Working Paper: NBER ID: w29119
Authors: David G. Blanchflower; Donna Feir
Abstract: Four million Native Americans who identify as single race live in the USA. Another three million identify as Native American in combination with another race. Yet they are rarely the focus of detailed research. We provide the first evidence that levels of consistently poor mental health, or chronic distress, among Native peoples were greater in every year between 1993 and 2020 than among White or Black Americans. We find this to be present among those over the age of thirty but less so for the young. Over time we demonstrate there has been a rise in chronic distress among Native Americans and multi-race individuals. However, chronic distress seems to be lowest among Native peoples living in the seven states with the largest Native American populations of Alaska, Arizona, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota and Oklahoma. In our judgment these facts are important and not widely known. This stands in stark contrast to the enormous scholarly and media interest in declining physiological well-being among White Americans.
Keywords: Chronic distress; Native Americans; Mental health; Economic factors
JEL Codes: I14; J15; J71
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| Economic factors (P42) | Levels of chronic distress among Native Americans (I39) |
| Chronic distress among Native Americans (I39) | Chronic distress among White and Black Americans (I39) |
| Chronic distress among Native Americans aged over thirty (I39) | Chronic distress among younger Native Americans (I39) |
| Rise in chronic distress among Native Americans (I39) | Rise in chronic distress among multiracial individuals (J15) |
| Chronic distress levels in states with large Native American populations (I39) | Lowest levels of distress (I31) |
| Chronic distress among Native Americans (I39) | Poor mental health among Native American citizens (I39) |