Abstract
This study examined the moderating effect of shame-proneness on the relationships between the impostor phenomenon and anxiety and the impostor phenomenon and depression. A secondary objective addressed gaps in the literature by examining group differences for shame-proneness and impostorism. Three hundred and four college students of color (Asian American, Latinx, African American) completed measures for impostorism, psychological distress (anxiety and depression), and shame-proneness. Using Bayesian methods, the moderating role of shame-proneness was tested within the overall sample, as well as within subsamples of race, gender, and race-by-gender, via moderated moderation. Patterns within the data suggested that greater levels of shame-proneness were associated with a more pronounced relationship between impostorism and anxiety. Empirical evidence for this pattern was the strongest for African American participants. In addition, certain groups reported higher scores for shame-proneness (Asian American women) and the impostor phenomenon (Asian Americans). Statistical support for race-by-gender effects was virtually indistinguishable from the statistical threshold but ultimately did not meet the predetermined criteria (probability of direction ≥ 95%). Researchers, clinicians, and university personnel should be cognizant that (a) African American students have heightened vulnerabilities that worsen the effects of the impostor phenomenon, and (b) specific groups are more likely to report higher levels of impostorism and shame-proneness. Future investigations should explore the etiology of these group differences, moderating effects, and interventions that improve the experiences and well-being of Latinx, African American, and Asian American college students.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Notes
Most research on shame measures shame-proneness (Cândea & Szentagotai-Tăta, 2018). Hereafter, shame and shame-proneness are used interchangeably.
Collectivistic values were assumed, but should be explicitly measured to reduce limitations in research.
References
Aneshensel, C. S., & Mitchell, U. A. (2014). The stress process: Its origins, evolution, and future. In R. J. Johnson, R. J. Turner, & B. G. Link (Eds.), Sociology of mental health: Selected topics from forty years, 1970s-2010s (pp. 53–74). Springer Science + Business Media. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07797-0_3
Atkin, A. L., Yoo, H. C., Jager, J., & Yeh, C. J. (2018). Internalization of the model minority myth, school racial composition, and psychological distress among Asian American adolescents. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 9, 108–116. https://doi.org/10.1037/aap0000096
Attell, B. K., Kummerow Brown, K., & Treiber, L. A. (2017). Workplace bullying, perceived job stressors, and psychological distress: Gender and race differences in the stress process. Social Science Research, 65, 210–221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2017.02.001
Austin, C. C., Clark, E. M., Ross, M. J., & Taylor, M. J. (2009). Impostorism as a mediator between survivor guilt and depression in a sample of African American college students. College Student Journal, 43(4), 1094–1109.
Baguley, T. (2009). Standardized or simple effect size: What should be reported? British Journal of Psychology, 100(3), 603–617. https://doi.org/10.1348/000712608X377117
Bernard, D. L., Lige, Q. M., Willis, H. A., Sosoo, E. E., & Neblett, E. W. (2017). Impostor phenomenon and mental health: The influence of racial discrimination and gender. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 64(2), 155. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000197
Bernard, D. L., Jones, S. C., & Volpe, V. V. (2020). Impostor phenomenon and psychological well-being: The moderating roles of John Henryism and school racial composition among Black college students. Journal of Black Psychology, 46(2–3), 195–227. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095798420924529
Bradley, J. (2019). Should and shame. Medium. Retrieved April 08, 2022, from https://goatsandsheep-galore.medium.com/should-and-shame-148e78033a67
Bravata, D. M., Watts, S. A., Keefer, A. L., Madhusudhan, D. K., Taylor, K. T., Clark, D. M., Nelson, R. S., Cokley, K. O., & Hagg, H. K. (2020). Prevalence, predictors, and treatment of impostor syndrome: A systematic review. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 35(4), 1252–1275. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-019-05364-1
Cândea, D.-M., & Szentagotai-Tăta, A. (2018). Shame-proneness, guilt-proneness and anxiety symptoms: A meta-analysis. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 58, 78–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.janxdis.2018.07.005
