Hector F. Myers

Bio: Hector F. Myers is an academic researcher from Vanderbilt University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Psychosocial & Social support. The author has an hindex of 47, co-authored 138 publications receiving 8086 citations. Previous affiliations of Hector F. Myers include Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science & University of California, Berkeley.

Minority-Status Stresses and the College Adjustment of Ethnic Minority Freshmen

Abstract: In the ten-year period between 1969 and 1979, minority students enrolled in predominantly White colleges in increasing numbers, due in part to the greater access afforded by affirmative action programs |14~. Since the early 1980s, however, there has been a disturbing regressive trend in the enrollment, academic performance, and retention of these students. For example, African-American and other non-Asian minority students attending predominantly White colleges are less likely to graduate within five years, have lower grade point averages, experience higher attrition rates, and matriculate into graduate programs at lower rates than White students and their counterparts at predominantly Black or minority institutions |3, 6~.(*) Efforts to account for these regressive trends suggest that intellective and academic background factors (that is, aptitude test scores, high-school preparation, and so on) and non-cognitive, contextual, and socio-cultural factors may be differentially associated with the college adjustment and performance of minority and non-minority students |6, 23, 26, 29, 35, 36~. For example, African-American students are more likely than Whites to view predominantly White campuses as hostile, alienating, and socially isolating |1, 2, 4, 10, 16, 28, 30, 34, 35, 36~, and as less responsive to their needs and interests |4~. African-American students have also been found to experience greater estrangement from the campus community |16, 34~ and heightened discomfort in interactions with faculty and peers |20, 30~. In addition, Tracey and Sedlacek |35~ and Nettles, Theony, and Gosman |27~ have found that the academic adjustment and achievement of African-American and other minority students are influenced by different sociocultural and contextual factors (for example, student satisfaction with college, peer group relations) than those that have an impact on White students. In order to define conceptually how these factors might contribute to minority student college adjustment, we have proposed a multidimensional stress-coping model |33~ which identifies three sets of factors as important in minority college student adjustment and achievement: (1) individual attributes that enhance or moderate students' vulnerability to academic failure (for example, academic preparation, intelligence, self-confidence, social maturity); (2) the psychological and sociocultural stresses students face during their academic careers (for example, stresses that are experienced on campus, in the community, and so on); and (3) the strategies students use to cope with these stresses (for example, individual and group appraisals of stresses and the strategies used to cope with them). Consistent with a transactional model of stress and coping |22~, we view the types of stresses experienced, the coping styles used, and the outcomes obtained as mutually interacting. Consequently, the pattern of relationships among these variables are likely to vary as a function of individual, group, and college campus characteristics. We also note that many of the experiences reported by minority students at predominantly White colleges are experienced by and affect all college students and are integral to the role of college student (for example, academic demands, relationship problems, financial worries, and so on). These student role strains constitute a generic pathway of influences and contribute to college maladjustment for all students. However, these generic role strains should be distinguished from the more unique stresses experienced by minority students that heighten feelings of not belonging and interfere with minority students' effective integration into the university community (for example, experiences with racism, questions about their right to be on campus). These experiences are conceptualized as minority status stresses and constitute a separate and additional pathway of risk for maladjustment (that is, an additional stress load). …

Ethnicity- and socio-economic status-related stresses in context: an integrative review and conceptual model.

Abstract: There continues to be debate about how best to conceptualize and measure the role of exposure to ethnicity-related and socio-economic status-related stressors (e.g. racism, discrimination, class prejudice) in accounting for ethnic health disparities over the lifecourse and across generations. In this review, we provide a brief summary of the evidence of health disparities among ethnic groups, and the major evidence on the role of exposure to ethnicity- and SES-related stressors on health. We then offer a reciprocal and recursive lifespan meta-model that considers the interaction of ethnicity and SES history as impacting exposure to psychosocial adversities, including ethnicity-related stresses, and mediating biopsychosocial mechanisms that interact to result in hypothesized cumulative biopsychosocial vulnerabilities. Ultimately, group differences in the burden of cumulative vulnerabilities are hypothesized as contributing to differential health status over time. Suggestions are offered for future research on the unique role that ethnicity- and SES-related processes are likely to play as contributors to persistent ethnic health disparities.

