Racial discrimination and depressive symptoms among African-American men: The mediating and moderating roles of masculine self-reliance and John Henryism.
Year: 2012
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Despite well-documented associations between everyday racial discrimination and depression, mechanisms underlying this association among African-American men are poorly understood. Guided by the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping, we frame masculine self-reliance and John Henryism as appraisal mechanisms that influence the relationship between racial discrimination, a source of significant psychosocial stress, and depressive symptoms among African-American men. We also investigate whether the proposed relationships vary by reported discrimination-specific coping responses. Participants were 478 African-American men recruited primarily from barbershops in the West and South regions of the United States. Multiple linear regression and Sobel-Goodman mediation analyses were used to examine direct and mediated associations between our study variables. Racial discrimination and masculine self-reliance were positively associated with depressive symptoms, though the latter only among active responders. John Henryism was negatively associated with depressive symptoms, mediated the masculine self-reliance-depressive symptom relationship, and among active responders moderated the racial discrimination-depressive symptoms relationship. Though structural interventions are essential, clinical interventions designed to mitigate the mental health consequences of racial discrimination among African-American men should leverage masculine self-reliance and active coping mechanisms.
Source: Psychology of Men & Masculinity
DOI: 10.1037/a0028436
Language: English
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funders: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, National Cancer Institute, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities, National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, Center for AIDS Research, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
OpenAlex ID: W2333188222