Carpenter, B., Gelman, A., Hoffman, M. D., Lee, D., Goodrich, B., Betancourt, M., Brubaker, M. A., Li, P., & Riddell, A. (2017). Stan: A probabilistic programming language. Journal of Statistical Software, 76(1). https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v076.i01
Chakraverty, D. (2022). Impostor phenomenon among Hispanic/Latino early career researchers in STEM fields. Journal of Latinos and Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348431.2022.2125394
Chang, J., Shaw, T. B., Holdom, C. J., McCombe, P. A., Henderson, R. D., Fripp, J., Barth, M., Guo, C. C., Ngo, S. T., Steyn, F. J., & Initiative, A. D. N. (2023). Lower hypothalamic volume with lower body mass index is associated with shorter survival in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. European Journal of Neurology, 30(1), 57–68. https://doi.org/10.1111/ene.15589
Cheng, H. (2014). Disordered eating among Asian/Asian American women: Racial and cultural factors as correlates. The Counseling Psychologist, 42, 821–851. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000014535472
Chrisman, S. M., Pieper, W. A., Clance, P. R., Holland, C. L., & Glickauf-Hughes, C. (1995). Validation of the Clance Imposter Phenomenon Scale. Journal of Personality Assessment, 65(3), 456–467. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa6503_6
Cisco, J. (2020). Using academic skill set interventions to reduce impostor phenomenon feelings in postgraduate students. Journal of Further and Higher Education, 44(3), 423–437. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877X.2018.1564023
Clance, P. R. (1986). The impostor phenomenon when success makes you feel like a fake. Bantam Books.
Clance, P. R., & Imes, S. A. (1978). The imposter phenomenon in high achieving women: Dynamics and therapeutic intervention. Psychotherapy: Theory, Research & Practice, 15(3), 241–247. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0086006
Clance, P. R. (1985). The impostor phenomenon: Overcoming the fear that haunts your success. Peachtree.
Cokley, K., McClain, S., Enciso, A., & Martinez, M. (2013). An examination of the impact of minority status stress and impostor feelings on the mental health of diverse ethnic minority college students. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 41(2), 82–95. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2161-1912.2013.00029.x
Cokley, K., Awad, G., Smith, L., Jackson, S., Awosogba, O., Hurst, A., Stone, S., Blondeau, L., & Roberts, D. (2015). The roles of gender stigma consciousness, impostor phenomenon and academic self-concept in the academic outcomes of women and men. Sex Roles, 73(9), 414–426. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-015-0516-7
Cokley, K., Smith, L., Bernard, D., Hurst, A., Jackson, S., Stone, S., Awosogba, O., Saucer, C., Bailey, M., & Roberts, D. (2017). Impostor feelings as a moderator and mediator of the relationship between perceived discrimination and mental health among racial/ethnic minority college students. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 64(2), 141. https://doi.org/10.1037/cou0000198
Cowman, S. E., & Ferrari, J. R. (2002). “Am I for real?” Predicting impostor tendencies from self-handicapping and affective components. Social Behavior and Personality, 30(2), 119–125. https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2002.30.2.119
Davis-Stober, C. P., Dana, J., & Rouder, J. N. (2018). Estimation accuracy in the psychological sciences. Plos One, 13(11). https://doi.org/10.1371/JOURNAL.PONE.0207239
Dickerson, S. S., Gruenewald, T. L., & Kemeny, M. E. (2004). When the social self is threatened: Shame, physiology, and health. Journal of Personality, 72(6), 1192–1216. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6494.2004.00295.x
Durik, A. M., Hyde, J. S., Marks, A. C., Roy, A. L., Anaya, D., & Schultz, G. (2006). Ethnicity and gender stereotypes of emotion. Sex Roles, 54, 429–445. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-006-9020-4
Edwards, J. R., & Lambert, L. S. (2007). Methods for integrating moderation and mediation: A general analytical framework using moderated path analysis. Psychological Methods, 12(1), 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989X.12.1.1
Efron, B. (1978). Regression and ANOVA with zero-one data: Measures of residual variation. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 73(361), 113–121. https://doi.org/10.2307/2286531
Else-Quest, N. M., Higgins, A., Allison, C., & Morton, L. C. (2012). Gender differences in self-conscious emotional experience: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 138(5), 947. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027930
Erba, J. (2018). Media representations of Latina/os and Latino students’ stereotype threat behavior. Howard Journal of Communications, 29(1), 83–102. https://doi.org/10.1080/10646175.2017.1327377
Gelman, A., & Hill, J. (2007). Data analysis using regression and multilevel/hierarchical models. Cambridge University Press.
