White Men Have Less Life Stress, But Are More Prone To Depression Because Of It

When people talk about the black-white health gap, they usually mean that black people have worse health outcomes than white people. And generally, that's true. On basically every measure, from childbirth to hypertension to HIV transmission rates, the black community fares worse.

But there's one area where this gap doesn't hold up: men's mental health. White men are more likely to face depression associated with stressful life events than black men or women of any race, according to a recently published study in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.

"White men were experiencing the least stress in their lives," lead study author Dr. Shervin Assari, a research investigator at the University of Michigan Department of Psychiatry, told The Huffington Post. "They don’t get a lot of it and they are not used to it, so they are more prone to its harmful effects."