THE PSYCHOSOCIAL WELL-BEING OF BLACK AND WHITE MOTHERS FOLLOWING MARITAL DISSOLUTION

This study proposed that African American cultural, social, and economic experiences would positively influence the psychosocial adjustment to marital dissolution of Black mothers as compared to White mothers. The study sample consisted of 235 Black and 662 White divorced or separated mothers from the National Survey of Families and Households. The mothers were not remarried and reported having at least one or more biological or adopted children, 18 years of age or younger, living in the home. Discriminant analysis (stepwise), after controlling for socioeconomic status and time since divorce or separation, indicated that Black mothers had higher levels of personal mastery and economic well-being and received greater formal support after divorce. Contrary to the hypotheses, White mothers received more informal support and evidenced earlier entry into dating than Black mothers. The findings document cultural variations in marital dissolution and the strengths of Black families in coping with this transition.     

JOB CHARACTERISTICS AND WELL-BEING AT MIDLIFE Ethnic and Gender Comparisons

Lacking in the research on work and well-being is a focus on the characteristics of the employment role that contribute to well-being and their differential relations across ethnicity and gender. White and Black women and men at midlife (ages 40-64) were studied. The samples were drawn from two national surveys and included 186 White women, 202 White men, 254 Black women, and 169 Black men. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to assess the relation of work commitment, job satisfaction, role stress, occupational status and personal income to perceived control, life satisfaction, and happiness. Marital status, age, and hours worked were included as control variables. Results indicate that job satisfaction is positively related to life satisfaction for all four groups, and to happiness for White women and Black men. Personal income is positively related to perceived control for Black women and White men, and to life satisfaction for White women. Occupational status is positively related to perceived control for White and Black women; role stress is negatively related to life satisfaction among White men, and to happiness among Black women. Among the control variable, being married positively related to well-being for all four race-sex groups.     

Personal or environmental causes of happiness: a longitudinal analysis

The author analyzed an integrative model of happiness, which incorporated personal factors (demographics, extraversion, neuroticism, and locus of control) and environmental factors (life events and social support), using a longitudinal data set. A secondary purpose was to clarify the relationship between overall happiness and life satisfaction. Using systematic random sampling, 581 residents of Kaohsiung, Taiwan, completed structured questionnaires at Time 1; among them, 105 returned valid questionnaires 2.5 years later, at Time 2. Longitudinal analysis indicated moderate stability of the subjective well-being (SWB) measures. More importantly, when both the baseline SWB levels and personality traits were statistically controlled, social support still predicted overall happiness, and positive life events predicted life satisfaction. Furthermore, there was a consistently strong bidirectional relationship between overall happiness and life satisfaction.     

Race,psychosocial vulnerability and social support differences in inner-city women's symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder

Background/Objectives: Inner-city Black women may be more susceptible to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than White women, although mechanisms underlying this association are unclear. Living in urban neighborhoods distinguished by higher chronic stress may contribute to racial differences in women's cognitive, affective, and social vulnerabilities, leading to greater trauma-related distress including PTSD. Yet social support could buffer the negative effects of psychosocial vulnerabilities on women's health. Methods/Design: Mediation and moderated mediation models were tested with 371 inner-city women, including psychosocial vulnerability (i.e., catastrophizing, anger, social undermining) mediating the pathway between race and PTSD, and social support moderating psychosocial vulnerability and PTSD. Results: Despite comparable rates of trauma, Black women reported higher vulnerability and PTSD symptoms, and lower support compared to White Hispanic and non-Hispanic women. Psychosocial vulnerability mediated the pathway between race and PTSD, and social support moderated vulnerability, reducing negative effects on PTSD. When examining associations by race, the moderation effect remained significant for Black women only. Conclusions: Altogether these psychosocial vulnerabilities represent one potential mechanism explaining Black women's greater risk of PTSD, although cumulative psychosocial vulnerability may be buffered by social support. Despite higher support, inner-city White women's psychosocial vulnerability may actually outweigh support's benefits for reducing trauma-related distress.     

Informal Support among Low-Income Mothers Post Welfare Reform:A Systematic Review

The vulnerability and instability of low-income mothers situated in a context with a weak public safety net make informal social support one of few options many low-income mothers have to meet basic needs. This systematic review examines (a) social support as an empirical construct, (b) the restricted availability of one important aspect of social support—informal perceived support, hereafter informal support—among low-income mothers, (c) the role of informal support in maternal, economic, parenting, and child outcomes, (d) the aspects of informal support that influence its effects, and (e) directions for future research. Traditional systematic review methods resulted in an appraisal of 65 articles published between January 1996 and May 2017. Findings indicated that informal support is least available among mothers most in need. Informal support provides some protection from psychological distress, economic hardship, poor parenting practices, and poor child outcomes. To promote informal support and its benefits among low-income families, future research can advance knowledge by defining the quintessential characteristics of informal support, identifying instruments to capture these characteristics, and providing the circumstances in which support can be most beneficial to maternal and child well-being. Consistent measurement and increased understanding of informal support and its nuances can inform intervention design and delivery to strengthen vulnerable mothers’ informal support perceptions thereby improving individual and family outcomes.     

