Cultural, sociofamilial, and psychological resources that inhibit psychological distress in African Americans exposed to stressful life events and race-related stress.

Abstract

Empirical evidence suggests that African Americans (herein, all nonimmigrant persons of African heritage living in the United States) are at increased risk for exposure to stressful life events (e.g., Karlsen & Nazroo, 2002; McCord & Freeman, 1990; Thoits, 1991; Williams, Neighbors, & Jackson, 2003). Moreover, the health consequences associated with this increased risk are exacerbated by daily encounters with individual, institutional, and cultural racism (Clark, Anderson, Clark, & Williams, 1999; Harrell, 2000; Nazroo, 2003; C. E. Thompson & Neville, 1999; V. L. Thompson, 2002; Utsey & Ponterotto, 1996). Stressful life events and race-related stress have important consequences for the psychological and physical health of African Americans. As such, an important theoretical and practical question is: What protective factors can mitigate this stress and the subsequent risk for negative mental and physical health outcomes among African Americans? A significant related need is further understanding of the mechanisms whereby protective factors function to alleviate stress. In the present study, we examined the role of cultural, sociofamilial, and psychological resources in mitigating the deleterious effects of stressful life events and race-related stress in a sample of African American undergraduate college students. Our research examined the relative contributions of stressful life events versus race-related stress on psychological distress and compared two distress-deterring models (Ensel & Lin, 1991) to determine the specific mechanisms whereby psychological resources and cultural resources buffered participants from stress or enabled them to cope with psychological distress.