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Warner, T.D. and Swisher, R.R. (2015). Adolescent Survival Expectations: Variations by Race, Ethnicity, and Nativity. Journal of Health and Social Behavior. 56 (4): 478–494.

Learning Objective: LO 9-1: Describe how sociologists understand race and ethnicity.

Summary: The authors generated a model for assessing differences in expected survival based on the racial, ethnicity, and nativity characters of adolescents enrolled in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. Findings suggest that most racial, ethnic, and immigrant groups had lower survival expectation as compared to the responses for expected health outcome among non-Hispanic Whites.

Questions to Consider:

1. What are some common correlations of low survival expectations? Have past models typically controlled for or assessed the characteristics of race, ethnicity, or nativity on survival expectations?
2. According to the researchers, low or pessimistic expectations for survival among adolescents have been linked to which kind of problematic health behaviors and risk-taking?
3. How does stratification by race, ethnicity, and nativity further exacerbate these patterns? What are some patterns of racialized inequality in health and mortality for poor or disadvantaged neighborhoods?