Racial identity and sense of belonging: Moderators of Black college students’ institutional race-related stress and anxious arousal.

Abstract

Objectives: Race-related stress due to institutional racism is a pervasive reality for Black college students and contributes to poor mental health outcomes such as anxious arousal symptoms. One framework which may account for this association between chronic stress and anxious arousal symptoms is the reserve capacity model. This study investigated whether racial identity dimensions (racial centrality, public regard, private regard) and sense of belonging to the racial group contribute to this population's reserve capacity and buffer the association between institutional race-related stress and anxious arousal symptoms. Method: A sample of 134 Black college students completed racial identity, sense of belonging, and mental health questionnaires. These data were subjected to multiple regression analysis to assess the main and interactive effects of institutional race-related stress and dimensions of interest as predictors of anxious arousal symptoms. Results: The analysis indicated that higher levels of institutional race-related stress, racial centrality, and public regard were each associated with higher levels of anxious arousal while higher levels of private regard and sense of belonging were associated with lower levels of anxious arousal. Further investigation of interaction effects revealed that high levels of sense of belonging and low levels of public regard, respectively, buffered the association between institutional race-related stress and anxious arousal symptoms. Conclusions: These findings illustrate how certain racial identity dimensions and sense of belonging contribute to the reserve capacity of Black students experiencing institutional race-related stress. Results are further discussed in the context of extant literature on Black racial identity and the university context. Public Significance StatementCollege can prove to be an anxiety-inducing experience for many Black students facing institutional racism on top of the typical struggles of university life. The results of this study emphasize the importance of establishing a sense of belonging with the racial group and understanding the complexities of Black racial identity in protecting the mental health of Black college students.

The impact of cultural and institutional race-related stress on mental health outcomes among ethnic/racially minoritized young adults: Ethnic identity as a protective factor.

“…Our findings are also aligned with the few studies that have examined associations of cultural and institutional race-related stress with mood symptoms among Black or African American adults, which also documented positive associations (Cokley et al, 2022;D. B. Lee et al, 2015;MacNear & Hunter, 2023;Obenauf et al, 2023). Regarding ethnic identity, these findings are also somewhat consistent with the extant literature, which is mixed with regard to the buffering impact of affirmation.…”

“…This work is particularly needed among Latinx, Asian, multiracial, and American Indian/Alaskan Native groups, as most of what was previously known about the impact and moderators of cultural and institutional race-related stress is based on samples of Black/African American people (e.g., Cokley et al, 2022; D. B. Lee et al, 2015; MacNear & Hunter, 2023; Obenauf et al, 2023).…”

Campus racial climate and impostor phenomenon among Black college students: The mediating roles of social anxiety and self-esteem.

“…Existing scholarship has documented how PWIs may reinforce cultures of segregation, racial tensions, and pressures to conform to Eurocentric standards through purposeful policies and practices that alienate, tokenize, and marginalize Black students (Mills, 2020). Furthermore, recent evidence has highlighted that being embedded within academic contexts where macrolevel invalidations frequently occur (e.g., PWIs) can enhance social anxiety (MacNear & Hunter, 2023). As individuals high in social anxiety have been shown to make more negative internal attributions in the context of macro- and microaggressions (Eccleston & Major, 2006), it follows that we also found that social anxiety was associated with decreases in self-esteem, which was in turn associated with elevations in IP.…”

Interactive Effects of Racism and Racial Centrality on ADHD Symptoms

“…This may lead individuals to feel more depleted and upset when they do experience racial discrimination, thus increasing the impacts of race-related stress (Banks et al, 2007;Jones & Neblett, 2017). On the contrary, other studies have found that high levels of racial centrality may increase race-related stress (Burrow & Ong, 2010;MacNear & Hunter, 2023;Sellers et al, 1998). One possible explanation for this is that individuals whose race is central to them may associate racism as a reason for daily negative encounters.…”

“…In some social contexts, having a strong racial identity can lead to feelings of empowerment, but it can also lead to facing and being more aware of stressors related to racism which can negatively impact wellbeing (Yip et al, 2019). How strongly someone connects to their own racial identity may affect how they perceive the discrimination they are facing, thus increasing their race-related stress and, consequently, their mental health symptoms (MacNear et al, 2023;Sellers & Shelton, 2003). Due to individual differences, racial identity may have positive and negative effects which may contribute to disparate findings in racial identity research.…”