Race-related stress,quality of life indicators,and life satisfaction among elderly African Americans

This article examined the relationships among race-related stress, quality of life indicators, and life satisfaction among elderly African Americans. A sample of 127 elderly African Americans, consisting of 87 women and 26 men (and 14 missing values), were administered the Index of Race-Related Stress, the Satisfaction With Life Scale, and the 36-item Short-Form Health Survey. Results indicated that elderly African American men and women differed significantly with regard to institutional and collective racism-related stress. In addition, the authors found that institutional racism-related stress was a significant predictor of psychological health in this sample of elderly African Americans.     

Development and initial validation of the inventory of Microaggressions Against Black Individuals

The present article describes the development and initial validation of the Inventory of Microaggressions Against Black Individuals (IMABI) using a sample of 385 undergraduates who self-identified as Black or African American. The IMABI is a 14-item, unidimensional measure of racial microaggressions that captures both microinsults and microinvalidations. The present findings support the IMABI as a reliable and valid measure of microaggressions that was associated with general distress and perceived stress. Importantly, the association between the IMABI and psychological adjustment persisted even when social desirability and another measure of race-related stress were included in the analyses. Discussion focuses on the potential implications of the IMABI for understanding the daily experiences and psychological adjustment of Black individuals.     

Effects of cultural themes in psychotic symptoms on the diagnosis of schizophrenia in African Americans

Cultural themes focusing on race-related issues and religiosity were identified via content analysis in the delusions and hallucinations of a sample of 118 African American psychiatric patients. The purpose of the study was to determine whether cultural themes in psychotic symptoms influence the diagnosis from different sources (i.e., chart, SCID, and best estimate) of schizophrenia for Black patients. It was hypothesized that the best estimate diagnoses of cultural experts would diagnose schizophrenia in African Americans more frequently when they exhibit race-related themes in their psychotic symptoms. It was also hypothesized that diagnosis of the paranoid subtype would yield a stronger difference among the sources than the broader category of schizophrenia. The results did not support the hypotheses. Implications for understanding the relationship between culture and psychosis among African Americans are discussed.     

Race-related stress, racial identity status attitudes, and emotional reactions of Black Americans

The current study explored the relationship between race-related stress, racial identity status attitudes and emotional states among 229 Black Americans. Canonical correlation analyses revealed a shared variate between emotions and racial identity status attitudes in which anger, depression confusion and tension were related positively to Conformity and inversely related to Internalization status attitudes. Implications for research are discussed.     

Heart rate variability as a physiological moderator of the relationship between race-related stress and psychological distress in African Americans

This study examined the moderator effects of heart rate variability, a physiological marker of stress vulnerability, on the relationship between race-related stress and psychological distress in African Americans (N = 215). Participants were administered the Index of Race-Related Stress-Brief and the Brief Symptom Inventory-18. Resting heart rate was recorded using the Polar 810s heart rate monitor. Findings indicated that heart rate variability moderated the relationship between institutional race-related stress and psychological distress for men, but not women. These findings suggest that higher levels of resting heart rate variability may buffer African Americans from the deleterious effects of race-related stress.     

Social Support from Family and Friends and Subjective Well-Being of Older African Americans

This study examines the impact of informal social support from family and friends on the well-being of older African Americans. Analyses are based on a nationally representative sample of older African Americans from the National Survey of American Life (n = 837). Three measures of well-being are examined: life satisfaction, happiness and self-esteem. The social support variables include frequency of contact with family and friends, subjective closeness with family and friends, and negative interactions with family. Results indicate that family contact is positively correlated with life satisfaction. Subjective closeness with family is associated with life satisfaction and happiness and both subjective closeness with friends and negative interaction with family are associated with happiness and self-esteem. There are also significant interactions between family closeness and family contact for life satisfaction, as well as friendship closeness and negative interaction with family for happiness. Overall, our study finds that family and friend relationships make unique contributions to the well-being of older African Americans. Qualitative aspects of family and friend support networks (i.e., subjective closeness, negative interactions) are more important than are structural aspects (i.e., frequency of contact). Our analysis verify that relationships with family members can both enhance and be detrimental to well-being. The findings are discussed in relation to prior research on social support and negative interaction and their unique associations with well-being among older African Americans.     

