How Racial Identity Moderates the Impact of Financial Stress on Mental Health among African Americans
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hughes2014 - p. 39
For one, racial identity may protect self-esteem and mastery from the deleterious effects of financial stress, so the indirect effect of financial stress on psychological well-being may be weaker in the presence of a strong racial identity. For another, racial identity may protect supportive social relationships from stress, thus weakening the indirect impact of financial stress on well-being through social relationships.
hughes2014 - p. 39
Closeness to one’s group is related to more positive group evaluation (Hughes and Demo 1989; Brown et al. 2002). In turn, these two identity dimensions are related to better mental health, including less negative affect and fewer depressive symptoms (Branscombe, Schmitt, and Harvey 1999; Ida and Christie-Mizell 2012), albeit modestly (Smith and Silva 2011). Racial identity is thought to protect mental health by boosting psychosocial resources. It connects people to others via meaningful social roles in their families and communities, and it enhances self-esteem and mastery (Hughes and Demo 1989; Phinney 1991; Brown et al. 2002).
hughes2014 - p. 39
The ‘‘identity-relevant stress hypothesis’’ predicts that when a stressor threatens or harms a valued identity, the stressor will affect mental health even more adversely (Thoits 2013:362). An identity also may influence stress appraisal.
hughes2014 - p. 40
African Americans with a strong racial identity may be more emotionally resilient to financial stress because hey understand and appreciate the group’s struggles to overcome racial inequality.
hughes2014 - p. 41
If racial identity moderates the influence of financial stress on mental health, what are the specific mechanisms (that is, mediators) by which it does so? In the stress process model, psychological resources (self-esteem and mastery) and supportive social relationships protect mental health
hughes2014 - p. 41
Financial stress can erode self-esteem, the sense of self-worth, via several pathways. People who experience financial difficulties may believe that others think less well of them (reflected appraisals), or they may compare themselves unfavorably with others (social comparisons).
hughes2014 - p. 41
Racial identity may help counteract the adverse effects of financial stress on psychological resources and social relationships simply because of its positive association with these resources. Racial identity is associated with higher self-esteem3 and sense of mastery (e.g., Hughes and Demo 1989; Phinney 1991; Brown et al. 2002; Kiang et al. 2006; Settles et al. 2010; Smith and Silva 2011).
hughes2014 - p. 42
racial identity may buffer financial stress because it protects supportive social relationships with group members that benefit mental health
hughes2014 - p. 42
Women tend to have higher distress (e.g., Kiecolt, Hughes, and Keith 2008) than men do. Age, education, and income are related to lower distress (Kiecolt et al. 2008; Ida and Christie-Mizell 2012). Being married or cohabiting is related to lower distress (e.g., Kiecolt et al. 2008).
hughes2014 - p. 42
Data for this study came from the National Survey of American Life (Jackson et al. 2006; Alegria et al. 2007), administered between 2001 and 2003 by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research Survey Research Center.
hughes2014 - p. 43
The Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Index (Radloff 1977) had 12 items that asked respondents how often they felt the following ways during the past week: (a) ‘‘I felt as good as other people,’’ (b) ‘‘I had trouble keeping my mind on what I was doing,’’ (c) ‘‘I felt depressed,’’ (d) ‘‘I felt that everything I did was an effort,’’ (e) ‘‘I felt hopeful,’’ (f) ‘‘My sleep was restless,’’ (g) ‘‘I felt happy,’’ (h) ‘‘People were unfriendly,’’ (i) ‘‘I enjoyed life,’’ (j) ‘‘I had crying spells,’’ (k) ‘‘I felt that people disliked me,’’ and (l) ‘‘I could not get ‘going.’’’
hughes2014 - p. 43
The index ranged from 0 to 84 (alpha = .76)
hughes2014 - p. 43
Over the past month or so, have you … ?’’ Among the items listed was ‘‘money problems’’ (1 = yes, 0 = no).
