Triple jeopardy? Mental health at the intersection of gender, race, and class.

Structural theories of stratification predict that groups with low positions in social hierarchies experience high rates of mental health problems. Extensions of this approach such as a triple jeopardy hypotheses claim that groups that are subordinate in multiple stratification systems such as gender, race and class are at especially high risk. Multiple minority statuses affect mental health in paradoxical ways, however, that refute triple jeopardy approaches.

The self and mental health: self-salience and the emergence of internalizing and externalizing problems.

How do schemas about self-salience--the importance of the self versus the collective in social relations--affect mental health? We propose that self-salience shapes the likelihood of experiencing internalizing or externalizing problems. Schemas that privilege others over the self increase the risk of internalizing symptoms, including depressive symptoms and anxiety, whereas those that privilege the self over others predispose individuals to externalizing behaviors of antisocial behavior and substance abuse. Furthermore, we propose that these schemas contribute to the gender differences that exist in these problems.