A preliminary study of the moderating role of church-based social support in the relationship between racist experiences and general anxiety symptoms

The current study explores the potential buffering effect of church-based social support on the effect of racism on anxiety symptomology in a Black sample. Fifty participants completed a questionnaire packet containing measures of anxious arousal and stress (general anxiety) symptoms, church-based social support, and experience of racist events. Results indicated that church-based social support moderated the relationship between racist experiences and general anxiety symptoms such that at low levels of church-based social support the experiences of racism and stress (general anxiety) symptoms were significantly positively associated. The clinical implications of these findings and future research directions are discussed.     

Teaching and Doing Gender in African American Families

In this article, based on in-depth interviews with a nonrandom sample of 35 African American parents (25 mothers and 10 fathers), I explore the gender socialization of children in their families. Using the conceptual framework advanced by multiracial feminism, I explore how both race and class shape the gender ideologies and behaviors of parents. The findings reveal significant support for teaching children gender role equality; however, that support is mediated by social class status (defined by education) and patterns of social mobility. In this study, 21 respondents were classified as middle-class and 14 as lower-income parents. Social class status predicts religiosity, homophobia, and structural factors that may militate against full support for gender equality or foster contradictions between ideology and behavior. The results show the role of Black parents as active agents in the lives of their children and expand our knowledge about child socialization processes in Black families. The study also contributes to multiracial feminist theory and the emerging literature on the growing social class diversity among African Americans.     

The influence of functional social support on executive functioning in middle-aged African Americans

Social support has a positive influence on cognitive functioning and buffers cognitive decline in older adults. This study examined the relations between social support and executive functioning in middle-aged adults. A community-based sample of African Americans completed the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List, a measure of functions of social support, and two measures of executive functioning, the Stroop Color and Word Test and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Hierarchical regression analyses were used to explore the hypothesis that different facets of perceived social support influence performance on measures of executive functioning. After controlling for age, gender, and education, social support facets including belonging support, self-esteem support, appraisal support, and tangible support were significant predictors of Stroop performance. In addition, tangible support significantly predicted WCST performance. These findings add to previous literature on social support and cognition; however, findings for middle-aged adults are unique and suggest that social support has a positive influence on some executive functions in African Americans prior to old age.     

Nonconscious Feelings of Closeness toward African Americans and Support for Pro-Black Policies

In a democratic political system, where decisions are made by majority rule, the permanent exclusion of minorities is always a possibility. This raises a crucial question: what psychological mechanisms may allow members of a majority to identify with the political goals of a minority group? One possibility is that they are precisely the same mechanisms responsible for motivating minority members themselves to identify with the minority's political goals. According to the racial attitudes literature, African Americans are motivated by feelings of closeness toward Blacks to support pro‐Black policies. This study investigates the possibility that feelings of closeness toward Blacks may also motivate White Americans to support pro‐Black policies. To circumvent possible social desirability effects often associated with questions of race, feelings of closeness are measured both on the conscious (explicit) and nonconscious (implicit) levels. The implicit closeness measure is based on the idea of “cognitive self‐other overlap” ( Aron, Aron, Tudor, & Nelson, 1991 ) and has previously been used to measure nonconscious feelings of closeness in individual relationships. This study represents an application of this measure to the group level of racial intergroup relations. The study is based on a sample of 555 college students of diverse racial backgrounds. Results of a Granger‐causality test support the construct validity of the implicit closeness measure. Furthermore, explicit and implicit feelings of closeness toward African Americans predict pro‐Black policy support whether White participants are considered alone or together with participants of other backgrounds. Political and methodological implications of these findings are discussed.     