hughes2014 - p. 43
Financial hardship in the past year was a dummy variable that indexed whether in the past year, the respondent had not had enough money to meet basic expenses, did not have enough money to pay full rent, was evicted because of nonpayment of rent, did not pay utilities in full, had utilities disconnected because of nonpayment, had a phone disconnected because of nonpayment, could not pay for day care or babysitting, or could not afford leisure activities
hughes2014 - p. 43
These two measures of financial stress, money problems in the past month and financial hardship in the past year, are correlated (r = .38, p \ .001), but most of the variance in each measure is independent of the other (r2 = .14), indicating that the measures tap different facets of financial stress.
hughes2014 - p. 43
Social Identity. We examined two aspects of social identity.5 Closeness to African Americans was a nine-item index (alpha = .87). Respondents were asked, ‘‘How close do you feel in your ideas and feelings about things to … ?’’ Items were black people; black people who are poor; religious, church-going black people; young black people; upper-class black people; black elected officials; working-class black people; black doctors, lawyers, and other black professional people; and older black people. Response categories were very close, fairly close, not too close, or not close at all. A second dimension of racial identity, evaluation of African Americans as a group, was measured by a scale of positive and negative stereotypes held of African Americans. Respondents were asked, ‘‘How true do you think it is that most Black people … ?’’ Items were ‘‘are intelligent,’’ ‘‘are hardworking,’’ ‘‘are proud of themselves,’’ ‘‘are lazy,’’ ‘‘give up easily,’’ and ‘‘are violent.’’ Response categories ranged from 0 = not at all true to 3 = very true.
hughes2014 - p. 43
Self-esteem was measured by the 10-item Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (Rosenberg 1965). Example items were ‘‘I feel that I have a number of good qualities’’ and ‘‘I feel I do not have much to be proud of.’’ Responses were very true (3), somewhat true (2), a little true (1), or not true at all (0). Items were coded so that higher values meant higher self-esteem, and scores were averaged. The scale ranged from 0 to 3 (alpha = .76).
hughes2014 - p. 43
The Mastery Scale (Pearlin and Radabaugh 1976) had seven items (alpha = .72). Example items were ‘‘There is really no way I can solve some of the problems I have’’ and ‘‘Sometimes I feel I’m being pushed around in life.’’ Responses were 0 = strongly agree, 1 = agree, 2 = disagree, or 3 = strongly disagree.
hughes2014 - p. 44
Social Relationships. Four aspects of respondents’ social relationships were examined. Family support was a three-item index (alpha = .72)
hughes2014 - p. 44
The analyses also included age, gender, education, income, and marital status. Measures were age in years, gender (0 = male, 1 = female), education (1 = less than high school, 2 = high school degree, 3 = some college, 4 = college degree), family income in thousands of dollars, and marital status (0 = previously married or never married and not cohabiting, 1 = married or cohabiting).
hughes2014 - p. 45
For moderated mediation to be established, the interaction term for the independent variable (financial stressor) 3 the moderator (racial identity) would have to be significant in predicting the mediator (psychosocial resource variable; Muller et al. 2005; Hayes 2013). Accordingly, if the interaction term for financial stressor 3 racial identity did not significantly predict a particular psychosocial resource, that variable was excluded from further analyses.
hughes2014 - p. 45
Depressive symptoms 5 b40 1 b41ðfinancial stressorÞ 1 b42ðracial identityÞ 1 b43financial stressor 3 racial identity 1 b44ðpsychological resourceÞ 1 control variables 1 error: ð4Þ How much the coefficient for the financial stressor 3 racial identity interaction term (b43) in Equation (4) is reduced from that for b23 in Equation (2) indicates the degree to which psychological resources or social connections explain how racial identity buffers the effect of financial stress on depressive symptoms.
hughes2014 - p. 45
For all the models, we report two-tailed tests of predicted effects as significant at p \ .10.