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Beliefs in an unjust world mediate the associations between perceived ethnic discrimination and psychological functioning
Personality and Individual Differences 53 (2012) 528–533
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Beliefs in an unjust world mediate the associations between perceived ethnic discrimination and psychological functioning Christopher T.H. Liang a,⇑, Ashley Borders b a b
Department of Psychology, University of La Verne, United States Department of Psychology, The College of New Jersey, United States
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 7 January 2012 Received in revised form 9 March 2012 Accepted 12 April 2012 Available online 15 May 2012 Keywords: Perceived discrimination Unjust world beliefs Coping
a b s t r a c t Belief in an unjust world (BUW) was studied to understand its role in the relationships between perceived ethnic discrimination (PED) and aggression, anxiety, sense of social connectedness, and depressive symptoms among 170 racial minority college students. Consistent with stress and coping theory, as well as the literature on BUW, stronger BUW mediated the relationships between higher PED and greater aggression, anxiety, and decreased social connectedness but not depressive symptoms. These analyses indicate that BUW plays a role in discrimination-related psychological outcomes. Implications of these results as well as recommendations for future studies are discussed. Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction Perceived ethnic discrimination (PED) refers to the subjective experience of differential treatment based on phenotype, linguistic or cultural characteristics. Because it emphasizes appraisal, PED is not limited to ‘‘objective’’ discriminatory occurrences but may also include more subtle experiences that outside observers might not identify as discrimination (Clark, Anderson, Clark, & Williams, 1999). Thus, although PED is a subset of the larger phenomenon of ethnic discrimination, it has received recent attention as an important stressor. PED has been found to be associated with a number of negative outcomes for ethnic minorities and immigrant groups (Pascoe & Richman, 2009). In recent years, the focus of research has shifted to understand mechanisms of the relationship between PED and negative health outcomes. In particular, stress and coping theory highlights how individual difference variables may influence how people perceive, respond to, and are affected by discrimination. The purpose of this current study was to examine Beliefs in an Unjust World (BUW) as a defensive coping strategy that may play a role in the relationship between PED and psychological well-being among ethnic minority individuals. 2. Perceived racism, stress, and coping In his review of racism research, Paradies (2006) found that self-reported racism experiences are associated with poorer mental health for ethnic minority individuals. Specifically, PED has ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (C.T.H. Liang). 0191-8869/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2012.04.022
been found to be associated with greater symptoms of depression and anxiety (Williams & Mohammed, 2009), increased aggressive behavior (Lau, Takeuchi, & Alegria, 2006; Smokowski & Bacallao, 2006), and interpersonal problems (Lee, 2003; Liang & Fassinger, 2008). Prospective studies show that PED precedes poor psychological functioning, rather than the other way around (Gee & Walsemann, 2009). In short, PED appears to be a stressor that affects individuals’ level of self-reported anxiety, depression, aggression, and relationship problems. Various coping strategies have been studied as potential mediators in the association between PED and well-being. Grounded in transactional stress frameworks (e.g., Harrell, 2000) researchers suggest that PED is an environmental stressor that influences an individual’s psychological well-being through mediating mechanisms such as coping responses. Coping responses, which entail a broad repertoire of cognitive and behavioral responses to environmental stressors, are often categorized broadly as active/passive or approach/avoidance strategies. Active and approach strategies generally have been linked to more positive outcomes, whereas passive and avoidance strategies typically have been found to be associated with negative outcomes. However, empirical evidence on these broad categories of coping strategies and PED does not paint such a clear picture. Some evidence suggests that greater active coping mediates the associations between more PED and less psychological distress (Alvarez & Juang, 2010). In contrast, Liang, Alvarez, Juang, and Liang (2007) reported that more active coping mediated the associations between greater perceived racism and worse racism-related stress. Finally, Bianchi and colleagues (2004) found that perceived discrimination was associated with less use of active coping, which partially
C.T.H. Liang, A. Borders / Personality and Individual Differences 53 (2012) 528–533
explained poorer health behaviors. These dissimilar findings may be a result of differences in samples or in measures used across studies. It is also worth noting that categories of coping (i.e., active/passive, approach/avoidant) have been criticized for lacking clarity (Compas, Connor-Smith, Saltzman, Thomsen, & Wadsworth, 2001; Skinner, Edge, Altman, & Sherwood, 2003). For instance, these constructs often have different loadings across samples and may confound the roles of specific forms of coping (Litman, 2006). Perhaps as a response to the lack of definitional clarity associated with broad coping categories, research has examined more specific mechanisms that may mediate the relationship between PED and psychological distress. For instance, increased rumination, which entails repetitively and passively dwelling on negative emotions or events, accounted for the association between higher PED and worse distress (Borders & Liang, 2011). Relatedly, lower perceived control has also received support as a mechanism between greater PED and worse psychological distress (Moradi & Hasan, 2004; Moradi & Risco, 2006). Identifying specific maladaptive coping responses such as these should contribute clarity to the literature and might also suggest particular targets for clinical interventions. In this study, we examine the role of another specific coping response that may help explain the associations between PED and its many negative consequences.