Childhood stress leads to later suicidality via its effect on cognitive functioning

The present study examined the etiology of suicidal behavior from cognitive and developmental perspectives in a sample of 181 suicidal and nonsuicidal college students. We hypothesized that cognitive functioning would serve as a mediator between early life events and suicidal behavior. The present study examined child maltreatment, family instability, and poor general family environment as early negative life events, and examined self-esteem, locus of control, hopelessness, and problem-solving deficits as cognitive factors. In addition, individuals' perceived social support before age 18 and current social support and life stress were also examined in relation to the preceding variables. A series of structural equation analyses indicated that early negative life events have a mild impact on suicidal behavior, but a stronger impact on cognitive deficits, which in turn have a strong impact on suicidal behavior.     

A confirmatory test of the underlying factor structure of scores on the collective self-esteem scale in two independent samples of Black Americans

In this study, we examined the factor structure of the Collective Self-Esteem Scale (CSES; Luhtanen & Crocker, 1992) across 2 separate samples of Black Americans. The CSES was administered to a sample of Black American adolescents (n = 538) and a community sample of Black American adults (n = 313). Results of confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs), however, did not support the original 4-factor model identified by Luhtanen and Crocker (1992) as providing an adequate fit to the data for these samples. Furthermore, an exploratory CFA procedure failed to find a CSES factor structure that could be replicated across the 2 samples of Black Americans. We present and discuss implications of the findings.     

The Psychosocial Vulnerability Model of Hostility as a Predictor of Coronary Heart Disease in Low-income African Americans

The current study examined social support and stress as mediators of the hostility—coronary heart disease (CHD) relationship as suggested by the psychosocial vulnerability model in a sample of low-income African Americans. Among 95 CHD patients and 30 healthy controls, hostility was negatively correlated with social support, but was not related to minor stress. CHD patients endorsed higher levels of hostility; however, the relationship between hostility and CHD status was diminished once stress and social support were included in the model. This study lends partial support for the psychosocial vulnerability model of hostility in African Americans, but suggests that the relationship between hostility and stress may be impacted by socioeconomic status.     

African American Professionals: Coping with Occupational Stress in Predominantly White Work Environments

Mail survey data from 112 African American professionals working in predominantly White work settings (human service and business) were examined to test hypotheses regarding the potential influences on job satisfaction of routine and race-related work stressors, personal workplace spirituality, internal locus of control, and work-related and nonwork related social resources. No significant differences of these variables were observed for type of work setting or for gender. Consistent with predictions, job satisfaction was related to routine work stressors, race-related stressors, internal locus of control, and work-related social support, but not to workplace spirituality or nonwork social support. Evidence was limited for predictions based on the buffer model: in only a few tests did personal and social resource variables moderate the relation between stressors and job satisfaction. Findings are discussed in relation to minority work stress.     

Cognitive abilities in adolescent-limited and life-course-persistent criminal offenders

T. E. Moffitt's (1993a) hypothesis that adolescent-limited criminal offenders will have higher scores on tests of cognitive ability than life-course-persistent offenders was tested with 12 tests of cognitive ability given to a large and diverse sample of delinquent juveniles whose arrest records were collected over 20 years. This is the first investigation to empirically evaluate this proposal with longitudinal data obtained from a sample for a long enough time to distinguish life course patterns of crime. This study provided only partial support for Moffitt's hypothesis because the results varied by ethnicity. We found relatively consistent support for the hypothesis for Caucasians and Hispanics but no support for the hypothesis for African Americans. These findings are interpreted in terms of differences in developmental contexts for individual ethnic groups.     

The influence of functional social support on executive functioning in middle-aged African Americans

ABSTRACT

Social support has a positive influence on cognitive functioning and buffers cognitive decline in older adults. This study examined the relations between social support and executive functioning in middle-aged adults. A community-based sample of African Americans completed the Interpersonal Support Evaluation List, a measure of functions of social support, and two measures of executive functioning, the Stroop Color and Word Test and the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST). Hierarchical regression analyses were used to explore the hypothesis that different facets of perceived social support influence performance on measures of executive functioning. After controlling for age, gender, and education, social support facets including belonging support, selfesteem support, appraisal support, and tangible support were significant predictors of Stroop performance. In addition, tangible support significantly predicted WCST performance. These findings add to previous literature on social support and cognition; however, findings for middle-aged adults are unique and suggest that social support has a positive influence on some executive functions in African Americans prior to old age.     