Gelman, A., Hill, J., & Yajima, M. (2012). Why We (Usually) Don’t Have to Worry About Multiple Comparisons. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 5(2), 189–211. https://doi.org/10.1080/19345747.2011.618213
Gelman, A., Carlin, J. B., Stern, H. S., Dunson, D. B., Vehtari, A., & Rubin, D. B. (2013). Bayesian Data Analysis. Chapman and Hall/CRC.
Goffnett, J., Liechty, J. M., & Kidder, E. (2020). Interventions to reduce shame: A systematic review. Journal of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapy, 30(2), 141–160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbct.2020.03.001
Graham, J., & McClain, S. (2019). A canonical correlational analysis examining the relationship between peer mentorship, belongingness, impostor feelings, and Black collegians’ academic and psychosocial outcomes. American Educational Research Journal, 56(6), 2333–2367. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831219842571
Grissom, R. J., & Kim, J. J. (2001). Review of assumptions and problems in the appropriate conceptualization of effect size. Psychological Methods, 6(2), 135–146. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989x.6.2.135
Hu, K. S., Chibnall, J. T., & Slavin, S. J. (2019). Maladaptive perfectionism, impostorism, and cognitive distortions: Threats to the mental health of pre-clinical medical students. Academic psychiatry. The journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry, 43(4), 381–385. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40596-019-01031-z
Hudson, S., & González-Gómez, H. V. (2021). Can impostors thrive at work? The impostor phenomenon’s role in work and career outcomes. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 128, 103601. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2021.103601
Kim, P. Y., & Lee, D. (2014). Internalized model minority myth, Asian values, and help-seeking attitudes among Asian American students. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 20(1), 98–106. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0033351
Kim, S., Thibodeau, R., & Jorgensen, R. S. (2011). Shame, guilt, and depressive symptoms: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 137, 68–96. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021466
Koenig, K. (n.d.). Should is a shame-based word, so stop using it. Retrieved October 15, 2021, from https://www.karenrkoenig.com/blog/should-is-a-shame-based-word-so-stop-using-it
Kumar, S., & Jagacinski, C. M. (2006). Imposters have goals too: The imposter phenomenon and its relationship to achievement goal theory. Personality and Individual Differences, 40(1), 147–157. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2005.05.014
Langford, J., & Clance, P. R. (1993). The impostor phenomenon: Recent research findings regarding dynamic, personality and family patterns and their implications for treatment. Psychotherapy, 30, 495–501. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-3204.30.3.495
LeJeune, J. (2019). 20 science-based recommendations for therapy with highly self-critical or shame-prone clients. ACT With Compassion. Retrieved October 15, 2021, from https://www.actwithcompassion.com/20_science_based_recommendations_for_therapy_with_highly_self_critical_or_shame_prone_clients
Li, J., Wang, L., & Fischer, K. W. (2004). The organisation of Chinese shame concepts. Cognition and Emotion, 18(6), 767–797. https://doi.org/10.1080/02699930341000202
Lipson, S. K., Zhou, S., Abelson, S., Heinze, J., Jirsa, M., Morigney, J., Patterson, A., Singh, M., & Eisenberg, D. (2022). Trends in college student mental health and help-seeking by race/ethnicity: Findings from the national healthy minds study, 2013–2021. Journal of Affective Disorders, 306, 138–147. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2022.03.038
Loftus, G. R. (1978). On interpretation of interactions. Memory & Cognition, 6(3), 312–319. https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03197461
Lutwak, N., Razzino, B. E., & Ferrari, J. R. (1998). Self-perceptions and moral affect: An exploratory analysis of subcultural diversity in guilt and shame emotions. Journal of Social Behavior & Personality, 13(2), 333–348.
