Stress Correlates Related to Depressive Symptoms Among Young Black Men in Southern California

Abstract

Black men experience higher levels of chronic stress, life stressors, and discrimination due to oppressive social and economic conditions. Black men are at greater risk of depression, but most published research on stress and depression has focused on Black people in general, Black women, or older Black men. We sought to determine whether discrimination, perceived stress, major life stress, daily hassles, and social capital were associated with depressive symptoms in young Black men. Survey data were collected from April 2010 to March 2012 in Southern California from a convenience sample of Black men ( N = 201). We used two-sample t tests and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to examine the association of stress correlates with depressive symptoms. Logistic regression was conducted to estimate the likelihood of reporting depressive symptoms for each significant correlate. Over half of the sample reported depressive symptoms. Health status, perceived discrimination, urban hassles, perceived stress, and neighborhood trust and safety were significantly related to depressive symptoms. Those who reported higher perceived stress had higher odds of reporting depressive symptoms, whereas lower everyday discrimination experiences were associated with lower odds of depressive symptoms. Future studies should consider examining the effectiveness of embedding coping mechanisms for stress, including perceived discrimination, in health interventions for young Black men to prevent or reduce depression.

Assessing organizational readiness for the Clean Cuts and Sharp Minds Collective: a barbershop health promotion network

“…Leaders in health promotion among Black men have identified many causes of adverse health and premature mortality among Black men [2]. These causes include public health concerns such as high rates of unfavorable physical health conditions (e.g., cardiovascular disease, diabetes, some forms of cancer), mental health conditions (e.g., stress, depression [3]), and social determinants of health (e.g., gender socialization), as well as discrimination, access to health care, employment, and income [2]. Many of these causes have also been linked to lower health-related quality of life among Black adults [4][5][6].…”

“…Regarding the General Capacity domain, the majority of participants (i.e., > 86.1%) partially agreed or strongly agreed that: (1) the barbershop has a shared vision, mission, and way of doing things (i.e., Culture); (2) staff at the barbershop feel good about working at the barbershop (i.e., Climate); (3) the barbershop is open to improvement (i.e., Innovativeness); ( 4) the barbershop has resources that can be utilized (i.e., Resource Utilization); ( 5) the barbershop has good leaders (i.e., Champion); ( 6) the barbershop has good communication and generally functions well (i.e., Internal Operations); and (7) the barbershop has enough of the right kind of staff to get things done (i.e., Staff Capacities). See Table 4 for results from the General Capacity domain.…”