Improving Care for At-Risk Populations: An Examination of Discrimination, Social Support, and Resilience Among Ethnic Minorities

Background: Social inequalities and vulnerability associated with ethnic and social minority status are risk factors for health inequities. Objective: To assess associations be-tween psychosocial health, social discrimination, perceived social support, and resilience among people living in Portugal based on ethnic origin. Method: This is an observational investigation carried out with 756 individuals (M=39.3; SD=13.79), who responded to the Brief Symptom Inventory, Everyday Discrimination Scale, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support, Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, along with a sociodemographic questionnaire. Participants were divided into two groups, the first consisting of white Portuguese of European origin (majority group, n=609, 80.56%) and the second consisting of black individuals, Afro-descendants, Roma, and Portuguese Roma (minority group, n=147, 19.44%). Results: Sociodemographic markers remained inferior in the minority group. This group also had elevated scores for both psychological distress and social discrimination (p’s< .001). Perceived social support (majority: 5.58; minority: 6.09; p< .001) and resilience (majority: 2.64; minority: 3.17; p< .001) were statistically significantly different. Regression analyses indicated that minority ethnicity was a predictor of psychological distress. Conclusions: In summary, discrimination linked to ethnic origin predicted poor health indicators. Consequently, further work is needed to clarify the social context of individuals who experience any form of discrimination and to assist the governments in addressing this situation through public policies grounded in informed data to reduce the risk factors and enhance the health of these communities.