Table I.
Studies of the buffering effects of racial identity on the relationship of racism to mental physical health indices
| Authors/Date | Sample | Racial Identity | Measures Racism | Psychological Distress | Design | Main effects of racial identity on depressive sx/distressa | Buffering effects of racial identity on the relationship of racism to depress sx/distressb |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Banks & Kohn-Wood (2007) | 194 AA college students, convenience sample | MIBI – 7 subscales scores used to form 4 clusters: Integrationist Multicultural Race-focused Undifferentiated |
RaLES Daily Exper. | CES-D | Correlational, cross-sectional | (NO) Integrationist (NO) Multicultural (NO) Race-focused (NO) Undifferentiated |
(YES - I) Integrationist/RaLES Daily Exper./CES-D |
| Bynum, Burton & Best (2007) | 247 AA college students, convenience sample | TERS - Cultural Pride Cultural Coping with Antagonism |
RaLES Brief Racism | BSI | Correlational, cross sectional | (YES-POS) Cultural Pride (YES-NEG) Cultural Coping with Antagonism |
(NO) Cultural Pride/SRE/BSI (NO) Cultural coping with antagonism/SRE/BSI |
| Fischer & Shaw (1999) | 119 AA college students, convenience sample |
Beliefs: SORS-Racism Awareness Teaching Experiences: TERS – Racism Struggles Scale |
SRE | MHI | Correlational, Cross- sectional | (NO) SORS (NO) TERS |
(NO) SORS/SRE/MHI (YES- B) TERS/SRE/MHI |
| Green, Way, Pahl (2006) | 136 racially diverse high school students, convenience sample | MEIM EI-achievement EI-affirmation |
Discrim. by Adults (Way, 1997) Discrim. by Peers (Way, 1997) |
Children’s Depression Inventory (Kovacs, 1985) | Correlational, Prospective Design | (YES-POS) EI – Achievement (YES-POS) EI- Affirmation |
(NO) EI-Achievement/discrim./depressive sx (NO) EI-Affirmation/discrim./depressive sx |
| Lee (2003) (Study 2) | 67 Asians of Indian descent young adults, convenience sample | MEIM | PDS | CES-D | Correlational, cross sectional | (NO) EI | (NO) EI/PDS CES-D |
| Lee (2005) | 84 Korean college students | MEIM – 4 factors EI-Clarity EI-Pride EI-Engagement EI-Other |
PDS | CES-D | Correlational, cross sectional | (YES-POS) EI- Clarity (YES-POS) EI- Pride (YES-POS) EI- Engagement |
(YES - I) Pride/PDS/CES- D |
| Mossakowski (2003) | 2109 Filipino adults, population- based sample | MEIM | Major discrim. (1 item) Everyday discrim. (Williams et al., 1997) |
SCL-90R | Correlational, cross sectional | (YES-POS) EI | (YES - D) EI/major lifetime discrim./depressive sx (NO) EI/everyday discrim./depressive sx |
| Noh, Beiser, Kaspar, Hou & Rummen (1999) | 647 Asian immigrants (43% Chinese) Population- based sample | Study-specific measure of ethnic identification composed of questions about: Salience, intermarriage, language retention, ethnic identification | Study-specific measure: single item experienced discrimination based on race | Depression- related symptoms, 17 items | Correlational, cross sectional | (NO) Ethnic identification | (YES - I) Ethnic identification/discrim./depressive sx |
| Sellers & Shelton (2003) | 349 AA college students, convenience sample | MIBI Centrality Private regard Public regard Ideology subscales (Nationalist, Oppressed Minority, Assimilation, Humanist) |
DLE | CES-D, STAI PSS Psych. Distress (composite of all three- labeled psychological distress) | Correlation, Prospective, but also cross sectional analyses | (YES-POS) Private regard (YES-POS) Public regard |
(YES - B) Nationalist identity/DLE/depressive sx |
| Sellers, Caldwell, Schmeelk-Cone, & Zimmerman (2003) | 555 AA young adults (mean age = 17), convenience sample | MIBI Centrality Public Regard |
20 race-related hassles (based on Harrell, 1997) | SCL-90-R depression and anxiety combined | Prospective, correlational, SEM | (YES-POS) Public regard (YES-POS) Centrality |
(NO) Centrality/race- related hassles/anxiety and depressive sx (NO) Public Regard/race- related hassles/anxiety and depressive sx |
| Sellers, Linder, Martin, & Lewis (2006) | 314 AA youth (11–17 years), convenience sample | MIBI Centrality Private regard Public regard |
DLE – frequency only | CES-D | Correlational cross-sectional | (YES-POS) Private regard | (YES-I) Public regard/DLE/CES-D |
| Wong, Eccles, & Sameroff (2003) | 629 AA high school students, volunteers, comvenience sample | Inventory for this study to measure EI, including close relationship to ethnicity, sense of rich heritage, pride and belonging and feeling supported by others in ethnicity | Teacher discrimination, Peer discrimination (everyday maltreatment type items) | CES-D | Correlational, prospective and cross sectional analyses | (NO) EI | (NO) EI/teacher discrim./CES-D (NO) EI/peer discrim./CES-D |
Note. AA = African American; MH = mental health; sx = symptoms; discrim. = discrimination; EI = ethnic identity. MIBI = Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity (Sellers, Smith, Shelton, Rowley, & Chavous, 1998). RaLES Daily Exper. = Daily Life Experiences subscale from the Racism and Life Experience Scales (Harrell, 1997). CES-D = Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (Radloff, 1977). TERS = Teenager Experience with Racial Socialization Scale (Stevenson et al., 2002). BSI = Brief Symptom Inventory (Deragotis & Melisarotis, 1983). PSS = Perceived Stress Scale (Cohen & Williamson, 1988). RaLES-R - Brief Racism Scale = Brief Racism Scale from the Racism and Life Experiences Scales-Revised (Harrell, 1997a, 1997b). SORS-A = Scale of Racial Socialization for Adolescents (Stevenson, 1994). SRE = Schedule of Racist Events (Landrine & Klonoff, 1996). MHI = Mental Health Inventory (Veit & Ware, 1983). MEIM = Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (Phinney, 1992); EI = ethnic identity. PDS = Perceived Personal Ethnic Discrimination (Finch et al., 2000). SCL-90 = Symptom Checklist – 90 – Revised (Deragotis, 1994). DLE = Daily Life Experience subscale of the Racism and Life Experience scales (Harrell, 1994). STAI = State–Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, 1983).
For each main effect tested, the component of racial identity evaluated is listed. The results are categorized as follows: (NO) = No significant main effect; (YES-POS) = Significant main effect such that increasing scores on listed components of racial identity are associated with lower symptom reports; (YES-NEG) = Significant main effects such that increasing scores on listed components of racial identity are associated with greater symptom reports.
For each interaction action tested, the variables are presented as follows: measure of racial identity/measure of racism/measure of depressive symptoms or distress. The results are categorized as follows: (NO) = No significant interaction (buffering) effect; (YES-I) = Significant interaction effect, such that the relationship of racism to symptoms is stronger for those with high scores on listed components of racial identity; (YES-B) = Significant interaction effect, such that the relationship of racism to symptoms is weaker for those with high scores on listed components of racial identity. In this case, racial identity serves as a buffer.