Child Development, July/August 2002, Volume 73, Number 4, Pages 1322–1336
Racial Identity, Maternal Support, and Psychological Distress among African American Adolescents Cleopatra Howard Caldwell, Marc A. Zimmerman, Debra Hilkene Bernat, Robert M. Sellers, and Paul C. Notaro
This study investigated the role of racial identity and maternal support in reducing psychological distress among African American adolescents. Both direct and indirect influences of multiple dimensions of racial identity (i.e., centrality, private regard) and maternal support on perceived stress, depressive symptoms, and anxiety were examined among 521 African American twelfth graders. Findings indicated that maternal support was positively related to both centrality and private regard. Results provided little support for a direct association between racial identity or maternal support and depressive symptoms and anxiety within a multivariate context. Rather, the influences of racial identity attitudes and maternal support on these mental health outcomes were mediated by perceived stress. Further, the two racial identity attitudes were associated with perceived stress in different ways. Study findings suggest that the significance and meaning that African American adolescents attribute to being Black may be critical to their psychological well-being, and that maternal support and perceived stress are important considerations.
INTRODUCTION Identity formation during adolescence is a critical developmental task that cannot be accomplished in isolation (Erikson, 1968). It is a process that is compounded by the individual’s place in society and in history, as well as by what Bronfenbrenner (1977) refers to as the “ecological niche”: gender, social class, family, community, ethnicity, and culture. Developing a racial identity represents an essential domain in the identity-formation task for ethnic minority youth (Munford, 1994; Pyant & Yanico, 1991; Sellers, Rowley, Chavous, Shelton, & Smith, 1997; Shorter-Gooden, 1996). For African American adolescents, positive racial identity development has been associated with positive mental health and psychological well-being (Belgrave et al., 1994; Martinez & Dukes, 1997; Phinney, Lochner, & Murphy, 1990; Smith, Walker, Fields, Brookins, & Seay, 1999; Stevenson, 1998). Exaggerated negative images of African Americans within this society, however, can result in the internalization of negative stereotypes, negative self-acceptance, and, consequently, mental health problems (Arroyo & Zigler, 1995; Munford, 1994; Phinney et al., 1990; Pyant & Yanico, 1991; Stevenson, 1998). Thus, racial identity development represents an important individual characteristic that can be enhanced in an effort to promote psychological well-being among African American adolescents. Families are the primary socializing agents for African American adolescents with regard to racial matters (Bowman & Howard, 1985; Harrison, Wilson, Pine, Chan, & Buriel, 1990; Peters, 1988; Thornton,
Chatters, Taylor, & Allen, 1990). Previous studies indicate that race-related socialization is associated with racial identity development for African American youth (Marshall, 1995; Spencer, 1983; Stevenson, Reed, Bodison, & Bishop, 1997), and that family support, more generally, can influence racial attitudes (Stevenson, Reed, & Bodison, 1996). The role of family support in identity development as it relates to mental health functioning, however, has rarely been examined. The purpose of this study was to examine these linkages to determine the influence of racial identity on the mental health functioning of adolescents. What is not clear from available literature is how maternal support is associated with racial identity development and whether different dimensions of an adolescent’s racial identity mediate the relation between maternal support and various psychological distress indicators. The present study investigated these issues by examining both the direct and indirect influences of multiple dimensions of racial identity and maternal support on perceived stress, depressive symptoms, and anxiety among African American adolescents. Racial Identity and Mental Health Outcomes Racial identity is one of the most heavily researched areas of African American psychological functioning. Because much of the early research on African Amer© 2002 by the Society for Research in Child Development, Inc. All rights reserved. 0009-3920/2002/7304-0022
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ican racial identity focused on children (e.g., Clark & Clark, 1940), the field has taken a decidedly developmental approach. The predominant theories of racial/ ethnic identity have focused on describing the process by which an individual’s racial identity develops (e.g., Cross, 1991; Phinney, 1990). Cross’s model of Nigrescence is the most widely used model of African American racial identity (Cross, 1971, 1991). The Nigrescence model describes five stages of racial identity development that African Americans experience as they construct a psychologically healthy Black identity. In the first stage, pre-encounter, individuals do not believe that race is an important component of their identity. This stage may involve an idealization of the dominant White society or simple placement of more emphasis on another identity component, such as gender or religion. Individuals in the second stage, encounter, are faced with a profound experience or a collection of events directly linked to their race. This experience encourages individuals to re-examine their current identity and find or further develop their Black identity, and can be either positive or negative (Cross, 1991). The third stage, immersion–emersion, is described as being extremely pro-Black and anti-White. Externally, individuals are obsessed with identifying with Black culture, but internally, they have not made the commitment to endorse all values and traditions associated with being Black. The fourth stage, internalization, is characterized by having a feeling of inner security and satisfaction about being Black. Moreover, individuals at this stage tend to have a less idealized view with regard to the meaning of race. They are able to see both the positive and negative elements of being Black or White. Internalization– commitment, the final stage, represents those individuals who translate their internalized identities into action. Racial identity has been conceptually linked to the mental health functioning of African Americans (Azibo, 1983; Baldwin, 1984; Cross, Parham, & Helms, 1998; Parham, 1989; White & Parham, 1990). Most of this work proposes a direct link between racial identity and mental health. A number of empirical studies using the Racial Identity Attitudes Scale (RIAS), the instrument most often used to operationalize Cross’ Nigrescence model (Parham & Helms, 1981), support this conceptualization (Carter, 1991; Munford, 1994; Parham & Helms, 1985; Pyant & Yanico, 1991). Parham and Helms (1985), for example, found that scores on the encounter scale were negatively related to the anxiety subscale of the Symptom-90 Checklist. Carter (1991) assessed the relation between African American college students’ scores on the four subscales of the RIAS and the Bell Global Psychopathology Scale
