Self-Rated Health among Multiracial Young Adults in the United States

Karen Tabb, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Amelia Gavin, University of Washington
Gunnar R. Almgren, University of Washington

Few studies provide data on the health of self-identified multiracial (two or more races) Americans. Subsequently, we know little about this population and existing health disparities. Three areas relevant to multiracial health include health status and health related to racial stability over the life course. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (N = 20,774) in-home sample taken during the period 1994-2008 to examine factors related to multiracial health as individuals enter different phases of life. The framing question for this paper is “Do multiracial young adults have better or worse self-rated health than monoracial groups?” In the multivariate logistic regression results, we found that there are differences in self-rated health for some specific multiracial groups. These findings contribute to the wider understanding of health disparities for vulnerable populations and assist in identifying salient mechanisms of health disparities over the life course.