Makowski, D., Ben-Shachar, M., & Lüdecke, D. (2019). BayestestR: Describing effects and their uncertainty, existence and significance within the Bayesian framework. Journal of Open Source Software, 4(40). https://doi.org/10.21105/joss.01541
Makowski, D., Sperduti, M., Blondé, P., Nicolas, S., & Piolino, P. (2020). The heart of cognitive control: Cardiac phase modulates processing speed and inhibition. Psychophysiology, 57(3). https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13490
McClain, S., Beasley, S. T., Jones, B., Awosogba, O., Jackson, S., & Cokley, K. (2016). An examination of the impact of racial and ethnic identity, impostor feelings, and minority status stress on the mental health of Black college students. Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 44(2), 101–117. https://doi.org/10.1002/jmcd.12040
McShane, B. B., Gal, D., Gelman, A., Robert, C., & Tackett, J. L. (2017). Abandon statistical significance. The American Statistician, 73(sup1), 235–245. https://doi.org/10.1080/00031305.2018.1527253
Mood, C. (2010). Logistic regression: Why we cannot do what we think we can do, and what we can do about it. European Sociological Review, 26(1), 67–82. https://doi.org/10.1093/esr/jcp006
Orth, U., Robins, R. W., & Soto, C. J. (2010). Tracking the trajectory of shame, guilt, and pride across the lifespan. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99(6), 1061–1071. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021342
Pearlin, L. I. (1999). The stress process revisited: Reflections on concepts and their interrelationships. In C. S. Aneshensel & J. C. Phelan (Eds.), Handbook of sociology of mental health (pp. 395–415). Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Pearlin, L. I. (2009). The life course and the stress process: Some conceptual comparisons. Journals of Gerontology Series b: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 65(2), 207–215. https://doi.org/10.1093/geronb/gbp106
Pearlin, L. I., & Bierman, A. (2013). Current issues and future directions in research into the stress process. In C. S. Aneshensel, J. C. Phelan, & A. Bierman (Eds.), Handbook of the sociology of mental health (pp. 325–340). Springer Science + Business Media. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4276-5_16
Pearlin, L. I., Menaghan, E. G., Lieberman, M. A., & Mullan, J. T. (1981). The stress process. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 22(4), 337. https://doi.org/10.2307/2136676
Pek, J., & Flora, D. B. (2017). Reporting effect sizes in original psychological research: A discussion and tutorial. Psychological Methods. https://doi.org/10.1037/met0000126
Peteet, B. J., Brown, C. M., Lige, Q. M., & Lanaway, D. A. (2015). Impostorism is associated with greater psychological distress and lower self-esteem for African American students. Current Psychology, 34, 154–163. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-014-9248-z
Plant, E. A., Hyde, J. S., Keltner, D., & Devine, P. G. (2000). The gender stereotyping of emotions. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 24, 81–92. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2000.tb01024.x
Robitzsch, A. (2020). Why ordinal variables can (almost) always be treated as continuous variables: Clarifying assumptions of robust continuous and ordinal factor analysis estimation methods. Frontiers in Education. https://doi.org/10.3389/FEDUC.2020.589965
Rüsch, N., Corrigan, P. W., Bohus, M., Jacob, G. A., Brueck, R., & Lieb, K. (2007). Measuring shame and guilt by self-report questionnaires: A validation study. Psychiatry Research, 150(3), 313–325. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2006.04.018
Sakulku, J., & Alexander, J. (2011). The impostor phenomenon. International Journal of Behavioral Science, 6(1), 73–92. https://doi.org/10.14456/ijbs.2011.6
Schenker, N., & Gentleman, J. F. (2001). On judging the significance of differences by examining the overlap between confidence intervals. The American Statistician, 55(3), 182–186.