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and found only one significant relation; pre-encounter attitudes were positively related to higher symptoms of psychopathology. Pyant and Yanico (1991) investigated the relation between scores on the RIAS and psychological well-being (measured with the California Psychological Inventory of Well-Being, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the Beck Depression Inventory) in a sample of African American female youth. These authors found that pre-encounter scores were negatively associated with both psychological wellbeing and self-esteem, and both pre-encounter and encounter scores were positively associated with depressive symptoms. These findings were consistent with those of Munford (1994), who later examined a mixed-gender sample of African American college students and found that pre-encounter, encounter, and immersion–emersion attitudes were associated with higher depressive symptoms, whereas internalization scores were associated with fewer depressive symptoms. Although these studies suggest that racial identity is related to mental health, they fail to illuminate the process by which this link may occur. One possible mediating variable is stress. Stress is particularly promising as a mediating variable because of its transactional properties (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). The concept of stress incorporates both situational variables as well as person variables. A relatively extensive research literature has shown that experiences of stress are associated with negative mental health outcomes (for reviews, see Blaney, 2000; Mazure, 1998). Recent research suggests that the same deleterious link between stress and mental health outcomes may exist in ethnic minority adolescents (Alva & Reyes, 1999; Zimmerman, Ramirez-Valles, Zapert, & Maton, 2000). Alva and Reyes (1999), for example, found a direct relation between experiences with stressful life events and internalized symptoms of depression and anxiety in a sample of Hispanic ninth graders. Similarly, Zimmerman et al. (2000) found that stressful life events were associated with alcohol and marijuana use, as well as depressive symptoms and anxiety in a sample of African American high school students. One source of stress that may be particularly relevant to African Americans is the experience of racial discrimination. In fact, researchers now use a stress and coping paradigm to conceptualize and operationalize experiences of racial discrimination (e.g., Harrell, 1997, 2000; Landrine & Klonoff, 1996; Sellers, Morgan, & Brown, 2001). Landrine and Klonoff (1996) recently developed a racial discrimination inventory influenced in large part by the Lazarus and Folkman’s (1984) model of stress. The inventory assesses
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the frequency and severity of 18 lifetime and past year events. They found that almost 98% of the respondents in their validation sample reported some experience of racial discrimination within the past year. They also found that both lifetime and past-year discriminatory events were related to higher reports of psychiatric symptoms (e.g., anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, and somatization). This finding is consistent with other research that has linked experiences of racial discrimination to negative psychological outcomes (Broman, 1997; Burke, 1984; Carter, 1993; Fernando, 1984; Outlaw, 1993; Peters, 1978; Sanders Thompson, 1996). Jackson et al. (1996), for example, found that African American respondents from the 1979–1980 National Survey of Black Americans who experienced unfair treatment because of race were more likely to have low subjective well-being. Cross, Parham, and Helms (1998) argued that a primary function of an internalized racial identity is to buffer the individual against these deleterious mental health consequences. They suggested that, “An easily perceived but nonetheless essential function of the stabilized Black identity which the Nigrescence authors address is the protection of the individual from psychological harm that may result from daily existence in a racist society” (Cross et al., p. 11). Unfortunately, there is a dearth of research that has directly tested whether perceived stress is a mediating factor in the link between racial identity and mental health. The current literature is also limited in that it has overlooked how the relations among racial identity, perceived stress, and mental health influence African American adolescents. This omission is particularly egregious given that achieving a functional racial identity is a developmental task of paramount importance during adolescence (Phinney, 1992). African American adolescents are an especially vulnerable population for experiencing stressful life events, because they negotiate the developmental tasks of adolescence within a race-conscious society. One reason for the lack of research that has investigated a process model of the link between racial identity and mental health is that many of the racial identity models that have been proposed are not conducive to such an approach. Most are transformational models, which classify individuals into stages of racial identity. This approach precludes an examination of how racial identity may be related to perceptions of stress and mental health, because the content of the individuals’ racial identity attitudes are expected to be uniform within stages. Consequently, these models do not presume individual differences within stages that may result in differences in experiencing stress and
