping resources. However, white men are raised in an environment with plenty of opportunities that reduce their stressor factors but maximizes their sources of coping resources. These racial differences and social processes thus provide for health disparities.

Question 2

Barnert et al. establish that more prolonged periods of incarceration among youths is associated with adverse physical and mental health later in their adulthood. This can be explained in two primary ways, namely, unmet health needs in juvenile and exposure of diseases such as communicable, physical, sexual, and mental illnesses in detention (Barnert, 2017). Primarily, when youths are placed in juvenile, they have unmet health needs form their previous lives with social dominants of poor health such as poverty and minority status in social hierarchies contributing highly to poor health outcomes in the future. For instance, African American men have high incarceration rates in the United States. As discussed in the social stress theory, black men have experienced adverse childhood experiences developing into poor health in the future, which is opposite among white men, making them vulnerable to poor health. In juveniles, if these health problems such as chronic or infectious diseases are not addressed and take longer without receiving medication, the condition advance, and their adult health is negatively affected.

Secondly, in juveniles, youths are susceptible and exposed to contagious, physical, sexual, and mental illnesses. When a teen undergoes traumatic experiences such as sexual harassment and acquires sexually transmitted diseases, they are mentally disabled and traumatized, which may prevent effective treatment. Moreover, despite having short-term health benefits in detention, treatment of these diseases is not adequately achieved, which they carry the disease burden later in their adult lives (Barnert, 2017). Moreover, detachment from family provides for loneliness and some depression, making the youth to develop mental destabilization in detention and later in life. The isolation, coupled with exposure to diseases with unmet health needs and effective treatment, shows a possibility of worse health of incarcerated youths in their adult lives.

References

Barnert, E. S. (2017). How Does Incarcerating Young People Affect Their Adult Health Outcomes? Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Vol 139(2), pp; 2-9.

Sternthal, M. J. (2011). RACIAL DISPARITIES IN HEALTH: How Much Does Stress Really Matter? Institute for African and African American Research, Vol 8(1), pp; 95-113.

Thomeer, D. U. (2014). Race, Gender, and Chains of Disadvantage: Childhood Adversity, Social Relationships, and Health. Social Disadvantages and Health Disparities, Vol. 55(1) 20–38.

Please answer following questions each question separately. One page each and only use articles I provided as the source.

• Social stress theory helps explain how social structure comes to influence health and contributes to health disparities. Provide an example describing how one’s position in the social hierarchy may come to differentially impact one’s exposure to stress and coping resources, and how these processes may contribute to health disparities.

• Research shows that the detainment of youth, whether incarcerated in prison or a detention center (as in the case of migrant children), is a form of toxic stress that puts you that increased risk for damaging long-term health effects. However, Barnet and colleagues found that it is not just whether one is incarcerated that puts you at increased risk, but rather, that the effects on health take a dose-response effect (i.e., longer time spent detained is associated with worse long-term health). Please describe two ways by which longer time detained may contribute to worse mental and/or physical health over time.