IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/oup/geronb/v73y2018i2p198-207..html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Discrimination, Serious Psychological Distress, and Church-Based Emotional Support Among African American Men Across the Life Span

Author

Listed:
  • Ann W Nguyen
  • Linda M Chatters
  • Robert Joseph Taylor
  • María P Aranda
  • Karen D Lincoln
  • Courtney S Thomas

Abstract

ObjectiveThis study tested whether church-based social support buffers the negative effects of discrimination on serious psychological distress (SPD) among three age groups—early, middle, and late adulthood—of African American men.MethodsNegative binominal regression analyses for discrimination and SPD were performed using data from 1,271 African American men from the National Survey of American Life.ResultsDiscrimination was positively associated with SPD for all age groups. An interaction between church-based support and discrimination indicated that under conditions of high levels of support from congregants, discrimination, and SPD were positively correlated. However, discrimination and SPD were unrelated for low levels of church-based support. Further, the interaction was significant for men aged 18–34 and 55 or older but not significant for men aged 35–54.DiscussionThis is the first study to document relationships among discrimination, SPD, and church-based support in a nationally representative sample of African American men. Overall, rather than revealing a stress-buffering function, findings were consistent with the resource mobilization perspective of social support, indicating that higher levels of assistance from church networks are provided when individuals experience high levels of both discrimination and SPD.

Suggested Citation

  • Ann W Nguyen & Linda M Chatters & Robert Joseph Taylor & María P Aranda & Karen D Lincoln & Courtney S Thomas, 2018. "Discrimination, Serious Psychological Distress, and Church-Based Emotional Support Among African American Men Across the Life Span," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 73(2), pages 198-207.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:73:y:2018:i:2:p:198-207.
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/geronb/gbx083
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hammond, W.P., 2012. "Taking it like a man: Masculine role norms as moderators of the racial discrimination-depressive symptoms association among African American men," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 102(S2), pages 232-241.
    2. Williams, D.R., 2003. "The Health of Men: Structured Inequalities and Opportunities," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 93(5), pages 724-731.
    3. Neal Krause, 2004. "Common Facets of Religion, Unique Facets of Religion, and Life Satisfaction Among Older African Americans," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 59(2), pages 109-117.
    4. Neal Krause, 2006. "Church-Based Social Support and Mortality," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 61(3), pages 140-146.
    5. Lim, Chaeyoon & Putnam, Robert David, 2010. "Religion, Social Networks, and Life Satisfaction," Scholarly Articles 11105537, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mathew D Gayman & Ben Lennox Kail & Amy Spring & George R GreenidgeJr, 2018. "Risk and Protective Factors for Depressive Symptoms Among African American Men: An Application of the Stress Process Model," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 73(2), pages 219-229.
    2. Daphne C. Watkins, 2019. "Improving the Living, Learning, and Thriving of Young Black Men: A Conceptual Framework for Reflection and Projection," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(8), pages 1-13, April.
    3. Speed, David & Barry, Caitlin & Cragun, Ryan, 2020. "With a little help from my (Canadian) friends: Health differences between minimal and maximal religiosity/spirituality are partially mediated by social support," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
    4. Laura Upenieks & Matthew A. Andersson & Markus H. Schafer, 2021. "God, Father, Mother, Gender: How Are Religiosity and Parental Bonds During Childhood Linked to Midlife Flourishing?," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(7), pages 3199-3220, October.
    5. Angus Deaton & Arthur A. Stone, 2013. "Two Happiness Puzzles," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(3), pages 591-597, May.
      • Arthur A. Stone & Angus Deaton, 2013. "Two happiness puzzles," Working Papers 2013-3, Princeton University, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Center for Health and Wellbeing..
    6. Nikolova, Milena & Roman, Monica & Zimmermann, Klaus F., 2017. "Left behind but doing good? Civic engagement in two post-socialist countries," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(3), pages 658-684.
    7. Forrest-Bank, Shandra S. & Dupper, David R., 2016. "A qualitative study of coping with religious minority status in public schools," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 261-270.
    8. Santini, Ziggi Ivan & Jose, Paul E. & Koyanagi, Ai & Meilstrup, Charlotte & Nielsen, Line & Madsen, Katrine R. & Koushede, Vibeke, 2020. "Formal social participation protects physical health through enhanced mental health: A longitudinal mediation analysis using three consecutive waves of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in E," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 251(C).
    9. Getahun Fenta Kebede, 2018. "Social Capital and Entrepreneurial Outcomes: Evidence from Informal Sector Entrepreneurs in Ethiopia," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, vol. 27(2), pages 209-242, September.
    10. Tsegay Gebrekidan Tekleselassie, 2017. "Subjective Wellbeing and Institutions: The Case of Rural Ethiopia," Working Papers 016, Policy Studies Institute.
    11. Byoung-Jin Jeon & Kang-Hyun Park, 2022. "The Impact of Social Network Characteristics on Health among Community-Dwelling Older Adults in Korea: Application of Social Network Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(7), pages 1-9, March.
    12. Jun Zhang & Yuang He & Jing Zhang, 2022. "Energy Poverty and Depression in Rural China: Evidence from the Quantile Regression Approach," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(2), pages 1-21, January.
    13. Feng Zhang & Haina Zhang & Geoffrey G. Bell, 2021. "Corporate religiosity and individual decision on conducting entrepreneurial activity: The contingent effects of institutional environments in China," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 38(3), pages 955-978, September.
    14. Barili, E. & Bertoli, P. & Grembi, V. & Rattini, V., 2021. "COVID Angels Fighting Daily Demons? Mental Health of Healthcare Workers and Religion," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 21/05, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    15. Nikolova, Milena, 2016. "Minding the happiness gap: Political institutions and perceived quality of life in transition," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 45(S), pages 129-148.
    16. Jamie A Mitchell & Tamara Cadet & Shanna Burke & Ed-Dee Williams & Daniel Alvarez, 2018. "The Paradoxical Impact of Companionship on the Mental Health of Older African American Men," The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, The Gerontological Society of America, vol. 73(2), pages 230-239.
    17. Herman Walston & Angela Meshack & Ronald J. Peters, 2017. "Intervention Methodologies Targeting Vulnerable Youth in Frankfort, Kentucky: Measuring Developmental Assets," International Journal of Social Science Studies, Redfame publishing, vol. 5(8), pages 9-15, August.
    18. Opfinger, Matthias & Gundlach, Erich, 2011. "Religiosity as a determinant of happiness," Open Access Publications from Kiel Institute for the World Economy 48360, Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel).
    19. A. S. Santos & J. McGarrigle & C. Barros & I. Albert & E. Murdock, 2024. "Ambivalence and transnational intergenerational solidarity: the perspective of highly educated Portuguese women emigrant daughters," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-15, December.
    20. Brendan Case & Tyler J. VanderWeele, 2024. "Integrating the humanities and the social sciences: six approaches and case studies," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-11, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:oup:geronb:v:73:y:2018:i:2:p:198-207.. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Oxford University Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://academic.oup.com/psychsocgerontology .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.