subsequent mental health outcomes. Recently, several researchers have proposed that racial identity is a multidimensional, rather than a unitary, construct bound by stages of development (Gonzales & Cauce, 1995; Phinney, 1992; Sanders Thompson, 1994; Sellers, Smith, Shelton, Rowley, & Chavous, 1998; Smith et al., 1999; Stevenson, 1994). This conceptual and methodological distinction has implications for delineating the process through which racial identity is associated with mental health. Sellers and colleagues (Sellers et al., 1997; Seller, Smith, et al., 1998) have proposed a model of racial identity that focuses on different dimensions of racial identity. The Multidimensional Model of Racial Identity (MMRI) proposes four dimensions in the assessment of the significance that African Americans attribute to being Black, and how they define what it means to be Black. By delineating multiple dimensions of racial identity, the MMRI provides a framework for examining greater complexity in the structure and functioning of racial identity in the lives of African Americans (Sellers, Shelton, et al., 1998; Sellers, Smith, et al., 1998). Two components of the MMRI may be particularly relevant to understanding a link between racial identity and mental health in African American adolescents. First, racial centrality refers to the extent to which individuals normatively define themselves in terms of race. The other relevant component of the MMRI, private regard, involves individuals’ positive or negative evaluations of their racial group and their membership in that racial group. Rowley, Sellers, Chavous, and Smith (1998) found that racial centrality and private regard were differentially related to self-esteem in a sample of African American high school students and a sample of African American college students. In both samples, more intense positive attitudes toward being Black were associated with higher levels of self-esteem, whereas racial centrality showed no significant direct relation. Racial centrality, however, did moderate the relation between private regard and self-esteem such that the relation was only significant for individuals for whom being Black was a central identity. It is possible that racial centrality and private regard may relate to perceived stress and other mental health outcomes in different ways as well. In sum, previous investigations have found a relation between racial identity and a number of mental health indicators. Although inconsistencies in findings exist between the direction of this relation at the encounter stage of identity development, it is generally accepted that a less developed racial identity appears to be associated with poorer mental health, whereas a more highly developed racial identity is
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related to positive mental health. Both the conceptualization and measurement of the racial identity concept remain important issues. The movement toward examining multiple dimensions of racial identity as they relate to different mental health outcomes is a critical step toward clarifying some of the previous inconsistencies found in this literature. In addition, perceived stress as a potential mediator between racial identity and mental health is a promising new research direction based on studies of discrimination and the mental health of African American adults. African American adolescents have not been the focus of much of this work; therefore, the present study attempted to delineate the links among racial identity attitudes, perceived stress, and psychological distress among African American adolescents. Racial Socialization, Racial Identity, and Mental Health Outcomes In addition to investigating individual differences in racial identity, understanding significant socialization contexts in which racial identity is developed is an important consideration. The influences of families, peer groups, schools, and neighborhoods have emerged as vital social contexts for understanding adolescent development (Barber & Olsen, 1997; BrooksGunn, Duncan, Klebanov, & Sealand, 1993; Eccles, Lord, & Midgley, 1991; Hartup, 1996; Steinberg, 1990, 2001). Arnett (1995) has expanded this list to include the media, the legal system, and the cultural belief system. Although each of these socializing agents has a unique contribution to make to adolescent development, the family remains the most influential socializing environment in the lives of adolescents, because it is the first institution they experience and often the only one with enduring qualities (Harrison et al., 1990). A critical function for African American families is to buffer the effects of racism and promote a sense of cultural pride and well-being within their children (Billingsley, 1992; Bowman & Howard, 1985; Harrison et al., 1990; Peters, 1985; Stevenson et al., 1996). Racial socialization is the process through which messages and behaviors about racial issues are communicated to children in an effort to prepare them to cope with the adverse effects of discrimination in racially stressful environments (Peters, 1988; Sanders Thompson, 1994; Stevenson, 1995; Thornton et al., 1990). Current evidence suggests that within African American families, the majority of parents (50–89%) communicate race-related messages to their children (Bowman & Howard, 1985; Marshall, 1995; Smith et al., 1999; Spencer, 1983; Stevenson, 1994; Thornton et al., 1990). The content and intensity of these mes-
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sages, however, may vary based on socialization goals. Marshall (1995), for example, found that when asked about parenting goals generally, education, religion, self-esteem, and hard work were the main goals for a sample of 58 middle-class African American mothers. Only 2% initially reported ethnic identity enhancement as among their top childrearing goals. When asked explicitly, however, 89% considered ethnic socialization an important issue in raising their children. In a study of 201 African American youth ages 14 to 24, Bowman and Howard (1985) found that 38% of the youth said that their parents or guardians provided no race-related messages, whereas 62% reported having received important messages about being Black. The most important messages communicated included racial pride (23%), self-determination (14%), an awareness of racial barriers (12%), and egalitarian views about race (12%). In an assessment of the content of race socialization messages among 157 African American parents of children ages 4- to 14-years old, Hughes and Chen (1997) identified the three most frequent messages communicated: (1) cultural socialization, (2) preparation for bias, and (3) promotion of mistrust. They also found that message content varied by the age of the child, with parents of 9- to 14year-olds providing more preparation for bias and promotion of mistrust messages than parents of 4- to 8-year-olds. The latter finding suggests that parents of adolescents may reinforce the significance and meaning of being Black in this society, which has historically devalued their racial group. This underscores the importance of understanding family influences on racial identity development during adolescence. The enduring nature of racial socialization messages and racial identity attitudes has been called into question by Sanders Thompson’s (1994) study of African American adults’ recall of race-related messages communicated during childhood. She found that the frequency and content of racial socialization messages received from parents during childhood were not related to current racial identity attitudes in adults; however, messages provided by other adult family members were related to specific adult racial identity attitudes. Demo and Hughes (1990), on the other hand, found that adults who received race-related socialization messages from their parents while growing up were more likely than those who received no messages to feel close to other Blacks. The inconsistency in findings about parental racial socialization messages and adult racial attitudes and the finding that some African American parents do not explicitly communicate racial socialization messages to their children suggest a need for identifying other family factors that may influence racial identity develop-
