Racial Identity, Maternal Support, and Psychological Distress among African American Adolescents

• Published in: Child development 2002-07, Vol.73 (4), p.1322-1336
• Main Authors: Caldwell, Cleopatra Howard, Zimmerman, Marc A., Bernat, Debra Hilkene, Sellers, Robert M., Notaro, Paul C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adaptation, Psychological; Adolescent; Adolescents; African Americans; African Americans - psychology; Anxiety; Anxiety - diagnosis; Anxiety - psychology; Biological and medical sciences; Black American people; Black Youth; Child development; Depression (Psychology); Depression - diagnosis; Depressive disorders; Developmental psychology; Emotional Distress; Emotional Response; Ethnic Groups - psychology; Ethnicity; Family studies; Family, School, and Community; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Identity (Psychological); Male; Maternal support; Mental health; Mental health outcomes; Mother-Child Relations; Mothers; Parent Child Relationship; Parenting; Parents & parenting; Psychological distress; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Race; Racial Identification; Racial identity; Self Concept; Social Identification; Social psychology; Social Support; Socialization; Stress, Psychological - complications; Teenagers; U.S.A
• ISSN: 0009-3920; 1467-8624
• DOI: 10.1111/1467-8624.00474

This study investigated the role of racial identity and maternal support in reducing psychological distress among African American adolescents. Both direct and indirect influences of multiple dimensions of racial identity (i.e., centrality, private regard) and maternal support on perceived stress, depressive symptoms, and anxiety were examined among 521 African American twelfth graders. Findings indicated that maternal support was positively related to both centrality and private regard. Results provided little support for a direct association between racial identity or maternal support and depressive symptoms and anxiety within a multivariate context. Rather, the influences of racial identity attitudes and maternal support on these mental health outcomes were mediated by perceived stress. Further, the two racial identity attitudes were associated with perceived stress in different ways. Study findings suggest that the significance and meaning that African American adolescents attribute to being Black may be critical to their psychological well-being, and that maternal support and perceived stress are important considerations.