ANN ARBOR—Nearly one-third of U.S. high school seniors often worry about race relations, and about 20 percent think that relationships between Blacks and whites have been getting worse, according to a University of Michigan study.

Findings from the study, conducted at the U-M Institute for Social Research (ISR), the world’s largest academic survey and research organization, are reported in the current issue of the journal Social Indicators Research.

“Most young adults are satisfied with their lives and pretty happy,” says sociologist Tony N. Brown, first author of the study report and a research investigator with the ISR Program for Research on Black Americans.

“But pessimism about race relations is linked to lower levels of happiness and life satisfaction. And given the persistence of racial inequality, pessimism about Black-white relations that begins in young adulthood and continues over the life course may become an ongoing source of everyday stress.”

For the study, Brown analyzed data on a nationally representative sample of 4,500 Black, white, and Hispanic students, taken from the 1996 and 1997 waves of the ISR Monitoring the Future Study.

Almost 50 percent of Black high school seniors reported that they often worried about race relations, compared with almost 30 percent of Hispanic and white seniors. But white students were more pessimistic about race relations than either Blacks or Hispanics, with almost 23 percent of whites, 19 percent of Blacks and 15 percent of Hispanics saying that relations between whites and Blacks have been getting at least a little worse.

The study does not clarify whether pessimism about race relations leads to lower levels of happiness and life satisfaction, or whether young people who are generally unhappy may be more pessimistic about race relations.

But in another study, “Being Black and Feeling Blue: The Mental Health Consequences of Racial Discrimination,” published in a recent issue of the journal Race & Society, Brown and colleagues document the mental health consequences of racial discrimination.

Analyzing data from ISR’s longitudinal National Survey of Black Americans, the researchers compared the responses of 779 men and women interviewed at two different times. The researchers found that the experience of racial discrimination was linked to later psychological distress and depression among Blacks, but that initial distress and depression were not linked to later reports of racial discrimination.

Respondents were asked whether they or their family had been treated badly because of their race in the past month. Less than 10 percent said that they had. The researchers assessed psychological distress by asking how much of the time during the past month respondents had felt under strain, stress or pressure; in low spirits; moody; downhearted or blue; depressed; tense or high-strung; nervous, restless or upset; anxious or worried; or unable to relax. A diagnostic interview was used to determine the presence, severity, and duration of symptoms of depression.

“Some researchers have suggested that subjective reports of racial discrimination might be a consequence of poor mental health,” Brown notes. “But our analysis shows that the experience of racial discrimination is linked to the onset of psychological distress, instead.”

Mental health and distress are caused by a wide range of factors, Brown notes. “We do not mean to imply that racial discrimination is the ‘ultimate’ predictor of mental health problems among Black Americans,” he says. “But this study clearly shows that there is a connection.”

Funding for “Being Black and Feeling Blue” was provided by the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute on Aging. Funding for the Monitoring the Future Study is provided by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

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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.