Vicarious Experiences of Major Discrimination and the Life Satisfaction of Black and White Adults from a Community Sample

The racism-related stress framework argues that racism can influence the well-being of individuals through personal and vicarious experiences of discrimination, but studies on racism and health have primarily focused on understanding how personally experienced discrimination shapes these outcomes. Using data from the Nashville Stress and Health Study (N?=?1,252) the present study examines the racial differences in vicarious experiences of major discrimination among Black and non-Hispanic White adults from a community sample. Additionally, given longstanding evidence of racial disparities in life satisfaction, this study assesses whether the effects of vicarious experiences of discrimination influence overall life satisfaction of both Black and White adults. Results reveal significant racial differences in the types of vicarious discrimination that both groups are exposed to, and that Black adults are more exposed to vicarious experiences of major discrimination relative to White adults. Furthermore, findings indicate that vicarious experiences of discrimination, in addition to personal experiences of discrimination, are associated with lower levels of overall life satisfaction among Black adults, but not for White adults. This study extends the broader literature on racism-related stress and offers new insights for understanding racial differences in overall life satisfaction and well-being.

     

The Mixed Blessings of Material Progress: Diminishing Returns in the Pursuit of Happiness

The progress of nations is widely believed to enhance the happiness of their people. However, whether progress, as currently defined and derived, is increasing happiness and well-being in rich nations is problematic. The paper explores the relationship between economic growth and human development and the use of subjective measures of both life satisfaction and social quality of life as indicators of progress, noting the complex nature of well-being and the differences between personal and social perspectives. It questions whether widely used, simple measures are adequate, and whether greater happiness should, in any case, be regarded as the ultimate goal of progress.     

Gender and ethnic differences in the relationship between body esteem and self-esteem.

Gender and ethnic differences in the relationship between body esteem and self-esteem were examined to assess the degree to which these variables change in relation to each other over time. Difference scores (between Time 1 and Time 2, 1 week apart) were obtained using the Self-Esteem Scale (M. Rosenberg, 1979) and the Body Esteem Scale (S. L. Franzoi & S. A. Shields, 1984) for 163 White women, 140 White men, 55 Black women, and 37 Black men. The results indicated that the correlation of the difference scores was stronger for the group of White women than for the other 3 groups, suggesting that changes in self-esteem parallel changes in body esteem more for White women than for White men, Black men, and Black women. The findings are discussed in relation to the prevalence of bulimia nervosa among White women.     

Variation in black anti-white bias and target distancing cues: factors that influence perceptions of "ambiguously racist" behavior

Experiment 1 indicated that when the White supervisor's negative treatment of a Black subordinate was unconstrained, participant race had no impact on attributions. Conversely, when the treatment was constrained, Black participants reported greater racist attributions than did White participants. Experiment 2 indicated that when the supervisor reported no response or a minimal negative response (i.e., indicating that he did not support his actions) after his negative treatment of the Black subordinate, Black participants reported greater racist attributions than did White participants. Conversely, when the supervisor's negative treatment was followed by a more extreme negative response, participant race had no impact on attributions. Experiment 3 indicated that Black participants were less likely than White participants to perceive a minimal negative response as reflecting a White supervisor's lack of support for his negative actions. Conversely, participant race had no impact on attributions of a Black supervisor's negative actions.     

Contributions of a supportive work environment to parents' well-being and orientation to work

Examined the joint and unique contributions of informal social support in the workplace and formal, family-responsive benefits and policies provided by employers to the job-related attitudes and personal well-being of employed parents with a young child. Eighty married men, 169 married women, and 72 single women with a preschool child completed a survey concerning social support from co-workers and supervisor, utilization of family-responsive benefits and policies, readiness to leave the employer for additional benefits, job satisfaction, organizational commitment, role strain, and health symptoms. Among the findings: (a) Fathers and mothers expressed equal levels of job satisfaction and organizational commitment, but mothers reported more role strain and health symptoms; (b) nearly 48% of married women's organizational commitment was accounted for by measures of support in the workplace; (c) informal social support at work was significantly more important to men's well-being than that of women; and (d) formal, family-responsive policies appeared more consequential for the prediction of women's role strain, perhaps because of women's greater responsibility for adjusting work life to meet the demands of family roles.     

