Kira Hudson Banks

An Examination of the African American Experience of Everyday Discrimination and Symptoms of Psychological Distress

Current theoretical models suggest that the most potent and impacting discrimination experienced by African Americans in the post Jim Crow era are subtle and unconscious forms of discrimination that are experienced on a daily basis. This study investigates the relationship between perceived everyday discrimination and anxiety and depressive symptoms. Further, we examine gender as a moderator of this relationship. Data come from the 1995 Detroit Area Study data with 570 African American respondents. Results indicate that perceived discrimination is directly related to both symptoms of depression and anxiety. Gender moderates the relationship between discrimination and anxiety symptoms, but not discrimination and depressive symptoms. Overall, different patterns of relationships were apparent for men and women.

The Influence of Racial Identity Profiles on the Relationship Between Racial Discrimination and Depressive Symptoms

This study examined the association between racial identity profiles, discrimination, and mental health outcomes. African American college students (N = 194) completed measures of racial discrimination, racial identity, college hassles, and depressive symptoms. Four meaningful profiles emerged through a cluster analysis of seven dimensions of racial identity assessed using the Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity (MIBI). Results suggested racial identity moderates the relation between discrimination and depressive symptoms. Students whose racial identity profile involves the goal of blending with the mainstream and focusing on shared human qualities rather than race as a core ideological concept had a significantly stronger association between racial discrimination and depressive symptoms. The results hold implications for investigating the experience of racial discrimination and conceptualization of racial identity.

The color and texture of hope: Some preliminary findings and implications for hope theory and counseling among diverse racial/ethnic groups.

To clarify and extend Snyders (1994, 2002) hope theory to a more diverse population, this study examined variations in agentic and pathways thinking, and their relations with social problem solving, affect, and with life satisfaction across a college student sample of 46 European Americans, 30 African Americans, 33 Latinos, and 46 Asian Americans. Although comparative results indicated variations in levels of hope components across the 4 racial/ethnic groups, correlational results indicated that the manner in which hope components related to measures of behavior and adjustment were similar across groups. Regression results indicated similarities and differences in predictors of hope components across the different racial/ethnic groups. Potential implications for promoting hope in working with diverse college students are discussed.

Racial identity mediates the association between ethnic-racial socialization and depressive symptoms.

Ethnic-racial socialization has been positively linked with psychological adjustment; however, the mechanisms underlying this association remain unclear. In this study, the authors examined the mediating role of racial identity in the association between racial socialization and depressive symptoms. Participants were 211 African American young adults (62% female; mean age = 20.73, SD = 1.90) recruited from a predominately White southeastern university. Multivariate mediation analyses revealed an indirect effect of racial pride messages on depressive symptoms through private regard such that individuals who reported receiving more frequent racial pride messages were more likely to feel positively about their race, and, in turn, less likely to report depressive symptoms. Individuals who reported that their parents engaged in more socialization activities (e.g., attending cultural events) were also more likely to feel positively about their race and, in turn, report fewer depressive symptoms. These results suggest that positive feelings about ones race are important considerations in our understanding of the relation between ethnic-racial socialization and youth psychological adjustment.

The Development and Validation of a Colorism Scale

Two studies were conducted to develop and then validate a scale to measure the construct of Colorism. While colorism is a long discussed phenomena within the Black community in the United States, there have been virtually no attempts to measure the degree to which individuals embrace it. The In-Group Colorism Scale (ICS) was developed to assess the degree to which skin tone variation is important across five essential domains: Self-Concept, Affiliation, Attraction, Impression Formation, and Upward Mobility. The scale was empirically tested and then replicated using two distinct national samples of Black Americans (total sample of 783 participants). The ICS proved to have both good reliability and good structural validity. Moreover, the ICS proved to be significantly related to other important constructs such as parental socialization, skin tone, self-esteem, stereotypes, racial identity, and socioeconomic status. The implications of the ICS for both research and practical applications are discussed.

Buried Hatchets, Marked Locations: Forgiveness, Everyday Racial Discrimination, and African American Men's Depressive Symptomatology.

Everyday racial discrimination (ERD) is linked to pronounced depressive symptomatology among African American men. Yet, many African American men do not experience depressive symptoms following ERD exposure often because they use positive coping strategies that offset its effects. Granting forgiveness is 1 coping strategy associated with less depression. However, extant findings about the mental health benefits of forgiveness are somewhat mixed and pay scarce attention to offenses which are fleeting, historically rooted, and committed outside of close personal relationships. Evidence further suggest age-related differences in forgiveness, ERD exposure, and depressive symptoms. We explore the extent to which 3 strategies of granting forgiveness of ERD—letting go of negative emotion (negative release), embracing positive emotion (positive embrace), or combining both (combined)—are associated with less depressive symptomatology in 674 African American men (ages 18 through 79). Building on past findings, we also test whether these forgiveness strategies moderate the ERD-depressive symptoms relationship for men in different age groups (18 through 25, 26 through 39, and 40). Higher combined and negative release forgiveness were directly related to lower depressive symptoms among 18 through 25 year olds. We also detected a less pronounced positive relationship between ERD and depressive symptoms among men reporting high levels of combined (18 through 25 and 26 through 39 groups) and negative release (26 through 39 and 40+ groups) forgiveness. We observed a more pronounced positive ERD-depressive symptoms relationship among 18 through 25 and 26 through 39 year olds reporting lower forgiveness. When faced with frequent ERD, younger African American men may have the most difficult time burying hatchets without marking their location but experience more positive mental health benefits when they do.