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Coping with racism: a selective review of the literature and a theoretical and methodological critique

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Abstract

Racism is a stressor that contributes to racial/ethnic disparities in mental and physical health and to variations in these outcomes within racial and ethnic minority groups. The aim of this paper is to identify and discuss key issues in the study of individual-level strategies for coping with interpersonal racism. We begin with a discussion of the ways in which racism acts as a stressor and requires the mobilization of coping resources. Next, we examine available models for describing and conceptualizing strategies for coping with racism. Third, we discuss three major forms of coping: racial identity development, social support seeking and anger suppression and expression. We examine empirical support for the role of these coping strategies in buffering the impact of racism on specific health-related outcomes, including mental health (i.e., specifically, self-reported psychological distress and depressive symptoms), self-reported physical health, resting blood pressure levels, and cardiovascular reactivity to stressors. Careful examination of the effectiveness of individual-level coping strategies can guide future interventions on both the individual and community levels.

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Notes

  1. Three additional studies report buffering effects on perceived stress, but not depressive symptoms (Bynum et al. 2007; Sellers et al. 2003, 2006). Five studies reported beneficial buffering effects of racial/ethnicity identity on self-esteem or academic orientation, achievement or efficacy, even when the authors reported that they did not find buffering effects on measures of distress or depression (Greene et al. 2006; Sellers et al. 2003; Wong et al. 2003) or did not examine effects on depression (Oyserman and Fryberg 2006; Romero and Roberts 2003). There are also laboratory studies examining the effects of identity on emotional responses to racism-type manipulations (Ellemers et al. 1997). These provide important insights into the nature of group and individual processes on identity development, but it is not clear that the measures used in these studies are of relevance to the hypothesis that racial/ethnic identity buffers the effects of exposure to racism on clinically significant distress.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. St. John’s University, New York, NY, USA

    Elizabeth Brondolo, Nisha Brady ver Halen & Melissa Pencille

  2. University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Danielle Beatty

  3. Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ, USA

    Richard J. Contrada

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Brondolo, E., Brady ver Halen, N., Pencille, M. et al. Coping with racism: a selective review of the literature and a theoretical and methodological critique. J Behav Med 32, 64–88 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-008-9193-0

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