Exploring low-income African-American women's experiences with and perceptions of discrimination within the healthcare setting

2005·7.8 MB·English

by  Brannock, Kristen D. (Kristen Denee), 1980-

Experiences With and Perceptions of Discrimination
Exploring Low-Income African-American Women’s Experiences with and
Perceptions of Discrimination Within the Healthcare Setting
Kristen Brannock
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
2005
A master’s paper submitted to the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Public Health in the
Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health.
Approved by
Advisor: Professor Allan Steckler
Second Reader: Dr. Noreen Esposito

Experiences With and Perceptions of Discrimination
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements v
Abstract vi
Introduction.1
Defining concepts \
What is race? 1
Racism 2
Sex and Gender 4
Sexism 5
African American Women’s History 6
During Slavery 6
Post Slavery 8
Representations of African American Women 12
Literature Review.14
What is discrimination ? 14
Discrimination and Health 15
Scientific Racism 15
Racism and Health 17
Scientific Sexism 18
Sexism and Health 20
Access to Health Care 21
Intersections of Race, Gender, Class, and Region 22
Study Background.24
Purpose 24
Statistics 25
Theoretical Framework 25
Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2018 with funding from
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
https://archive.org/details/exploringlowinco06bran
Experiences With and Perceptions of Discrimination
Methodology
29
Qualitative Methods
29
Setting
31
Participant recruitment
31
The sample
32
Development of focus group guide
33
Data Collection
36
Data management
40
Data analysis
41
Characteristics of Focus Group Participants
43
Research Ethics and Institutional Review Board
44
Focus Group Results
The definition of discrimination 45
Discriminatory experiences 45
Medicaid and Ability to Pay 46
Discrimination Based on Appearance 48
Manifestations of Discrimination 48
Gender Discrimination 49
Making Sense of the Situation 50
Reactions to discrimination 50
Emotional responses to discrimination 52
Improving the situation 53
Coping Mechanisms 53
Eliminating Discrimination 53
Patient-Provider Relationship 54
Patient and provider responsibility 55
Discussion.57
Summary of results 57
Relevance to Health Behavior and Health Education Theory 58
Intrapersonal Theory 58
Health Belief Model 58
Interpersonal Theory 61
Social Cognitive Theory 61
Social Networks and Social Support 62
Stress and Coping 64
Community Organization and Community Empowerment 66
Relevance to Health Behavior and Health Education Intervention Methods 67
Presenting Information 67
Tailoring 67
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