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Ethnic Differences in Family Stress Processes Among African-Americans and Black Caribbeans

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Abstract

Several theories of stress exposure, including the stress process and the family stress model for economically disadvantaged families, suggest that family processes work similarly across race/ethnic groups. Much of this research, however, treats African-Americans as a monolithic group and ignores potential differences in family stress processes within race that may emerge across ethnic groups. This study examines whether family stress processes differ intraracially in African-American and Black Caribbean families. Using data from the National Survey of American Life, a national representative data set of African-American and Black Caribbean families, we assess the extent to which parents’ stress appraisals and psychological adjustment are related to their adolescent children’s stress appraisals, psychological adjustment, and depressive symptoms. Our study illustrates that stress processes differ by ethnicity and operate through varying pathways in African-American and Black Caribbean families. The implications of intraracial variations in stress processes are discussed.

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Acknowledgments

The NSAL was supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (U01-MH57716) with supplemental support from the OBSSR Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research and the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health and the University of Michigan, James S. Jackson, Ph.D., PI. We appreciate the assistance provided in all aspects of the NSAL development by the Program for Research on Black Americans faculty and staff. This paper is part of a larger study funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (K01 HD 064537). All opinions and errors are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of either the helpful commentators or funding agencies.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Sociology, University of Nebraska—Lincoln, 741 Oldfather Hall, Lincoln, NE, 68588, USA

    Bridget J. Goosby

  2. Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, 846 SPH I, 1415 Washington Heights, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-2029, USA

    Cleopatra Howard Caldwell

  3. Department of Sociology, University of Nebraska—Lincoln, 711 Oldfather Hall, Lincoln, NE, 68588, USA

    Anna Bellatorre

  4. Department of Psychology, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, 5010 ISR, 426 Thompson St., Ann Arbor, MI, 48109-2029, USA

    James S. Jackson

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  1. Bridget J. Goosby
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Correspondence to Bridget J. Goosby.

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Goosby, B.J., Caldwell, C.H., Bellatorre, A. et al. Ethnic Differences in Family Stress Processes Among African-Americans and Black Caribbeans. J Afr Am St 16, 406–422 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12111-011-9203-0

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