ANN ARBOR—Six months after September 11, the psychological health of Americans continues to be a concern. According to a new analysis by the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research (ISR), the world’s largest academic survey and research organization, Black Americans may be particularly vulnerable.

About 49 percent of Black Americans, compared to 41 percent of white Americans surveyed, said they had experienced one or more symptoms of depression, including feelings of hopelessness and fear, restless sleep, and crying spells.

Black women reported being most affected, with 58 percent (compared to 48 percent of white women) reporting one or more symptoms of depression. By comparison, 39 percent of Black men and 32 percent of white men reported that they had experienced symptoms of depression sometime during the week before the survey was conducted. Of the nationally representative sample of 750 Americans surveyed in September and October, 10 percent were Black.

“These findings underscore the importance of learning more about how Black Americans are coping with stress,” says U-M psychologist James S. Jackson, director of the ISR Program for Research on Black Americans. Jackson and his research team are now conducting personal interviews with more than 6,000 Black adult men and women, including more than 2,000 Blacks of Caribbean descent.

“Being a member of a minority group can be especially stressful for all kinds of reasons,” Jackson says. “In spite of many improvements over the last several decades, today African Americans on average remain worse off than the general population on almost every important social indicator—infant mortality, death rates, health care, wealth and income, housing and poverty.”

For the new study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, the researchers will be gathering information about a wide range of attitudes, experiences, and behaviors, including housing and neighborhood quality, religious life, family and friends, psychological strengths and problems, physical health and discrimination.

“The new data will be invaluable in providing a scientific basis for understanding and addressing through new program and public policies the circumstances of the African American population,” says Jackson. “We hope that the information gleaned will aid in reversing the deterioration that has occurred in some areas over the prior two decades and contribute to more consistent improvements in the quality of life for African Americans.”

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The world’s largest academic survey and research organization, the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research (ISR) was established in 1948. A leader in the development and application of social science methodology, ISR conducts some of the most widely-cited studies in the nation. These include the Survey of Consumer Attitudes, National Election Studies, the Monitoring the Future Study, the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, the Health and Retirement Study, the Columbia County Longitudinal 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 formal ties with universities in Poland, China, and South Africa.