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4. The current study This study examined the associations between PED, BUW, and several psychological outcomes that have been found to be associated with PED. Based on the literature, we hypothesized that stronger BUW would mediate the relationship between more PED and higher levels of aggression, depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and lower levels of social connectedness. 5. Methods 5.1. Participants The sample consisted of 170 ethnic minority students attending a small public liberal arts college in the northeast or a small private university in southern California. Approximately 77.6% of participants were female, 21.1% were male, and 0.3% were transgender. The sample was comprised mainly of heterosexual-identified individuals (97%). Approximately 35% were Latino/a, 25% were African American, 25% were Asian American, and 15% were ‘‘other’’ (e.g., biracial, Pacific Islander, Arab American, or ‘‘other’’). Participants’ mean age was 20 years (range = 18–44). 5.2. Measures and procedures
3. Belief in an unjust world The importance of worldviews has long been noted in understanding people’s reactions to traumatic events (Janoff-Bulman, 1992). Belief systems that attempt to explain status differences in society may be particularly relevant to perceived discrimination (Major, Kaiser, O’Brien, & McCoy, 2007). BUW, described as ‘‘cognitions that rationalize to the self that people often get what they do not deserve or do not get what they deserve’’ (Lench & Chang, 2007; p. 126), may be one set of world beliefs that emerge as a result of perceived injustice. Furnham and Procter (1989) argued that this belief system reflects a view of the world as unfair and arbitrary. Lench and Chang further proposed that BUW is a cognitive process that people engage into rationalize the negative experiences they witness or encounter. They conceptualize BUW as a defensive coping strategy that is a reaction to perceived injustices, which in turn is likely related to poorer psychological outcomes. In support of this hypothesis, Lench and Chang found that BUW was related to passive coping strategies such as mental and behavioral disengagement and denial. BUW was also associated with higher perceived future risk, as well as greater recent depressive symptoms and state anger. Therefore, we propose that BUW is a specific type of passive/avoidant coping that should serve to mediate the association between greater PED and worse psychological distress. BUW is related to but conceptually different from belief in a just world (BJW), or the beliefs that the world is fair and just and that people will be rewarded for their hard work. Repeated factor analyses have found that BJW and BUW are statistically distinct constructs (Dalbert, Lipkus, Sallay, & Goch, 2001; Lench & Chang, 2007; Loo, 2002). Dalbert and colleagues (2001) argue that BUW is not simply the absence of BJW but is a reaction to negative life events. The association between BUW and PED has never been examined. However, greater perceived discrimination has been found to be associated with weaker BJW (Lipkus & Siegler, 1993). Unfortunately, the statistical evidence mentioned above suggests that weaker BJW is not the same construct as BUW. Because BUW is conceptualized as a coping response to negative life events, we believe that it is a potential mediator in the association between PED and negative psychological functioning.
