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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Immigrants tend to receive a lower quality of healthcare, which can be a sign of healthcare
bias. We examined whether this bias in medical care is associated with a legitimizing process involving
two psychosocial factors: threat perception and level of intergroup contact. Method: One hundred eighty
six Portuguese health professionals (55.6% clinicians; 44.4% nurses; 78.5% female; Mage ! 45.83,
range ! 23 and 71) completed a questionnaire on prejudiced attitudes toward immigrants, perceptions of
health-specific threats, bias in medical practice and level of contact with immigrant patients. Results: For
healthcare providers who have more contact with immigrant patients, the perceived health threat
mediated the relationship between prejudiced attitudes and treatment bias. In contrast, for healthcare
providers with less contact with immigrant patients, the perceived threat was not associated with
treatment bias. Conclusions: These findings help to understand the persistence of lower quality medical
treatment among immigrants, providing guidelines for future research. In particular, they suggest that
perceiving immigrants as a threat to public health is indicative of the providers’ engagement in a
legitimizing process of self-reported biased treatment, making this engagement necessary only for
providers with greater levels of contact with immigrant patients.
Description
Keywords
prejudiced attitudes immigrants intergroup contact threat perception healthcare treatment bias
Pedagogical Context
Citation
Madeira, A. F., Pereira, C. R., Gama, A., Dias, S. (2018). [Brief Report] Justifying treatment bias: The legitimizing role of threat perception and immigrant–provider contact in healthcare. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 24 (2), 294-301
Publisher
American Psychological Association