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ment during adolescence. Family social support is one area that holds promise for further elaborating the process of racial identity development and its link to mental health functioning in African American youth, because developmental research indicates that a warm and caring family environment is important for encouraging competence and a sense of well being among adolescents. Support from mothers, including emotional (e.g., caring, concern, empathy) and instrumental support (e.g., advice, problem-solving, tangible aid), is especially important at this stage of development. An extensive body of research exists that demonstrates that perception of family social support among adults is related to their physical and emotional wellbeing (for a review, see Thoits, 1995). Although far less social support research has been conducted with adolescents (Cauce, Mason, Gonzales, Hiraga, & Liu, 1996), there is evidence to suggest that there is a direct relation between social support from family members and positive mental health functioning for various adolescent populations (Caldwell, Antonucci, & Jackson, 1998; Papini & Roggman, 1992; Starrels, 1994). Typically, having family support, especially from mothers, reduces psychological distress (e.g., depression, anxiety, and anger) and increases psychological well-being (e.g., self-esteem, self-efficacy, and mastery) for adolescents. An unanswered question for African American adolescents, however, is whether family social support is related to the development of specific racial identity attitudes that have implications for their psychological well-being. Few studies have systematically addressed this question. Stevenson and colleagues (Stevenson et al., 1996, 1997) conducted several studies of relevance for understanding the link between family social support, racial identity, and mental health in African American youth. In a study of kinship support and racial socialization beliefs among 229 inner-city African American adolescents, Stevenson et al. (1996) found that adolescents who reported more family social and emotional support also reported more positive racial socialization beliefs. In a related study, these authors found that female adolescents’ beliefs about global racial socialization affected their expression of depression, whereas strongly believing in the transmission of their African American heritage was related to positive anger management for males, but not for females (Stevenson et al., 1997). Based on their series of studies, Stevenson et al. (1996) suggest that racial socialization beliefs may be a mediating factor between family social support and psychological adjustment among African American adolescents. Collectively, these findings provide a foundation from which to consider the importance of examining family process
variables other than racial socialization messages as vital to racial identity development and well-being for African American adolescents. These findings also highlight the importance of viewing racial identity as a multidimensional concept. The present study extended this work by examining the direct influences of maternal support on multiple dimensions of racial identity and the indirect influences of maternal support and two racial identity attitudes on psychological distress in African American adolescents. It broadened the concept of racial identity to differentiate the importance of private regard as well as centrality of race as explanatory variables for understanding psychological distress (i.e., perceived stress, depressive symptoms, and anxiety). In addition, the role of perceived stress as a possible mechanism through which racial identity may influence depressive symptoms and anxiety was explored. The role of perceived stress was highlighted as an important mechanism because exposure to environmental and racial stressors is a fundamental part of the existence of many African American youth. The present study addressed four research questions: 1. Is maternal support associated with different dimensions of racial identity among African American adolescents? We hypothesized that maternal support would be positively related to both private regard and centrality because of the important role that African American mothers play in enhancing their children’s sense of self-worth (Peters, 1985). 2. Will maternal support and different dimensions of racial identity reduce psychological distress among adolescents? Based on previous racial identity and self-esteem research (Smith et al., 1999), and previous studies on maternal support and psychological distress, we expected that maternal support and both dimensions of racial identity would reduce psychological distress among these adolescents. 3. Will different racial identity attitudes mediate the relation between maternal support and psychological distress among African American adolescents? As suggested by Stevenson et al. (1996), we hypothesized that both private regard and centrality would mediate the relation between maternal support and adolescent psychological distress. 4. Are relations between maternal support and psychological distress (i.e., depressive symptoms and anxiety), and racial identity attitudes and psychological distress mediated by perceived stress for these adolescents? Although
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perceived stress was expected to be positively associated with depressive symptoms and anxiety, limited research was available to suggest the role of perceived stress in mediating the relations among maternal support, racial identity attitudes, and other types of psychological distress. We expected, however, that perceived stress would be an important mediator of these relations because African American adolescents are often exposed to experiences of stress in their daily lives that are related to discrimination and other environmental factors. Thus, we hypothesized that maternal support and both dimensions of racial identity would operate through perceived stress to reduce depressive symptoms and anxiety among African American adolescents. In other words, maternal support and positive racial identity attitudes would help to reduce stress, and less stress would be associated with fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety.