Social cognitive predictors of the interests and choices of computing majors: Applicability to underrepresented students

In a replication and extension of earlier research, we examined the explanatory adequacy of the social cognitive choice model (Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 1994) in a sample of 1404 students majoring in a variety of computing disciplines at 23 historically Black and 27 predominantly White universities. Participants completed measures of self-efficacy, outcome expectations, interests, goals, and social supports and barriers relative to the pursuit of computing degrees. The social cognitive model generally provided adequate fit to the data across two academic year cohorts (2006, 2007), gender, institutional setting, racial/ethnic groups (European and African Americans), and educational level (beginning and advanced undergraduates). Outcome expectations, however, did not contribute uniquely to the predictive model. Implications for further research on social cognitive theory in the context of science and technology fields are discussed.     

Cognitive appraisal,vulnerability and coping: An integrative analysis of appraisal and coping mechanisms

Research on stress has generally concluded that stress occurs within the person as a result of their cognitive appraisal of experience. However although a number of cognitive theories of emotion exist, an integrative analysis of cognitive appraisal and vulnerability to stress has not been produced. This report contains two studies. Study 1 draws together the major variables identified in the literature in an analysis of their power to differentiate between a clinical sample (n = 48), a self-help group (n = 54), and a control sample (n = 509). The analysis shows that achievement motivation, attributional style, problem-solving style, emotional reactivity; hopelessness, perceived control and perceived social support are significant discriminators. In a second study the relationship between these variables and aspects of life stress, work stress, life satisfaction, depression, anxiety, and positive affect were investigated. Again the data support an explanatory role for these variables. The suggestion is that these variables can be utilized in an integrative model of cognitive appraisal in the stress process to guide intervention.     

A Developmental Shift in Black-White Differences in Depressive Affect across Adolescence and Early Adulthood: The influence of early adult social roles and socio-economic status

This study examined black-white differences in growth of depressive affect using a longitudinal sample of middle-class, suburban US subjects (n = 956) that spanned from adolescence to early adulthood. Specifically, this study examined whether black-white differences in growth of depressive affect shift over time, and the extent to which that shift, if any, was associated with racial differences in the rate and mental health consequences of early adult social roles (e.g., living arrangements, work/college status, and single-parenthood) and socio-economic status (SES). As expected, growth in depressive affect pivoted around the onset of early adulthood, with the trajectory pivoting upward for Black Americans and downward for White Americans. Due to deficits in SES, the relation between challenging early adult social roles - under/unemployment in particular - and growth in depressive affect was more positive for Black Americans. This differential "vulnerability" appears to underlie racial differences in early adult growth (and by connection contribute to racial differences in growth pivot). The extent to which Black Americans were at a greater risk (relative to White Americans) for an upward pivot increased as the number of challenging roles increased. Black Americans facing only optimal early adult social roles were not at a greater risk, while those facing only challenging social roles were at the greatest risk.     

What should allies do? Identifying activist perspectives on the role of white allies in the struggle for racial justice in the United States

The present research examined the perspectives of both White and Black racial justice activists on the roles of White allies in the struggle for justice for Black people in the United States. Study 1 used Q methodology, a mixed-methods approach, which identified four distinct perspectives about the role of White allies from a sample of activists (33 White and 22 Black Americans): (1) mobilize to support Black leadership, (2) interpersonal activism, (3) avoid dominating Black people's efforts, and (4) lifelong learning. In Study 2, we interviewed activists (22 White and 12 Black Americans) to understand their evaluation of, and preference for, each of perspective identified in Study 1. Thematic analyses showed that each perspective had its pros and cons regarding considerations of how to best use ingroup advantages without dominating the movement. Our findings contribute to our understanding of potential tensions in solidarity-based social movements.