Race, racism and health: disparities, mechanisms, and interventions

Abstract: The goals of this special section are to examine the state-of-the-science regarding race/ethnicity and racism as they contribute to health disparities and to articulate a research agenda to guide future research. In the first paper, Myers presents an integrative theoretical framework for understanding how racism, poverty, and other major stressors relate to health through inter-related psychosocial and bio-behavioral pathways. Williams and Mohammed review the evidence concerning associations between racism and health, addressing the multiple levels at which racism can operate and commenting on important methodological issues. Klonoff provides a review and update of the literature concerning ethnicity-related disparities in healthcare, and addresses factors that may contribute to these disparities. Brondolo and colleagues consider racism from a stress and coping perspective, and review the literature concerning racial identity, anger coping, and social support as potential moderators of the racism-health association. Finally, Castro and colleagues describe an ecodevelopmental model that can serve as an integrative framework to examine multi-level social-cultural influences on health and health behavior. In aggregate, the special section papers address theoretical and methodological issues central to understanding the determinants of health disparities, with the aim of providing direction for future research critical to developing effective interventions to reduce these disparities.

Drug Use and Medication Adherence among HIV-1 Infected Individuals

Abstract: This longitudinal study examined the impact of drug use and abuse on medication adherence among 150 HIV-infected individuals, 102 who tested urinalysis positive for recent illicit drug use. Medication adherence was tracked over a 6-month period using an electronic monitoring device (MEMS caps). Over the 6-month study drug-positive participants demonstrated significantly worse medication adherence than did drug-negative participants (63 vs. 79%, respectively). Logistic regression revealed that drug use was associated with over a fourfold greater risk of adherence failure. Stimulant users were at greatest risk for poor adherence. Based upon within-participants analyses comparing 3-day adherence rates when actively using versus not using drugs, this appears to be more a function of state rather than trait. These data suggest that it is the acute effects of intoxication, rather than stable features that may be characteristic of the drug-using populace, which leads to difficulties with medication adherence.

A Multidimensional Measure of Cultural Identity for Latino and Latina Adolescents

Abstract: Many scales are available to measure acculturation. Unfortunately, most rely on a single indicator scale and fail to consider biculturality. Therefore, the multidimensional and multifaceted aspects...

Using Multivariate Statistics

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Acute stressors and cortisol responses: a theoretical integration and synthesis of laboratory research.

Abstract: This meta-analysis reviews 208 laboratory studies of acute psychological stressors and tests a theoretical model delineating conditions capable of eliciting cortisol responses. Psychological stressors increased cortisol levels; however, effects varied widely across tasks. Consistent with the theoretical model, motivated performance tasks elicited cortisol responses if they were uncontrollable or characterized by social-evaluative threat (task performance could be negatively judged by others), when methodological factors and other stressor characteristics were controlled for. Tasks containing both uncontrollable and social-evaluative elements were associated with the largest cortisol and adrenocorticotropin hormone changes and the longest times to recovery. These findings are consistent with the animal literature on the physiological effects of uncontrollable social threat and contradict the belief that cortisol is responsive to all types of stressors.

Racial Differences in Physical and Mental Health

Abstract: This article examines the extent to which racial differences in socio-economic status (SES), social class and acute and chronic indicators of perceived discrimination, as well as general measures of stress can account for black-white differences in self-reported measures of physical and mental health. The observed racial differences in health were markedly reduced when adjusted for education and especially income. However, both perceived discrimination and more traditional measures of stress are related to health and play an incremental role in accounting for differences between the races in health status. These findings underscore the need for research efforts to identify the complex ways in which economic and non-economic forms of discrimination relate to each other and combine with socio-economic position and other risk factors and resources to affect health.

Psychological Stress and the Human Immune System: A Meta-Analytic Study of 30 Years of Inquiry

Abstract: The present report meta-analyzes more than 300 empirical articles describing a relationship between psychological stress and parameters of the immune system in human participants. Acute stressors (lasting minutes) were associated with potentially adaptive upregulation of some parameters of natural immunity and downregulation of some functions of specific immunity. Brief naturalistic stressors (such as exams) tended to suppress cellular immunity while preserving humoral immunity. Chronic stressors were associated with suppression of both cellular and humoral measures. Effects of event sequences varied according to the kind of event (trauma vs. loss). Subjective reports of stress generally did not associate with immune change. In some cases, physical vulnerability as a function of age or disease also increased vulnerability to immune change during stressors.