Does racial identity buffer against poor mental health among Black Americans? Examining everyday discrimination and the nexus of ethnicity and nativity

Multiple mechanisms have been proposed to explain Black adults' better mental health relative to Whites but with little success, in part because studying Black-White differences obscures important within-group differences in the Black population. Racial identity is a promising yet understudied explanation for understanding Black Americans' mental health advantage, especially in the face of discrimination. Further, there is scant research on how these patterns vary for U.S.-born African Americans relative to U.S.-born and foreign-born Afro-Caribbeans. Using data from the National Survey of American Life, we test whether racial identity shapes the association between everyday discrimination and mental health among three Black populations in the United States. We find a consistent buffering effect of racial identity among U.S.-born African Americans and U.S.-born Afro-Caribbeans but weaker and unexpected associations for Afro-Caribbean immigrants. These findings shed light on the American racialization process and its implications for understanding Black American mental health.