EDITORS: Jackson will be available to discuss current research findings on Black Americans and answer questions about the new study at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., at 9 a.m. on Thursday,
ANN ARBOR—University of Michigan psychologist James S. Jackson has been awarded more than $8 million to conduct a landmark study of African American life at the start of the 21st century.

The study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, will assess the physical, emotional, mental, and economic health of a nationally representative sample of more than 4,000 Black American adults. The study will include the first national sample of more than 1,000 Blacks of Caribbean descent, a group that has been referred to by some as a “model minority.”

“Our goal is to obtain up-to-date information about the psychological condition of African Americans as a group and of important subgroups within the population,” says Jackson, who heads the Program for Research on Black Americans at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR), the world’s largest academic survey and research organization.

“At the same time, we will be gathering data about a wide range of social, economic, religious, and political factors that provide the context for psychological health and disorders.”

“Being a member of a minority group in America can be stressful,” Jackson notes, “and the stress of minority status is believed to influence many facets of life, including physical, economic, and psychological health. As a result, Blacks and other minority groups may have higher rates of some mental disorders than whites, since they experience stresses such as racism, discrimination and prejudice to which whites are not exposed.

“How do we understand higher levels of paranoia, for example, in a population that has every reason to be paranoid, unless we develop culturally sensitive theories and interpretations that are grounded in the realities of contemporary Black lives?”

Starting in
Jackson hopes the new data will provide policy makers and social scientists with a sound basis for understanding and addressing the status, circumstances, and feelings of the African American population. “We also hope that the information will shed light on how our society needs to respond to the situation of African Americans as we move into a new and more socially, politically, and economically complex century.”

Established in 1948, the Institute for Social Research (ISR) is among the world’s oldest survey research organizations, and a world leader in the development and application of social science methodology. ISR conducts some of the most widely-cited studies in the nation, including the Survey of Consumer Attitudes, the National Election Studies, the Monitoring the Future Study, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the Health and Retirement Study, and the National Survey of Black Americans. ISR researchers also collaborate with social scientists in more than 60 nations on the World Values Surveys and other projects, and the Institute has established formal ties with universities in Poland, China, and South Africa. Visit the ISR Web site at www.isr.umich.edu for more information.

James S. JacksonNational Institute of Mental HealthProgram for Research on Black AmericansSurvey of Consumer Attitudes