Dispositional Coping Profiles Moderate the Links between Racial Discrimination and Mental Health in Black Americans

Abstract

Objectives: Racial discrimination is consistently linked to negative mental health outcomes. However, less is known about how unique patterns of coping in Black Americans experiencing high discrimination stress may buffer the impact of discrimination stress on mental health. The present study uses person-centered methods to identify and describe latent profiles of coping in Black Americans, understand how these coping profiles are linked to mental health, and examine whether latent coping profiles moderate the links between discrimination and mental health. Methods: Participants included only Black American individuals (N=289; Mage = 41.81; 54% female) from the MIDUS Milwaukee Refresher. Latent profiles were estimated based on seven continuous measures of coping responses. After performing model selection, individuals were classified to profiles based on posterior probabilities and outcome analyses were performed using an approach adjusting for measurement error. Results: Four profiles of coping responses were identified: passive responders (29% of the sample), evasive responders (15%), diverse responders (17%), and engaged responders (39%). Engaged responders had the lowest prevalence of mental health symptoms. Further, membership in the engaged responders profile moderated associations between discrimination and mental health: as discrimination stress increased, engaged responders had lower odds of depression and lower negative affect compared to members of the other profiles. Conclusions: Person-centered methods uncovered meaningful subgroups characterized by unique coping patterns and pointed to engaged responders as being most resilient to the effects of discrimination. Future research should test these associations longitudinally and examine whether more adaptive coping profiles can be fostered through intervention.