METHODS Sample The sample was selected from the four main public high schools in the second largest school district in a Midwestern state. Students who were enrolled in the school district at the beginning of ninth grade (1994– 1995 school year) and had a grade point average (GPA) of 3.0 or below in eighth grade were selected to participate in the initial study. The grade point cutoff was used because students were participating in a 4year longitudinal study that investigated youth at risk for school failure or dropout. Only White and African American students were selected, because fewer than 5% of the youth in the school district were from other ethnic groups. Students who were diagnosed as being either emotionally impaired or developmentally disabled were also eliminated from the sample. Of the 979 youth who matched the selection criteria, 52 had left the public school system prior to their recruitment. Of the remaining 927 youth, 67 were consistently absent from school, 9 had parents who refused to allow them to participate in the study, and 1 refused to participate. The final sample included 850 youth (709 African Americans, 141 Whites; 425 females, 425 males), represented 92% of the eligible youth, and was characteristic of the racial and gender composition of the public high schools in the city. The current study was based on data collected from 642 African American youth in Year 4. A response rate of 91% was maintained from Years 1 through 4 by (1)
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mailing letters annually to participants, (2) asking youth to provide the names of individuals (e.g., friends, family) who would know where to find them each year in case they moved or left school, (3) paying youth an increasing amount each year for their participation and offering incentives to participate all 4 years (drawings for gifts), and (4) having staff who were designated to find participants that were difficult to locate. One hundred twenty-one students who had missing data for one or more study variables were omitted from this study. Differences between youth in the study and those who were excluded due to missing data were examined to determine if any bias may have resulted from the elimination of these students. A series of t tests were conducted to compare youth included in the study who had complete data with the 121 who were excluded due to missing data on key study variables (e.g., racial identity, maternal support, and mental health outcomes). No differences were found in these analyses. The final sample size for the current study was limited to the 521 youth who had complete data. The mean age of the adolescents in the final sample was 17.48 (SD .62). Approximately equal numbers of males (n 247, 47%) and females (n 274, 53%) were included. Fifty-two percent of these youths were from single-parent families, with an average parental occupational prestige score representing a factory line worker (Nsakao & Treas, 1990). A series of t tests revealed no differences on any of the key study variables (i.e., maternal support, private regard, centrality, perceived stress, depression, and anxiety) for youth in single-parent families when compared with youth in other types of family structure (e.g., both parents, stepparents, and extended family). Procedure Data were collected in face-to-face interviews and from school district files during Wave 4 of the study (1997–1998 school year). Project staff conducted interviews during regular school hours. Students were taken to predetermined areas within the school to be interviewed for approximately 1 hr. Youth who were not in school at Wave 4 were interviewed in a community setting (e.g., community organization). The focus of the interview schedule included health issues, relationships with family and peers, school experiences, and measures of psychological distress. After the interview, students completed a self-administered questionnaire about their alcohol and drug use, sexual behavior, and racial identity. Youth were informed that all information provided was confiden-
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Table 1 Descriptive Statistics for Racial Identity, Maternal Support, and Psychological Distress Skewness Cronbach’s
M
SD
Racial identity Private regard Centrality
6.10 5.45
1.07 1.27
1.67 .95
.67 .66
Maternal support
4.06
.96
1.19
.91
1.80 1.73
.93 .91
1.50 1.70
.86 .89
2.47
.61
.10
.79
Variable
Psychological distress Depressive symptoms Anxiety Perceived stress
tial. Each participant received $20 for the completed interview. Measures Table 1 presents the means, standard deviations, skewness, and Cronbach’s s for key study variables. Racial identity. Shortened versions of the private regard and centrality subscales of the MMRI (Sellers et al., 1997) were used to measure racial identity attitudes. A three-item private regard measure assessed individuals’ positive and negative feelings toward African Americans and their membership in that group. Sample items include “I am happy that I am Black” and “I am proud of Black people.” The fouritem centrality measure assessed the extent to which being African American was central to the respondents’ definition of themselves. Sample items include “Being Black is a major part of my identity” and “I feel close to other Black people.” Responses were recorded using a 7-point Likert scale that ranged from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (7). High scores on these measures represented higher levels of private regard and centrality. These data were collected in Year 4 only. Maternal support. Maternal support was measured with five items from the parental support scale developed by Procidano and Heller (1983). These items were modified to indicate “mother” instead of “parents” more generally. Using a 5-point Likert scale (1 not true, 5 very true), youth indicated the extent to which they believed statements about maternal support were true about their own relationships with their mothers. Areas of maternal support covered were emotional support, problemsolving support, and moral support. Sample items include “I rely on my mother for emotional sup-
port” and “My mother is good at helping me solve problems.” Mental health outcomes. Depressive symptoms and anxiety were measured by the Brief Symptom Index (Derogatis & Spencer, 1982). Each construct was composed of six items using a 5-point Likert response format (1 not at all, 5 extremely). Higher scores on these measures represented higher levels of psychological distress. Youths indicated the frequency during the past week of various feelings including nervousness or shakiness inside, feeling fearful, spells of terror or panic, feeling lonely, feeling no interest in things, and feeling hopeless about the future. Perceived stress. An 11-item scale (Cohen, Kamarck, & Mermelstein, 1983) measured perceived stress. The response categories were on a 5-point Likert scale (1 never, 5 very often). Youth were asked how well they were able to handle personal problems and important changes in their life during the past month. A higher score on this measure represented higher levels of perceived stress (e.g., “been upset because of something that happened that you did not expect,” “Found that you could not deal with all the things that you had to do,” and “Felt that you had so many problems that you could not deal with them”). Data Analytic Strategy In addressing the first two research questions, Pearson product-moment correlations were computed to determine both the magnitude and direction of the relations between maternal support, racial identity attitudes, and the mental health outcome measures. To address the third and fourth research questions pertaining to the mediating roles of racial identity attitudes and perceived stress, four path models were tested using AMOS graphics version 3.6 (Arbuckle, 1997). Path analysis was preferred over regression analysis because correlated errors between variables could be taken into account. The covariance matrix among variables was analyzed. All results presented are standardized to facilitate interpretation. Maximum likelihood estimation was used to determine path estimates. One of the most effective uses of this type of modeling is to determine an a priori series of nested models that can be compared with a simple difference in 2 test (Hoyle & Panter, 1995). In nested models, all of one model’s free parameters are a subset of a second model’s free parameters. Parsimony is taken into account when one tests whether the difference in fit between the models outweighs the disadvantage of having less degrees of freedom. In presenting these differences in 2 results, one goodness-of-fit test each
Caldwell et al. Table 2 Intercorrelations between Key Study Variables
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Maternal support Private regard Centrality Depressive symptoms Anxiety Perceived stress
1
2
3
4
5
.09* .12* .18* .12* .34*
.62* .02 .02 .12*
.00 .02 .04
.85* .38*
.34*
* p .05.