Gender role attitudes of American mothers and daughters over time

Symbolic interaction theorists believe that parents are primary socializing agents for their children. J. Rollins and P. N. White (1982) found that mothers and early adolescent daughters in traditional, dual-work, and dual-career family environments held similar attitudes about marriage, children, and careers. In a follow-up study, 40 mother-daughter dyads of the original 75 were surveyed. A multivariate analysis of variance indicated that there were no significant differences between the attitudes of these 40 mothers and 40 daughters regarding the 3 variables. However, both the mothers' and daughters' attitudes differed from Time 1 to Time 2. The findings lend further support for the concept of mothers as primary socializing agents for daughters and for the self-in-relation model regarding mothers and daughters.     

Correlates of Happiness Among Older Spanish Institutionalised and Non-Institutionalised Adults

The overall objective of this study was to explore the current (i.e., at the time of the study) and past (i.e., over their lifetimes) happiness of 65-year-old and older men and women who had different personal and socio-demographic characteristics. We also investigated the role of affect balance and life satisfaction as sources of participants’ subjective well-being, as well as the contribution of other psychosocial variables, including self-efficacy, optimism, health and quality of life, stress, social support and leisure, and of socio-demographic conditions. Further, we examined the influence of institutionalisation on happiness and on the aforementioned psychosocial variables. Participants voluntarily completed self-reports regarding all of these variables. Participants’ current happiness (M = 6.6 on a 0–10 scale) was significantly lower than their past happiness (M = 7.7). The happiness of the institutionalised participants did not differ from that of the non-institutionalised participants, although significant differences were found for a number of psychosocial variables. Affect balance and life satisfaction were significant correlates and predictors of current happiness, which was also associated with many psychosocial variables and was further predicted by past happiness, health indicators and some life dimensions assessed as perceived sources of one’s own happiness, such as a sense of autonomy and independence. Our results highlight the importance of establishing both happiness and its correlates to develop interventions aimed at promoting subjective well-being in older people, given that, compared to earlier periods in life, happiness may be reduced in late adulthood.     

Race and Girls’ Self-Evaluations: How Mothering Matters

Research conducted in the United States shows that Black adolescent girls have higher self-esteem and, to a lesser extent, a higher sense of control than White girls. However, few studies conducted with representative samples of Black and White girls systematically examine why Black girls may have higher self-esteem and sense of control. Drawing on Black feminist thought, we posit that Black mothers’ socialization of their daughters may explain Black girls’ higher self-esteem and sense of control. Using survey data collected in 1994 from a nationally representative sample of U.S. Black (N?=?1,330) and White (N?=?3,797) girls and their mothers, we examine racial differences across two key components of the self-concept: self-esteem and sense of control. We ask: 1) Do Black girls have higher self-esteem and sense of control than White girls? 2) Do Black girls have more positive relationships with their mothers and receive more encouragement of academic achievement and independence from their mothers than White girls? and 3) Do more positive mother-daughter relationships and mothers’ encouragement help to explain Black girls’ higher self-esteem and sense of control in comparison to White girls? Findings indicate that Black girls have higher self-esteem and sense of control than White girls, and Black mothers’ relationship with their daughters and stronger encouragement of daughters’ independence in part explain race differences in self-evaluations.     

Looking beyond the parent-child dyad for the determinants of maternal styles of interaction

The manner in which maternal, family, and child characteristics; personal well-being and health; intrafamily functioning and support; and several dimensions of informal support were related to five different maternal styles of interaction was examined. The subjects were 102 mothers of retarded, handicapped, and developmentally at-risk young children. The mothers completed several self-report measures of well-being and support, were interviewed about their personal social networks, and were observed interacting with their child in a free-play episode. Canonical correlation analysis showed that there were multiple determinants of interactive styles, although there was considerable specificity with respect to the particular variables that were related to the five interactive styles. Social support was related significantly to four of the maternal interactive styles, which indicates that the parenting behavior was influenced in part by factors other than the individual characteristics of the dyad members.     

Life and neighborhood satisfaction of black and white residents in a middle-class suburb of Johannesburg

Prior research indicates that Black South Africans are generally less satisfied with their lives and neighborhoods than White South Africans. 375 Black and 358 White adult residents of a multiracial, middle-class suburb of Johannesburg rated, from 0 to 10, their satisfaction with 9 personal and 9 environmental quality of life domains. Two items, also rated from 0 to 10, assessed satisfaction with life and the neighborhood. Although there were no differences between Black and White suburbanites on life satisfaction scores, the Black group reported being more satisfied with the neighborhood than the White group. Stepwise multiple regression indicated that health and personal safety explained the highest variance in life (29% for the Black group and 43% for the White group) and neighborhood (26% for the Black group and 18% for the White group) satisfaction.     

