Learning Objectives: Attendees will learn about the role and distribution of social stress and racial discrimination for psychological distress. Data for this investigation come from a sample of 1785 Miami-Dade County young adults. The sample contains nearly equal proportions of Cuban, non-Cuban Hispanic, African American and White non-Hispanic respondents. Findings indicate that lifetime prevalences of both major racial discrimination and day-to-day racial discrimination are common across all gender and racial/ethnic groups, with 64.5 percent of respondents in the total sample reporting lifetime discrimination and 73.0 percent reporting lifetime exposure to prejudice. However, when age, gender, and sexual orientation, factors not associated with race/ethnicity, are excluded as primary reasons for unfair treatment, the lifetime prevalences for discrimination and prejudice are substantially reduced to 33.1 and 59.2 percent. These adjusted rates, on which the remainder of the analyses are based, show that men report higher levels of discrimination compared to women, and African Americans report higher rates of discrimination compared to other racial/ethnic groups. Analyses from the full sample demonstrate that both types of discrimination are positively associated with depressive symptoms. However, most of the distressing effects of major discrimination are mediated through chronic and eventful stress. On the other hand, perceptions of day-to-day discrimination independently predict depressive symptomatology when adjusting for lifetime traumas, life events, and chronic strains.
Keywords: Stress, Ethnicity
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None