from the Type 2 index and from the Type 3 index (Hu & Bentler, 1995) are also included, as suggested by Hoyle and Panter (1995). The Tucker-Lewis index (TLI) compares the estimated model to the independence model and should be above .95 (Tucker & Lewis, 1973). The comparative fit index (CFI; Bentler, 1995) analyzes reduction in fit between the model and the independence model using the noncentral 2 and should also be above .95. Another measure of fit is the ratio between 2 and degrees of freedom (Newcomb, 1994). Ratios below 3 indicate a good fitting model. Root mean square residuals (RMR; Joreskog & Sorbom, 1989) are also presented. Values below or equal to .05 are preferred for this measure. RESULTS Bivariate Findings The correlations among study variables are presented in Table 2. Results show that although the magnitude of these relations was relatively low, maternal support was significantly related to both private regard and centrality in a positive direction. That is, as perceptions of maternal support increased, so did the adolescents’ positive feelings about their racial group and the importance with which they viewed race as a salient factor in their lives. Results
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also indicated that maternal support was inversely related to perceived stress, depressive symptoms, and anxiety, as expected. Specifically, increases in maternal support were associated with decreases in perceived stress, depressive symptoms, and anxiety. In examining relations among the two racial identity attitudes and the mental health outcomes, a significant inverse correlation was found between private regard and perceived stress, suggesting that youth who felt more positive about Blacks reported less perceived stress. On the other hand, centrality was not correlated with perceived stress. Neither private regard nor centrality was correlated with depressive symptoms or anxiety. Not surprisingly, higher levels of perceived stress were associated with more depressive symptoms and high levels of anxiety. Multivariate Findings To further examine the role of multiple dimensions of racial identity and maternal support in reducing psychological distress among African American youth, structural equation models were used to test both the direct and indirect effects of private regard, centrality, and maternal support on perceived stress, depressive symptoms, and anxiety. The first model tested the direct effects of maternal support on private regard, centrality, and perceived stress. Figure 1 presents the results of this analysis. The standardized coefficients for each path are reported. Direct paths from perceived stress to depressive symptoms and anxiety were also estimated. The variables used in all of these analyses represented respondents’ mean scores on each scale. With six variables, there were 21 distinct sample moments. Model 1 estimated the five aforementioned paths, plus the variance of maternal support, the error variances on the other five variables, and the covariances between private regard and centrality and between depressive symptoms and anxiety. Thus, there was a total of 8 dfs in this model.
Figure 1 Path coefficients for Model 1: No racial identity effects model. Error terms were included in the model but were excluded from the figure for clarity of presentation. *p .05.
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Figure 2 Path coefficients for model 2: Direct effects Model. Error terms were included in the model but were excluded from the figure for clarity of presentation. *p .05.
Figure 2 presents the second model, which estimated all the same parameters as the first model, but also tested the direct effects of private regard and centrality on depressive symptoms and anxiety. Thus, 4 dfs were lost, leaving 4 dfs in the second model. The third model was the hypothesized model, which not only tested the same parameters as the first model, but also freed the parameters from private regard and centrality to perceived stress. The third model suggested that private regard and centrality affect depressive symptoms and anxiety indirectly through their effect on perceived stress (see Figure 3). The third model had 6 dfs. Models 2 and 3 were not nested within each other, but Model 1 was nested in both Models 2 and 3. Table 3 compares the fit statistics for the three models. All models demonstrated a high degree of fit, as can be seen by their respective 2 – df ratios (borderline for Model 2), TLIs, CFIs, and RMRs. Only the third model, however, had a nonsignificant p value, which suggests that it is not likely that the implied covariance matrix was different from the observed matrix. A difference in 2 test was also used to compare the three models, because p values are sensitive to sample size. Using this test, Models 2 and 3 could be compared to Model 1. This test of nested models
showed that Model 2 lost 4 dfs compared with Model 1, but the difference in 2 was not significant, 2(4, N 521) 3.328. Model 3 had 2 dfs less than Model 1 and the 2 difference was significant, 2(6, N 521) 8.37, p .05. These results, taken together, suggest that Model 3 best represented the data. This model included the indirect effects of racial identity on depressive symptoms through perceived stress and may best represent how mother support, racial identity, and perceived stress are associated with mental health outcomes. At this point, we decided to compare Model 3 to a fourth and final model that was identical to Model 3 except that it estimated a direct path from maternal support to both anxiety and depression. The 2 of Model 4 was also significant, although a difference in 2 test failed to differentiate Model 3 and Model 4, 2(2, N 521) 5.55, ns. In addition, the critical ratios of the two added paths in Model 4 were not statistically significant at the .05 level, despite using a onetailed criterion. Thus, for the sake of parsimony and best fit, Model 3 was retained as the final model. Examination of the parameter estimates of the third model, which proposed that maternal support and both of the racial identity attitudes would operate indirectly on depressive symptoms and anxiety
Figure 3 Path coefficients for Model 3: Racial identity mediation effects model. Error terms were included in the model but were excluded from the figure for clarity of presentation. *p .05.
