C. André Christie-Mizell
Vice Provost for Graduate Education
Dean of the Graduate School
Centennial Professor of Sociology
Health Policy Associate, Center for Health Policy at Meharry Medical College
Affiliated Faculty, Center for Medicine, Health and Society
What are the relationships among race-ethnicity, family dynamics and health?
My research focuses on how family functioning, roles, and identity shape the psychological well-being and health of both parents and children. I am interested in multiple outcomes ranging from substance use, mental health problems, and physical health limitations to bullying behavior, the personal sense of mastery, and self-esteem. A common theme in my work is how mechanisms that link the social psychology of the individual and families to well being vary by race and gender.
In recent work, I found that, for both African Americans and Caribbean Blacks, positive racial group identity and family social support promote lower depressive symptoms. While these effects are additive for African Americans, high levels of positive racial group identity maximize the benefits of family social support for Caribbean Blacks. In other work on family and children, I investigate the relationships among bullying behavior, mother’s and father’s work hours, and young adolescents’ perceptions about whether they spend sufficient time with parents. Although maternal work hours and adolescents’ perceptions of the time spent with mothers are not directly related to bullying behavior, when paternal employment is full- or overtime and youth perceive they do not spend enough with their fathers, bullying behavior increases. These findings indicate that children’s expectations about time spent with parents may be just as important in their development as the amount of time parents spend away from the home.
Selected Publications
Christie-Mizell, C. André, Ryan D. Talbert, Ashleigh R. Hope, Cleothia G. Frazier, and Brittany N. Hearne. Forthcoming. “Depression and African Americans in the First Decade of Midlife: The Consequences of Social Roles and Gender.” Journal of National Medical Association.
Hearne, Brittany N. and C. André Christie-Mizell. 2018. “Educational Attainment in Young Adulthood, Depressive Symptoms, and Race-ethnicity: The Long-reach of Parenting Styles in Adolescence.” Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare 45: 91-118.
Christie-Mizell, C. André, Erika T. A. Leslie, and Brittany N. Hearne. 2017. “Self-Rated Health, Discrimination, and Racial Group Identity: The Consequences of Ethnicity and Nativity among Black Americans.” Journal of African American Studies, 21:643–66.
Hill, Terrence D., C. André Christie-Mizell, Preeti Vaghela, Krysia N. Mossakowski, and Robert J. Johnson. 2017. “Do Religious Struggles Mediate the Association between Day-to-Day Discrimination and Depressive Symptoms?” Religions 8(8):134.