Explaining the relationship between ethnicity and depressive symptoms: The roles of climate for inclusion, job self-efficacy, and job demands

Abstract

Prior research indicates that employees from ethnic minority backgrounds are more likely to experience depression and other mental health problems than their ethnic majority counterparts. To understand what drives these negative outcomes, we integrate research on ethnic minorities at work with the job demands-resources (JDR) model. Based on the JDR model, we consider climate for inclusion as a key job resource for ethnic minority employees that mitigates the deleterious effects of ethnic minority status on job self-efficacy, perceived job demands, and depressive symptoms. We conducted a two-wave survey study (Time 1: N = 771; Time 2: N = 299, six months apart) with employees from five medium sized not-for-profit and local government organizations in Australia. Our empirical results indicate that ethnic minorities report a higher job-self-efficacy and fewer depressive symptoms when they perceive a high climate for inclusion.