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Table 3 Chi-Square Tests and Fit Indices for the Effects of Racial Identity on Psychological WellBeing
Model 1 2 3
2
df
p
Tucker-Lewis Index
17.85 14.52 9.48
8 4 6
.022 .006 .148
.983 .964 .992
through their effects on perceived stress, revealed that most values were in the predicted direction. Maternal support was positively related to private regard and centrality and negatively associated with perceived stress. Private regard was negatively related to perceived stress; however, centrality was positively related to perceived stress. Finally, perceived stress was positively related to both depressive symptoms and anxiety. Seven paths in Model 3 were significant using a one-tailed criterion (and only the path from centrality to perceived stress failed to reach the .05 level for a two-tailed test). Table 4 shows the decomposition of total effects for Model 3. Finally, the correlation of error variances between private regard and centrality, r .62, and between depressive symptoms and anxiety, r .85, were both statistically significant, as were the positive variance of maternal support and the five error variances. DISCUSSION The results of this study highlight the complexity of the relation between maternal support and adolescent psychological distress when mediational models are considered. They also demonstrate the importance of viewing racial identity as a multidimentional concept for understanding psychological distress among African American youth. Overall, study hypoth-
Table 4 Decomposition for Total Effects for Model 3 Variables Direct
Indirect
Total
Depression Maternal support Private regard Centrality Perceived stress
0 0 0 .38
.12 .05 .03 .19
.12 .05 .03 .57
Anxiety Maternal support Private regard Centrality Perceived stress
0 0 0 .34
.11 .04 .02 .17
.11 .04 .02 .51
Comparative Fit Index
Root Mean Square Residuals
.991 .990 .997
.020 .020 .016
eses were supported by the findings with a few notable exceptions. Even though the magnitude of some of the relations found were relatively small, the implications for future research are important for further specifying the process by which maternal support, racial identity attitudes, and mental health may be linked for African American adolescents. Of note is the finding that although the present study’s measure of maternal support was a general one and did not explicitly focus on racial socialization, it was associated with both racial identity attitudes. This finding is an important first step toward linking more general family-process indicators to racial identity development in African American adolescents. It may be that an important part of African American mothers’ social support relationships with their children implicitly includes transmissions about the significance and meaning of race, in efforts to enhance self-esteem and other competencies in their children. Findings from Marshall’s (1995) study support this position. She found that when asked about parenting goals generally, only 2% reported ethnic identity enhancement as among their top childrearing goals, whereas 89% considered ethnic socialization an important childrearing goal when asked explicitly. Future research should clarify the significance of having generalized support from mothers as compared with more specific race-related maternal support or socialization efforts in the development of a positive racial identity for African American adolescents. The crosssectional nature of the present analysis did not allow for the ability to fully address the issue of causality regarding the nature of these relations. Consistent with previous research on race socialization processes (Demo & Hughes, 1990; Hughes & Chen, 1997; Marshall, 1995; Sanders Thompson, 1994; Stevenson, 1995), our model implied that it is maternal support that leads to these racial identity attitudes. It is also plausible that adolescents’ racial identity attitudes may have influenced their attitudes with regard to maternal support. White and Parham (1990) have argued that strong communal and familial ties are indigenous to an African-centered cultural ethos. Thus, more positive
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private regard and race-central attitudes may be indicative of a stronger identification with this African cultural base, which in turn leads to more positive perceptions of maternal relations. Longitudinal research is needed to determine the causal nature of the relations between private regard, racial centrality, and maternal support. Findings from this study provide further evidence of the need to understand multiple dimensions of the concept of racial identity as they relate to psychological distress. By focusing on racial identity as a multidimensional construct, it was possible to examine the independent influence of each dimension on specific outcomes of interest. At the bivariate level of analysis, private regard was inversely correlated with perceived stress, whereas centrality was not related at all. The private regard finding remained significant at the multivariate level of analysis. When other factors were considered, racial centrality also emerged as significantly related to perceived stress, but in the opposite direction—that is, the more central that race was to the adolescents, the more stress they perceived in their lives. It appears that developing positive feelings about their racial group (i.e., private regard) in a race-conscious society may be an important strategy for reducing stress in the lives of African American adolescents. Even though the magnitude of these relations was relatively small, the results are consistent with a number of authors’ arguments that racial identity may be an important coping resource for African Americans (Anderson, 1991; Cross et al., 1998; Phinney et al., 1990). On the other hand, adolescents who viewed race as a more central identity, perceived greater stress in their lives. Adolescents who have higher levels of racial centrality may be experiencing more stress because they interpret more racially ambiguous situations as being race related (Shelton & Sellers, 2000). Experiencing such situations as racist events is perhaps more stressful than attributing some other cause to the situation. It is not clear under what conditions elevated perceptions of stress may be helpful or harmful to psychological well-being over the life course. Under some circumstances, elevated stress, especially racerelated stress, may be a catalyst for action. Pyant and Yanico (1991), for example, found that African American college students at the pre-encounter stage of Cross’s (1971) model of racial identity were the least mentally healthy when compared with those who had a more developed racial identity. The pre-encounter stage or a less developed racial identity meant that these adolescents had adopted a pro-White and antiBlack worldview. A heightened awareness of race represented a healthier response to a social environ-
