203705 Mechanisms Linking Racial Discrimination to Depression among African American Men

Tuesday, November 10, 2009: 2:30 PM

Wizdom Powell Hammond, PhD, MPH , Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health, Chapel Hill, NC
The proposed panel will feature studies conducted by the UNC Men's Health Research Lab on "Mechanisms Linking Racial Discrimination to Depression among African American men." The first paper considers whether religious coping moderates the association between racial discrimination and depressive symptoms. In the second paper, authors consider the potential stress-buffering impact of neighborhood social cohesion on the mental health status (e.g., self-reported depressive symptomatoloy) of African American men exposed to racial discrimination. The third paper uses a "masculine-depression" framework to examine the intersectional influence of male role norms and John Henryism on the racial discrimination-depression relationship among African American men. Finally, we will discuss intervention strategies for decreasing depressive symptomatology among African American men.

Individuals sessions are titled and authored as follows:

1) Does Religious Coping Moderate the Impact of Racism-Related Stress on Depressive Symptoms Among African American Men?

(Mathews, A., Hammond, W.P., Smith, J., Gilbert, K., & Melvin, T.)

2) The Buffering Effect of Neighborhood Social Cohesion on the Relationship between Racial Discrimination and Depressive Symptoms among African American Men

(Hammond, W.P., Gilbert, K.L., Cole-Lewis, Y., & Yen, I.H.)

3) Racial Discrimination and Depressive Symptoms among African American men: The mediating and moderating roles of Masculine Self-Reliance and John Henryism

(Matthews, D.D., Hammond, W.P., Cole-Lewis, Y., & Mohottige, D.)

Wizdom P. Hammond, PhD will serve as the discussant for this panel.

Learning Objectives:
1) Describe the relationship between racial discrimination and to depressive symptomatology among African American men 2) Articulate the roles played by masculinity, coping strategies, and socio-contextual resources in the racial discrimination-depression relationship 3) Identify gender-role specific strategies for mental health interventions among African American men

Keywords: Depression, Male Health

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: Each of the individual abstracts submitted for this panel session reflect data analyzed and collected as part of the African American Men's Health and Social Life Study. I am the Principal Investigator of this multi-site study, and the co-authors of the abstracts submitted for this panel session have worked to collect and analyze this data.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

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