Stevie C. Y. Yap

Mediators of the Relationship Between Racial Identity and Life Satisfaction in a Community Sample of African American Women and Men

Few empirical studies have explored the mechanisms through which racial identity, the importance of racial group membership, affects well-being for racial/ethnic minorities. Using a community sample of 161 African American adults, the present study examined whether the association between racial identity (centrality, public regard, and private regard) and life satisfaction is mediated by two identity functions, belongingness and discrimination. Our results indicated that the relationships of centrality and private regard with life satisfaction were mediated by perceptions of belongingness. Furthermore, gender moderated the strength of each of these mediating effects, such that belongingness mediated these relationships for women but not for men. Our results also indicated that the relationship between public regard and life satisfaction was mediated by perceptions of discrimination. Furthermore, higher public regard was related to lower perceptions of discrimination for women but not men. However, a combined model for public regard and life satisfaction as mediated by discrimination failed to show moderated mediation. We discuss these results in relation to research and theory on racial identity and intersectionality.

Frightened or Bothered: Two Types of Sexual Harassment Appraisals

The present study distinguishes between bothersome versus frightening sexual harassment appraisals and examines their relative strength as mediators of the relationship of sexual harassment intensity and perpetrator status with psychological distress. Using a sample of 6,304 men and women in the U.S. Armed Forces, the results indicated that sexual harassment intensity and perpetrator status were related to psychological distress. For men, bothersome appraisals mediated this relationship for two of the three sexual harassment subtypes examined and for perpetrator status; for women, bothersome appraisal was not a significant mediator. Frightening appraisals mediated the relationship for all sexual harassment subtypes and perpetrator status for both men and women, and accounted for significantly more of the relationship between sexual harassment intensity and distress than did bothersome appraisals for most analyses. However, mediating relationships were significantly stronger for men than for women. We discuss the utility of a multidimensional conceptualization of sexual harassment appraisals.

Sex Differences in Outcomes and Harasser Characteristics Associated With Frightening Sexual Harassment Appraisals

This study examined data from U.S. military personnel (1,764 men; 4,540 women) to determine whether appraisals of sexual harassment as frightening mediate the relationship between perpetrator characteristics (perpetrator sex and rank) and three psychological/job outcomes (psychological distress, role limitations, and work satisfaction), and whether these relationships were stronger for women than men. Results indicated that frightening appraisals mediated the relationship between perpetrator rank and all outcomes for both sexes. However, frightening appraisals mediated the relationship between perpetrator sex and outcomes only for women. As predicted, having a male perpetrator or a higher status perpetrator was more strongly related to frightening appraisals for women than men. However, unexpectedly, the relationship between frightening appraisals and more psychological distress, more role limitations, and less work satisfaction was stronger for men than women. We discuss the results in terms of expectancy norm violations and sexual harassment as a form of dominance.

Investigating the Structure and Measurement Invariance of the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure in a Multiethnic Sample of College Students

In this article, we evaluate the factor structure of the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM; Phinney, 1992) and test whether the MEIM exhibits measurement invariance across ethnic groups taken from a diverse sample of students from 30 different colleges and universities across the United States (N = 9,625). Initial analyses suggested that a bifactor model was an adequate representation of the structure of the MEIM. This model was then used in subsequent invariance tests. Results suggested that the MEIM displayed configural and metric invariance across 5 diverse ethnic groups (i.e., White, Black, Hispanic, East Asian, and South Asian). There were indications that the MEIM displayed a similar factor structure with roughly equivalent factor loadings across diverse ethnic groups. However, there was little evidence of scalar invariance across these groups, suggesting that mean-level comparisons of MEIM scores across ethnic groups should be interpreted with caution. The implications of these findings for the interpretation and use of this popular measure of ethnic identity are discussed.

