Heart Trouble and Racial Group Identity: Exploring Ethnic Heterogeneity Among Black Americans

Abstract

Utilizing a nationally representative sample of 1,588 African Americans and 549 Caribbean Blacks from the National Survey of American Life, I examined the relationship between history of heart trouble and racial group identity among Black Americans. I included two measures of racial group identity: closeness to other Blacks and Black group evaluation. Logistic regression models showed that closeness to other Blacks increased the probability of history of heart trouble for African Americans, but decreased heart trouble for Caribbean Blacks. At low levels of closeness to other Blacks, there was little difference between African Americans and Caribbean Blacks in the probability of heart trouble. However, as closeness to other Blacks increased, the probability of history of heart trouble increased for African Americans, but decreased for Caribbean Blacks. With respect to positive Black group evaluation, both African Americans and Caribbean Blacks benefitted and experienced a lower probability of heart trouble.