ment that is often uncertain and threatening with regard to racial discrimination. Recent studies of racial discrimination and psychological distress among adults have shown that having race as a central identity protected African Americans from some of the adverse effects of discrimination on their health (Williams, Spencer, & Jackson, 1999). African American adolescents who view race as being central in their lives must develop coping strategies for positive functioning as well, even within what may be perceived as unjust and threatening environments (Phinney et al., 1990). Longitudinal research that identifies different trajectories of racial identity development over time is necessary to determine the influence of racial attitudes, independently and in combination, on adolescent and adult mental health functioning. Because of the positive relation between racial centrality and perceived stress in the present study, it may be that racial centrality is a key modifying factor for understanding the relation between other racial identity attitudes and mental health outcomes. Highly identified youth, for example, who also have positive feelings about their racial group might perceive less stress in their lives. This suggestion is consistent with the finding of Rowley et al. (1998) that the relation between private regard and self-esteem was only significant for youth for whom being Black was a central identity. On the other hand, highly identified youth with negative feelings about their racial group might experience higher levels of stress, perhaps due in part to heightened perceptions of discrimination. Asking more complex research questions for testing both risk and protective functions of different racial identity attitudes with general and race-related stressors are important directions for future research. Because racial mistrust is part of the consciousness of many African American adolescents (Biafora, Tayler, Warheit, Zimmerman, & Vega, 1993), a more comprehensive understanding of these issues is necessary to promote better mental health outcomes for these youth. Little support was found for a direct link between racial identity and mental health in African American adolescents. This is in contrast to findings reported in other studies that investigated a direct link between these two variables (e.g., Arroyo & Zigler, 1995; Munford, 1994). Reasons for this contrast may lie in both the sample studied and the conceptualization and measurement of racial identity used. Most previous studies employed college-age or older adult samples that presumably had achieved a functional racial identity status. The sample in the present study consisted of high school-age students who still may have been in the process of developing stable racial identities. In addition, most studies that reported a direct
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link between racial identity and mental health outcomes did not test more complex mediational models aimed at identifying the process by which racial identity may be associated with different mental health outcomes. The results of this study, although modest, suggest that perceived stress may be an important mediator of these relations. Consistent with other studies of maternal support and mental health outcomes (Papini & Roggman, 1992; Starrels, 1994; Stevenson, 1998), the bivariate results indicated that maternal support was associated with reduced perceived stress, depressive symptoms, and anxiety. Of critical value for future conceptualizations of maternal support and psychological distress among African American adolescents, however, is the finding that the relations between maternal support and depressive symptoms and anxiety may be mediated by perceived stress. As hypothesized, this indirect pathway implies that maternal support may be most important for helping adolescents assess and cope with stress in their lives rather than directly reducing their levels of depressive symptoms and anxiety. Special consideration must be given to the social and cultural context (e.g., urban, Midwestern, largely African American) within which this research was conducted. Most importantly, the sample for this study was initially restricted to youth with GPAs of 3.0 or below in eighth grade. Truncating the sample in this way may have threatened the internal and external validity of survey data (Berk, 1983). Several factors, however, may have mitigated the problems associated with this sampling approach. First, significant numbers of youth in the sample had GPAs above 3.0 in twelfth grade, when the data for the present study were collected (Zimmerman, Caldwell, & Bernat, 2002). This suggests that a number of students improved their GPAs during high school, resulting in more heterogeneity in GPAs at the time the current data were collected. Second, focusing on outcomes for a sample of high school adolescents that excluded their higher achieving schoolmates when they were in eighth grade may be helpful in understanding development among youth at greater risk for a variety of negative outcomes. Nevertheless, the results of the current study may not generalize to all urban youth, but may be most relevant for those who are at greatest risk for negative outcomes because of lower school achievement prior to high school. Thus, care should be taken in generalizing the present study’s findings to other populations of adolescents. The results of this study, however, have important implications for future research on the mental health of African American adolescents. Specifically, they suggest the importance of both racial identity atti-
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tudes and maternal support in understanding mental health outcomes for African American adolescents. The results reinforce the idea that the significance and meaning that African Americans attribute to being Black play an important role in their development and life experience. The nature of that role in the mental health status of African American adolescents appears to be complex and process oriented. Perceived stress emerged as a potential mediating variable that may be especially relevant, because it captures both situational factors and person characteristics that are relevant to the African American experience. Study findings also suggest the importance of maternal support in both shaping adolescents’ racial identity attitudes and their perceptions of stress. We believe that the present study provides a solid foundation on which future research can build, to better understand the links among racial identity, maternal support, and psychological distress among African Americans adolescents.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This research was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Grant No. DA07484. The views or policies expressed do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
ADDRESSES AND AFFILIATIONS Corresponding author: Cleopatra Howard Caldwell, Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of Michigan, School of Public Health, 1420 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2029; e-mail:
[email protected]. Marc A. Zimmerman and Robert M. Sellers are also at the University of Michigan; Debra Hilkene Bernat is at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis; and Paul C. Notaro is at the University of Missouri at St. Louis.
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