The Effect of Mood on Judgments of Subjective Well-Being: Nine Tests of the Judgment Model

Life satisfaction judgments are thought to represent an overall evaluation of the quality of a person’s life as a whole. Thus, they should reflect relatively important and stable characteristics of that person’s life. Previous highly cited research has suggested that transient factors, such as the mood that a person experiences at the time that well-being judgments are made, can influence these judgments. However, most existing studies used small sample sizes, and few replications have been attempted. Nine direct and conceptual replications of past studies testing the effects of mood on life satisfaction judgments were conducted using sample sizes that were considerably larger than previous studies (Ns = 202, 200, 269, 118, 320, 401, 285, 129, 122). Most of the 9 studies resulted in nonsignificant effects on life satisfaction and happiness judgments, and those that were significant were substantially smaller than effects found in previous research.

Does Happiness Change? Evidence from Longitudinal Studies

Longitudinal research offers important insight into the degree of change in subjective well-being over the life span. This chapter reviews evidence from recent longitudinal studies evaluating whether change in subjective well-being does or does not occur. Particular attention is paid to studies evaluating stability of subjective well-being and mean-level change in well-being following major life events. Although early research in this area suggested that subjective well-being showed little change over the life span, more recent longitudinal research has addressed some of the limitations of this early research. The cumulative body of empirical evidence suggests that considerable change can occur, particularly when people experience certain major life events. This chapter also highlights some recent innovations in the study of change in subjective well-being over the life span and identifies some of the important remaining questions in this literature. Overall, this review shows that further work evaluating the underlying factors causing change in subjective well-being will be a fruitful avenue of continued research.

Climate Perceptions and Identity Interference Among Undergraduate Women in STEM: The Protective Role of Gender Identity

In a study of 639 female undergraduates in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors, we found that the relation between a negative academic climate and more interference between identities as women and as scientists, and lower science performance perceptions, was mediated by lower psychological well-being. We also found partial support for gender identity (centrality, private regard, and public regard) as a buffer of the link between climate/interference and psychological well-being. Specifically, gender centrality buffered the link between identity interference and well-being. Gender public regard buffered the association of both negative climate and interference with well-being, and gender private regard exacerbated the link between interference and well-being. We discuss these results in terms of the benefits that gender identification may provide for women in STEM and suggest that educators create networks for women in STEM, while working to reduce sexism and improve academic climates. Online slides for instructors who want to use this article for teaching are available on PWQs website at http://pwq.sagepub.com/supplemental

Evaluating the invariance of the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure across foreign-born, second-generation and later-generation college students in the United States.

OBJECTIVES Past research has established that the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM) exhibits measurement invariance across diverse ethnic groups. However, relatively little research has evaluated whether this measure is invariant across generational status. Thus, the present study evaluates the invariance of the MEIM across foreign-born, second-generation, and later-generation respondents. METHOD A large, ethnically diverse sample of college students completed the MEIM as part of an online survey (N = 9,107; 72.8% women; mean age = 20.31 years; SD = 3.38). RESULTS There is evidence of configural and metric invariance, but there is little evidence of scalar invariance across generational status groups. CONCLUSIONS This study suggests that the MEIM has an equivalent factor structure across generation groups, indicating it is appropriate to compare the magnitude of associations between the MEIM and other variables across foreign-born, second-generation, and later-generation individuals. However, the lack of scalar invariance suggests that mean-level differences across generational status should be interpreted with caution. (PsycINFO Database Record

Evidence of Self-Informant Agreement in Ethnic Identity

Ethnic identity is considered to be a psychologically important characteristic that is associated with adjustment outcomes. However, little is known about the degree to which ethnic identity manifests itself in characteristics that are observable to others. This study is the first to evaluate self-other agreement in ethnic identity and to use a multimethod approach for testing the associations between ethnic identity and adjustment outcomes. Results provide evidence of agreement across self and informant reports of the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure, the most widely used measure of ethnic identity in the literature. We also find evidence for shared method effects across informant reports of life satisfaction and ethnic identity. Finally, we find evidence for an association between latent ethnic identity and latent life satisfaction and self esteem scores, suggesting that the association between ethnic identity and both life satisfaction and self-esteem is more than just shared method variance.