Participants completed an anonymous computer-based survey as part of an undergraduate psychology course requirement. The respondents completed questionnaires addressing PED, BUW, aggression, depressive and anxious symptoms, and sense of social connectedness, as well as a demographic questionnaire. The questionnaires were presented in random order for each participant. 5.2.1. Perceived ethnic discrimination Participants completed the General Ethnic Discrimination Scale (GEDS; Landrine, Klonoff, Corral, Fernandez, & Roesch, 2006), an 18-item measure of PED. On the first 17 items, respondents rate the frequency of perceived racist events during (a) the past year and (b) their entire life. Recent and life experiences with racism are rated on a 6-point scale from ‘‘never’’ to ‘‘almost all the time.’’ Respondents also indicate their appraisal of how stressful the experience was, on a 6 point scale from ‘‘not at all stressful’’ to ‘‘extremely stressful.’’ The final item on the questionnaire asks participants whether they would perceive their life differently if they had not experienced racism. Responses are summed to create subscale scores for recent PED (18 items), lifetime PED (18 items), and appraisal of discrimination (17 items). Higher scores indicated greater levels of PED. The GEDS has the same factor structure across different ethnic groups (Landrine et al., 2006) and shows comparable validity to other discrimination measures (Bastos, Celeste, Faerstein, & Barros, 2010). Given that recent discrimination has been found to have a more significant negative impact on mental health outcomes than lifetime experiences (Pascoe & Richman, 2009), only the recent PED scale was used. 5.2.2. Belief in an unjust world The 5-item Unjust Views Scale (Lench & Chang, 2007) assesses both personal and general beliefs in an unfair world (‘‘People who do evil things get away with it’’). The measure utilizes a 5-point Likert-type scale with responses ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Higher summed scores indicate a greater BUW. This measure loaded on a separate factor than BJW, suggesting discriminant validity. Higher scores on this measure also correlated with greater use of denial and other disengagement coping strategies, providing support for its hypothesized function as a defensive coping strategy.
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5.2.3. Aggression The 29-item Aggression Questionnaire (Buss & Perry, 1992) was used to measure aggression (‘‘Given enough provocation, I may hit another person’’). Participants indicated how much each item describes them on a 5-point scale from ‘‘extremely uncharacteristic of me’’ to ‘‘extremely characteristic of me.’’ Higher summed scores reflect more aggression. This measure reliably differentiates between violent and non-violent samples and correlates with both peer and self reports of aggression, as well as observed aggressive behavior (O’Connor, Archer, & Wu, 2001). 5.2.4. Depressive symptoms The 20-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977) is frequently used to measure depressed mood and cognitions, as well as physiological symptoms of depression (e.g., eating, sleeping). Participants respond to all items using a series of four anchored alternatives ranging from 0 to 3 in terms of severity. Higher summed scores indicate more depression. The CES-D shows convergent validity with other indices of depression and reflects individual differences in depressive severity in college samples (Radloff, 1991). 5.2.5. Social connectedness The 8-tem Social Connectedness Scale (SCS; Lee & Robbins, 1995) measures an individual’s closeness with peers, friends, and society (‘‘I don’t feel related to anyone’’). The measure utilizes a 6-point Likert-type scale with responses ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Higher summed scores represent a greater sense of belonging. The SCS shows significant correlations with collective self-esteem, personal self-esteem, and social support (Lee & Robbins, 1998). 5.2.6. Anxiety The 21-item Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI; Beck, Epstein, Brown, & Steer, 1988) assesses common symptoms of clinical anxiety, such as nervousness, fear of losing control, and related somatic symptoms. Participants indicate the degree to which they have been bothered by each symptom in the past month on a 4-point scale ranging from 0 (not at all) to 3 (severely). Higher summed scores indicate higher anxiety. The BAI demonstrated convergent validity with other measures of anxiety and was able to discriminate between anxious and non-anxious diagnostic groups (Beck et al., 1988). 5.3. Plan of analyses Path analyses were used to test whether BUW mediated the associations between PED and depressive symptoms, anxiety, aggression, and social connectedness. We used the MPlus program 5.0 (Muthén & Muthén, 1998–2007) with the missing at random assumption (Little & Rubin, 1987) and maximum likelihood estimation. First, we fit a model where the outcome variables were regressed on PED (see Fig. 1a). In this model, we allowed the outcome variables to intercorrelate. We then introduced BUW as a mediator in the model (see Fig. 1b). Traditionally, a test of mediation has several requirements (Baron & Kenny, 1986). First, the independent variable (IV; PED) must predict the dependent variables (DVs). Second, the IV must significantly predict the proposed mediator (BUW). Third, the mediator must predict the DVs, even with the IV also entered into the equation. If these three conditions are met, then the coefficients for the IV in this final equation are examined. Statistically, full mediation occurs when these coefficients drop to zero, indicating that the IV no longer affects the DVs after inclusion of the mediator. Partial mediation is indicated when the coefficients decrease in size.
