Positive and Negative Responses to Personal Discrimination: Does Coping Make a Difference?

The Relationship Between Collective Action and Well-Being and Its Moderators: Pervasiveness of Discrimination and Dimensions of Action

“…Research further shows that those from the U.S. and Canada have similar attitudes toward religion, government and individuality (Grabb, 2010). Finally, the relationship between experiencing discrimination and reduced mental and physical health is found internationally, for example, in U. S., Canadian, Indian, and Spanish women (Borrell, Artazcoz, Gil-González, Pérez, Pérez, et al, 2011;Foster, 2000;Pascoe & Smart Richman, 2009;Pillai, Patel, Vikram, Cardozo, Goodman, Weiss, & Andrew, 2008). Thus, understanding whether collective action is an intervention that may attenuate the negative health effects of discrimination could be beneficial for a wide range of women.…”

The Dynamic Nature of Coping with Gender Discrimination: Appraisals, Strategies and Well-being Over Time

“…Further, the negative physical and psychological responses to discrimination have also been shown to be similar across Canadian (Foster, 2000;Foster & Dion, 2003;Matheson, Gill, Kelly & Anisman, 2008) and American samples (Branscombe, Schmitt & Harvey, 1999;Krieger & Stanley, 1996;Landrine, Klonoff, Corral, Fernandez, & Roesch, 2006;Landrine, Klonoff, Gibbs, Manning & Lund, 1995) as well as countries outside of North America (Bourguignon et al, 2006;Resersdorff, Martinot & Branscombe, 2004). Thus, the applicability and interest of these findings to a variety of groups is likely.…”

“…In addition, unlike many isolated stressors such as a bad grade or a move, both Canadian (Foster, 2001, in press) and American Coping with discrimination over time 4 women (Branscombe, Schmitt & Harvey, 1999;Landrine, Klonoff, Gibbs, Manning, & Lund, 1995) expect to encounter discrimination repeatedly in the future. It may not be surprising therefore, that discrimination can have a negative impact on well-being; in both Canada (Foster, 2000;Matheson, Jorden & Anisman, 2008) and the U.S. (Klonoff, Landrine & Campbell, 2000;Krieger, 1990;Landrine, et al, 1995) discrimination has been associated with psychological and physical consequences such as anxiety, depression, headaches and increased blood pressure.…”

“…Whereas most empirical research on discrimination examines its psychological effects at one point in time (e.g., Foster, 2000), the present study used Lazarus and Folkman's (1984) dynamic approach to coping to understand how the process of coping with gender discrimination may change over time. This theory argues that because the process of coping with a stressor changes over time, certain appraisals and strategies may be effective at one point in the process but not at another.…”

“…Instead, the experiences and effects of discrimination are most often examined in experimental paradigms, whereby a lab simulation of discrimination is portrayed to participants (Foster, 2001;Foster & Tsarfati, 2005;Kaiser, Major & McCoy, 2004;Mallet & Swim, 2005;Schmitt, Branscombe & Postmes, 2003) or it is examined at one point in time with questionnaires (e.g., Branscombe et al, 1999;Clark, 2006;Eccleston & Major, 2006;Foster, 2000;Lightsey & Barnes, 2007;Kaiser & Miller, 2004;Peters, 2006;Schmitt, Branscombe, Kobrynowicz & Owen, 2002;Scott & House, 2005). Indeed, such methodologies are important for clarifying causation and how the recall of past events can currently affect us.…”