Shih, K. Y., Chang, T. F., & Chen, S. Y. (2019). Impacts of the model minority myth on Asian American individuals and families: Social justice and critical race feminist perspectives. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 11(3), 412–428. https://doi.org/10.1111/jftr.12342
Smithson, M., & Verkuilen, J. (2006). A better lemon squeezer? Maximum-likelihood regression with beta-distributed dependent variables. Psychological Methods, 11(1), 54–71. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989X.11.1.54
Sosoo, E. E., Bernard, D. L., & Neblett, E. W. (2020). The influence of internalized racism on the relationship between discrimination and anxiety. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology, 26(4), 570–580. https://doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000320
Stone, S., Saucer, C., Bailey, M., Garba, R., Hurst, A., Jackson, S. M., Krueger, N., & Cokley, K. (2018). Learning while black: A culturally informed model of the impostor phenomenon for Black graduate students. Journal of Black Psychology, 44(6), 491–531. https://doi.org/10.1177/0095798418786648
Tangney, J. P., & Dearing, R. L. (2002). Shame and guilt. Guilford Press.
Tangney, J. P., Wagner, P., & Gramzow, R. (1992). Proneness to shame, proneness to guilt, and psychopathology. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 101, 469–478. https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-843x.101.3.469
Thoits, P. A. (2010). Stress and health: Major findings and policy implications. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 51(1_suppl), S41–S53. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022146510383499
Veit, C. T., & Ware, J. E. (1983). The structure of psychological distress and well-being in general populations. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 51(5), 730–742. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.51.5.730
Velez, B. L., Campos, I. D., & Moradi, B. (2015). Relations of sexual objectification and racist discrimination with Latina women’s body image and mental health. The Counseling Psychologist, 43(6), 906–935. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000015591287
Walton, G. M., & Cohen, G. L. (2007). A question of belonging: Race, social fit, and achievement. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 92, 82–96. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.92.1.82
Walton, G. M., & Cohen, G. L. (2011). A brief social-belonging intervention improves academic and health outcomes of minority students. Science, 331, 1447–1451. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1198364
Wang, L., & Preacher, K. J. (2015). Moderated mediation analysis using Bayesian methods. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 22(2), 249–263. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705511.2014.935256
Wei, M., Liu, S., Ko, S. Y., Wang, C., & Du, Y. (2020). Impostor feelings and psychological distress among Asian Americans: Interpersonal shame and self-compassion. The Counseling Psychologist, 48(3), 432–458. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000019891992
Wheaton, B. (2009). The Stress Process as a Successful Paradigm. In W. Avison, C. Aneshensel, S. Schieman, & B. Wheaton (Eds.), Advances in the Conceptualization of the Stress Process. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1021-9_13
Wong, Y. J., Kim, B. S., Nguyen, C. P., Cheng, J. K., & Saw, A. (2014). The interpersonal shame inventory for Asian Americans: Scale development and psychometric properties. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 61(1), 119–132. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0034681
Yeager, D. S., Romero, C., Paunesku, D., Hulleman, C. S., Schneider, B., Hinojosa, C., Lee, H. Y., O’Brien, J., Flint, K., Roberts, A., Trott, J., Greene, D., Walton, G., & Dweck, C. S. (2016). Using design thinking to improve psychological interventions: The case of the growth mindset during the transition to high school. Journal of Educational Psychology, 108, 374–391. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000098
Zanchetta, M., Junker, S., Wolf, A.-M., & Traut-Mattausch, E. (2020). “Overcoming the fear that haunts your success” – the effectiveness of interventions for reducing the impostor phenomenon. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 405. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00405
Zou, K. H., Carlsson, M. O., & Quinn, S. A. (2010). Beta-mapping and beta-regression for changes of ordinal-rating measurements on Likert scales: A comparison of the change scores among multiple treatment groups. Statistics in Medicine, 29(24), 2486–2500. https://doi.org/10.1002/SIM.4012
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
The questionnaire and methodology for this study was approved by the Human Research Ethics committee of the University of Texas (2016-09-0008). Other declarations can be found prior to the Reference section.
Ethics approval
The questionnaire and methodology for this study was approved by the Human Research Ethics committee of [removed for masking].
Consent to participate
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Conflict of interest
The authors have no conflicts of interests, relevant financial, or non-financial interests to disclose.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Stone-Sabali, S., Uanhoro, J.O., McClain, S. et al. Impostorism and Psychological Distress among College Students of Color: A moderation analysis of Shame-proneness, Race, Gender, and Race-Gender Interactions. Curr Psychol 43, 3632–3648 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04579-0
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04579-0