There are several ways to test for significance of mediation. One promising method of testing indirect effects uses bootstrapping methodology (MacKinnon, Lockwood, & Williams, 2004). A ‘‘bootstrap sample’’ consists of N individuals sampled randomly with replacement from the original data set, where N is the size of the original dataset. One thousand bootstrap samples are created in this way, resulting in an empirical sampling distribution from which 95% confidence intervals can be estimated. These resampling methods have more power than traditional tests that assume normality (MacKinnon et al., 2004). Recent simulation studies suggest that the bias-corrected bootstrap method has greater power and more accurate Type I error rates than other bootstrap methods (Cheung & Lau, 2008; MacKinnon et al., 2004). Therefore, we calculated the estimated indirect effects as well as bias-corrected bootstrap confidence intervals for each DV (Preacher & Hayes, 2008). Any indirect effect whose confidence interval does not include zero is considered significantly different from zero, indicating a meaningful effect of mediation.
6. Results 6.1. Preliminary analyses Variables were first evaluated for deviations from normality. The discrimination and anxiety variables were positively skewed. PED required an inverse transformation to achieve acceptable normality1. The anxiety variable was corrected with a log transformation2. All other variables were normally distributed. Means, standard deviations, alphas and zero-order correlations are presented in Table 1. Anxiety was significantly associated with greater depressive symptoms and aggression and with less social connectedness. Depressive symptoms and aggression were significantly associated with less social connectedness. Depressive symptoms and aggression were modestly and positively correlated.
6.2. Test of mediation hypotheses To test the first requirement of mediation, we ran a path model with the four outcome variables regressed on PED. As predicted, higher PED was associated with lower levels of social connectedness and higher levels of aggression, anxiety, and depressive symptoms (Table 2, column 2). Next, we added BUW as a mediator variable. PED significantly predicted BUW, b = .36, p < .001, supporting the second requirement of mediation. Moreover, BUW significantly predicted anxiety, aggression, and social connectedness, but did not significantly predict depressive symptoms (Table 2, column 3). Thus, we found statistical support for the first three conditions of mediation for all of the DVs except depressive symptoms. We next examined how the bs between PED and outcomes changed with the inclusion of BUW. The coefficients for the associations between PED and anxiety, aggression, and social connectedness decreased in size with the inclusion of BUW, suggesting partial mediation (Table 2, column 4). We also calculated indirect effect estimates and bias-corrected bootstrap confidence intervals (Table 2, column 5). The indirect effects for anxiety, aggression, and social connectedness were all meaningfully different from zero, providing evidence for significant mediation with these variables. 1 Skewness values before and after inverse transformation were 1.60 and .12, respectively. Although using an inverse transformation changes the sign of variable, we will continue to report the variable such that higher values indicate higher levels of recent discrimination. 2 Skewness values before and after log transformation were 1.32 and .58, respectively.
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Fig. 1. (a) Path model with PED predicting outcome variables. (b) Mediation model with BUW mediating the association between PED and outcome variables. Note: PED = perceived ethnic discrimination, BUW = belief in unjust world. The models also included intercorrelations between all outcome variables (not shown on figures).
