In keeping with recent evidence that the disadvantaged economic and social status of racial/ethnic minorities is relevant to understanding health disparities, we examine three forms of social disadvantage: poverty, unfair treatment, and racial/ethnic stigma consciousness (for a detailed discussion, see (Mulia, et al., in press)). Poverty level was measured according to U.S. federal poverty guidelines for 2004 (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2005). Income per family member was derived from items on respondents’ household income and composition, and categorized as greater than 200% of the federal poverty level, 100–200% of the poverty level, or below the poverty level (less than 100%). Unfair treatment was based on a single item that asks “how often do you feel that you are treated unfairly”. Responses ranged on a five-point scale and were categorized as “Never/seldom”, “Sometimes”, and “Often/very often”. Because the measure does not specify an attribution, it can capture unfair treatment on the basis of race as well as other characteristics, such as SES. Our analyses indicate, for example, that unfair treatment is associated with minority race/ethnicity, as well as
