{"doi":"10.1093/heapro/daaa144","title":"The role of work in gender identity, stress and health in low-income, middle-aged African-American men","abstract":"Although progress has been made in reducing disparities in life expectancy, addressing the persistence of health inequities by race remains a high priority for public health professionals. The purpose of this research was to refine a minority stress model (MSM) by identifying previously unrecognized factors contributing to stress and chronic disease health disparities among low-income middle-aged African-American men. Using a Community-Based Participatory Research approach, we conducted semi-structured individual health interviews with 42 low-income middle-aged African-American men in a mid-size New England city. The interviews focused on the participants' perceptions of the causes of health disparities. Four major themes emerged from the analysis: the positive aspects of work, both financial and symbolic; and the negative repercussions of not working, both financial and symbolic in terms of a sense of self-respect. On an instrumental level, working men can support their family, be physically active and find social support. Symbolically, work provides a positive sense of identity as a man; it offers both social- and self-respect; it provides discipline and a sense of gratitude. Conversely, the lack of work is a significant source of stress, stemming both from the inability to support one's family and from having nothing to do, which lead to depression, low self-esteem, suicidal ideation and anger. With no perceived viable routes to socially approved roles, many low-income men of color succumb to internalizing a negative identity. This research demonstrates a clear link between structural problems with the US economy and harms to sense of identity among low-income, middle-aged African-American men.","journal":"Health Promotion International","year":2020,"id":84816,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":9,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9595,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":434452,"name":"Luis Valdez","orcid":"0000-0002-3999-8387","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":435152,"name":"Lamont Scott","orcid":null,"position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":434453,"name":"David Buchanan","orcid":"0000-0002-5103-2219","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":435151,"name":"D Robinson","orcid":null,"position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":57,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T21:55:38.506333Z","pmid":"33370427","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}