The Relation of Cultural Mistrust and Psychological Health

Abstract

The relation between cultural mistrust and psychological health was examined using a sample of 125 African American students. Results did not support the notion that mistrust of Whites is psychologically healthy but suggested that a moderate amount of trust of Whites is related to perceptions of personal well-being.La relación entre la descofianza cultural y la salud psicológica se examinó utilizando una muestra de 125 estudiantes Americanos Africanos. Los resultados no sostuvieron la noción que la desconfianza de los Blancos es psicológicamente sana pero sugirió que una cantidad moderada de la desconfianza de los Blancos es relacionada a percepciones del bienestar personal.

Racial Discrimination Predicts Mental Health Outcomes Beyond the Role of Personality Traits in a Community Sample of African Americans

“…Another important caveat is that the EOD measures frequency of experiences of racial discrimination but not other pertinent variables, such as degree of distress associated with these experiences. Furthermore, the weak and nonsignificant findings related to mistrust may suggest the need to assess context-specific types of mistrust that are particularly relevant to experiencing racial discrimination, such as cultural mistrust (Bell & Tracey, 2006). These are major points worth seriously considering, yet we also believe that this study is one of many important building blocks needed to draw firmer empirical conclusions about the impact of racial discrimination on mental health.…”

The measurement of mistrust among religious group members inNorthernIreland

“…Overall, the current results support the use of the CMI in Northern Ireland, and suggest its potential for use in reli-giously differentiated cultures. Contrary to previous research (e.g., Bell & Tracey, 2006;Whaley, 2002), separate factors were identified for each of the domains included in this analysis. One explanation is that within the Northern Ireland context, variations in identity as a minority or majority group member may facilitate greater distinction in mistrust across subscale domains.…”

“…Higher levels of total religious mistrust—particularly of politics and law‐based mistrust—were associated with greater psychological distress, as measured by the GHQ (Goldberg, ). Previous work has suggested that cultural mistrust influences psychological well‐being, both directly (e.g., Bell & Tracey, ) and indirectly through reduced uptake and engagement with treatment services (e.g., Klonoff & Landrine, , ; Nickerson et al., ; Terrell & Terrell, ; Thompson et al., ). The only individual subscale of mistrust that was associated with psychological distress was the domain of politics and law.…”

“…In fact, Whaley () suggested that the inability of professionals to recognize mistrust results in poorer engagement on the part of the client, and can further compound existing levels of mistrust. Bell and Tracey () suggested that cultural mistrust influences psychological health in a curvilinear manner whereby both low and high levels of cultural mistrust may be detrimental to the psychological well‐being of an individual, but moderate levels provide benefits. Thus, too little mistrust of the out‐group can leave an individual vulnerable to prejudice and discrimination, while too much mistrust can result in the individual's access to sources of support and help being restricted.…”

“…A number of measures of cultural mistrust have been utilized in the research literature (e.g., Bell & Tracey, ; Klonoff & Landrine, ), the most widely used of which is the four‐factor Cultural Mistrust Inventory (CMI; Terrell & Terrell, ). However, the factor structure of the CMI has been unsupported in subsequent work.…”