Ethnic/racial differences in the coming-out process of lesbian, gay, and bisexual youths: a comparison of sexual identity development over time

This longitudinal report of 145 lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) youths examined ethnic/racial differences in the coming-out process. No significant differences emerged in sexual developmental milestones, sexual orientation, sexual behavior, or sexual identity. However, Black youths reported involvement in fewer gay-related social activities, reported less comfort with others knowing their sexual identity, and disclosed that identity to fewer people than did White youths. Latino youths disclosed to fewer people than did White youths. Analyses of change indicated Black youths had greater increases in positive attitudes toward homosexuality and in certainty in their sexual identity over time than did White youths. These findings support the authors' hypothesis that cultural factors do not impede the formation of identity but may delay identity integration.     

Well-Being,Personal Success and Business Performance Among Entrepreneurs: A Two-Wave Study

This two-wave longitudinal study among 121 entrepreneurs in The Netherlands investigated bi-directional relationships between entrepreneurs’ well-being and performance. Results of Smart PLS analyses showed positive well-being at Time 1 (work engagement; life satisfaction; and job satisfaction) predicted subjective entrepreneurial success 2 years later, both as indicated by entrepreneurs’ reports of achieved financial success (including personal income security and wealth, business turn-over, sales and profit growth), as well as perceptions of achieved personal success (personal fulfilment, community impact and employee relations). No relations were found with objective indicators of business performance (profit; turnover; and number of employees) over time. The expected recursive relationship between performance and well-being was only found in the short term; a better objective financial situation immediately preceding the second measurement moment, predicted better well-being at T2. These results are both in line with a well-being–performance (gain) cycle, and the happiness set-point thesis that predicts resilience in the face of events. This paper contributes to the literature by emphasizing the importance of entrepreneurs’ well-being as a key factor in long-term subjective financial and personal entrepreneurial success. The practical implication is that entrepreneurs should maintain and improve their own well-being to achieve positive long term business outcomes.     

Life-Satisfaction in Post-Soviet Russia and Ukraine

This paper fills a gap in the literature by looking at influences on the well-being of the citizens of Russia and Ukraine in the context of the triple shock – economic, political and social – that they experienced after 1991. The paper argues that lived experience – how people evaluate their living conditions – is as significant an influence on the welfare of citizens as are the actual conditions in which they live. The majority of the populations perceive the post-1991 economic and political changes negatively, and levels of general satisfaction and happiness are comparatively low. The findings suggest that objective economic factors, geographical/social location, health status and social context influence well-being, but also personal control and satisfaction with material circumstances, with health having a greater influence on happiness, while material circumstances and the evaluation of them have a greater influence on general satisfaction. The paper concludes by arguing for a model of reciprocal causation in which material factors provide the partially determining context for actions and are themselves influenced by happiness and satisfaction.     

The company you keep: Fear of rejection in intergroup interaction

People use many cues to infer the likelihood of acceptance or rejection in intergroup interactions. Nearly all prior research has focused on personal cues directly given off by the potential interaction partner (e.g., eye contact and smiling). However, we argue that in the context of intergroup interactions, individuals may be especially sensitive to broader social cues, such as an interaction partner's social network. Across three experiments we explored differences in White participants' evaluations of a smiling Black man presented with a Black or White friend. When this Black man was featured with a Black friend, White participants reported greater rejection concerns and a greater inclination to reject this Black man compared to when he was featured with a White friend (Experiments 1-3) or featured alone (Experiment 2). Furthermore, when participants received a simple intervention designed to buffer against social rejection, the race of the Black man's friend no longer influenced participants' interests in befriending the Black man (Experiment 3). This research demonstrates the power of friendships in interracial interactions and provides evidence for a simple intervention to reduce the weight of rejection concerns in interracial interactions.     

Personal growth initiative: Relation to Hedonia and Eudaimonia happiness among South African university students

This study examined the relationship between personal growth initiative (PGI) and hedonic and eudaimonic happiness among a sample of South African university students (N = 235; mean age = 20.38, SD = 1.55; female = 61.70%). Students completed measures on personal growth initiative, hedonic happiness, and eudaimonic happiness. Regression analysis indicated personal growth initiative to positively predict students’ reported scores on hedonic and eudaimonic measures. The findings underscore the importance of PGI among student populations in advancing well-being among university students. It is proposed that higher education student development and support services should tap into PGI as a resource for enhancing student self-directed change and happiness.