African Americans' mental health and perceptions of racist discrimination: The moderating effects of racial socialization experiences and self-esteem

This research responded to researchers' calls for investigation of potential moderators of the link between perceptions of racist discrimination and mental health. In a sample of 119 African American young adults, the authors investigated the extent to which 4 theoretically relevant variables moderated the perceived racism-mental health relation. Consistent with predictions, results revealed that greater experience with racial socialization messages attenuated the link between reports of racist events and poorer mental health. Self-esteem also moderated the relation, but in a direction opposite that predicted. Neither racial socialization beliefs nor African American social networks moderated the relation. Overall, results indicated that individual differences shape the extent to which African Americans' mental health is related to perceptions of racist discrimination.