scholarly journals The Relational Wear and Tear of Everyday Racism Among African American Couples

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Ong ◽  
Betul Urganci ◽  
Anthony L. Burrow ◽  
Tracy DeHart

The wear and tear of adapting to chronic stressors such as racism and discrimination can have detrimental effects on mental and physical health. Here, we investigate the wider implications of everyday racism for relationship quality in a sample of 98 heterosexual African American couples. Participants reported on their experiences of racial discrimination and positive and negative affect for 21 consecutive evenings. Using dyadic analyses, we show that independent of age, gender, marital status, income, racial discrimination frequency, neuroticism, and mean levels of affect, participants’ relationship quality was inversely associated with their partner’s negative affective reactivity to racial discrimination. Associations did not vary by gender, suggesting that the effects of affective reactivity were similar for men and women. These findings highlight the importance of a dyadic approach and call for further research examining the role of everyday racism as a key source of stress in the lives of African American couples.

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 779-799 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shardé McNeil Smith ◽  
Lillie D. Williamson ◽  
Hafeezah Branch ◽  
Frank D. Fincham

Racial discrimination is a part of the lived experience for African Americans, and it is widely found to have damaging consequences to their mental and physical health; yet, we know less about how romantic partners influence the degree to which racial discrimination can impinge on health outcomes. Using a dyadic approach with heterosexual African American couples ( N = 487), the current study examined the compensatory and stress-buffering effects of racism-specific support (RSS) from the partner on the associations between racial discrimination and one’s own and one’s partner’s self-reported mental, physical, and general health. We found that perceptions of RSS from the partner were associated with better mental and physical health for husbands and better physical and general health for wives, independent of the effects of their own and their partner’s racial discrimination. However, wives showed compromised mental health when their husbands perceived high levels of RSS. Furthermore, among wives who reported low levels of RSS from their partner, wives’ and husbands’ experiences of racial discrimination were associated with wives’ lowered mental health. These findings suggest that couple-level interventions for African Americans should pay specific attention to wives who may carry the burden of their own and their husbands’ experiences of racial discrimination.


2021 ◽  
pp. 109019812110516
Author(s):  
Danielle R. Busby ◽  
Meredith O. Hope ◽  
Daniel B. Lee ◽  
Justin E. Heinze ◽  
Marc A. Zimmerman

Racial discrimination jeopardizes a wide range of health behaviors for African Americans. Numerous studies demonstrate significant negative associations between racial discrimination and problematic alcohol use among African Americans. Culturally specific contexts (e.g., organized religious involvement) often function protectively against racial discrimination’s adverse effects for many African Americans. Yet organized religious involvement may affect the degree to which racial discrimination increases problematic alcohol use resulting in various alcohol use trajectories. These links remain understudied in emerging adulthood marked by when individuals transition from adolescence to early adult roles and responsibilities. We use data from 496 African American emerging adults from the Flint Adolescent Study (FAS) to (a) identify multiple and distinct alcohol use trajectories and (b) examine organizational religious involvement’s protective role. Three trajectory classes were identified: the high/stable, (20.76% of sample; n = 103); moderate/stable, (39.52% of sample; n = 196); and low/rising, (39.72% of the sample; n = 197). After controlling for sex, educational attainment, and general stress, the interaction between racial discrimination and organized religious involvement did not influence the likelihood of classifying into the moderate/stable class or the low/rising class, compared with the high/stable class. These results suggest organized religious involvement counteracts, but does not buffer racial discrimination’s effects on problematic alcohol use. Findings emphasize the critical need for culturally sensitive prevention efforts incorporating organized religious involvement for African American emerging adults exposed to racial discrimination. These prevention efforts may lessen the role of racial discrimination on health disparities related to alcohol use.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheretta T. Butler-Barnes ◽  
Stephanie Cook ◽  
Seanna Leath ◽  
Cleopatra Caldwell

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 267-283 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tiarney D. Ritchwood ◽  
Dolly Penn ◽  
Courtney Peasant ◽  
Tashuna Albritton ◽  
Giselle Corbie-Smith

This study examines the role of condom use knowledge and attitudes, and parent-teen communication about sex and relationship quality on reports of condom use self-efficacy among rural, African American youth. Participants were 465 North Carolinian youth (10-14 years). Results indicated that greater condom use self-efficacy was predicted by greater knowledge of condom use (β = .206; p < .001), more favorable attitudes toward condom use (β = −.20; p < .0001) and parent-teen communication about sex (β = .13; p < .05), and actual parent-teen communication about sex and dating (β = .14; p < .05). There was low agreement between parents and youth on measures related to parent-teen communication about sex. Findings call for interventions targeting improvement of condom use knowledge among early adolescents, as well as parent-teen communication about sex. In addition, given the low parent-teen agreement regarding sexual communication, parent-teen sexual communication is an important point of intervention.


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