Table 1 Correlations and descriptive statistics. PEDa PED BUW SCS Anxiety symptoms Aggression Depressive symptoms M SD (Range) Alpha
– .36*** .22** .32*** .31*** .22** 30.15 11.82 (18–74) .92
BUW
SCS
Anxiety symptomsa
Aggression
Depressive symptoms
– .44*** .28*** 13.58 10.90 (0–52) .92
.19* 66.32 17.55 (32–111) .90
21.73 7.87 (0–40) .75
– .52*** .34*** .51*** .23** 13.86 3.65 (5–25) .80
– .32*** .30*** .30** 35.39 8.44 (8–48) .92
Note: PED = perceived ethnic discrimination, BUW = belief in unjust world, SCS = social connectedness. a For ease of interpretation, untransformed means, SDs, and ranges are presented. All correlations were run using transformed variables. * p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001.
7. Discussion The relationship between perceived PED and negative psychological and physiological health outcomes has been demonstrated in a number of studies (Pascoe & Richman, 2009). In line with this past research, we found that PED was related to higher levels of aggression, more anxious and depressive symptoms, and lower levels of social connectedness. More importantly, this study sought to examine the role of BUW in the association between PED and
psychological functioning. We found that stronger BUW statistically mediated the relationship between greater PED and higher anxiety, more aggression, and less social connectedness. Although cross-sectional, these results suggest that perceiving more ethnic discrimination may result in higher levels of BUW, which in turn contribute to anxiety, aggression, and decreased social connectedness. These findings support Lench and Chang’s (2007) contention that BUW is both an outcome of perceived or real experiences with trauma and a predictor of negative psychological
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Table 2 Mediation analyses. Dependent variable (DV)
Coefficient between IV (PED) and DV, without inclusion of mediator (BUW)
Coefficient between mediator (BUW) and DVa
Coefficient between IV (PED) and DV, with inclusion of mediator (BUW)
Estimated indirect effect (bias-corrected bootstrap CI)b
Social connectedness Aggression Depression symptoms Anxiety symptoms
.23*** .34*** .26*** .34***
.50*** .46*** .17 .27**
.05 .15* .20* .24**
.18 ( .28 to .17 (.09–.24) .06 (.00–.13) .10 (.02–.18)
.08)
Note: For ease of interpretation, all reported values are standardized coefficients and effect sizes. PED = perceived ethnic discrimination; BUW = belief in unjust world. a These values indicate the coefficient between the mediator (BUW) and the DV, when the IV (PED) is also entered in the equation. b Confidence intervals (CIs) that do not include zero indicate a significant indirect effect. * p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001.
outcomes. One reason BUW may contribute to negative psychological functioning is that the repeated perception of identity-based microaggressions (e.g., racism, sexism) and perceived unfairness may result in individuals ‘‘giving up’’ on their meritocratic beliefs (Sue, 2010) as well as on their sense of hope (Clark et al., 1999). We should note that we only found evidence of partial mediation in our analyses. Therefore, other mechanisms also likely partially account for the links between PED and psychological distress. As discussed above, empirical evidence confirms the mediating role of different specific coping strategies (Borders & Liang, 2011; Moradi & Hasan, 2004; Moradi & Risco, 2006). Therefore, BUW may be just one consequence of experiencing discrimination that contributes to emotional distress. Moreover, BUW may influence other coping strategies that people use, and likewise other coping styles may influence the extent to which individuals develop the belief that the world is unfair. In turn, use of maladaptive coping strategies (e.g., rumination) may lead to further negative situations, resulting in an even stronger BUW. Further research should examine the associations between BUW and the strategies individuals use to cope with PED. BUW failed to significantly mediate the association between PED and depressive symptoms. This finding reflects the fact that BUW and depressive symptoms were weakly correlated in our sample. However, previous work found stronger associations than we did between BUW and depressive symptoms (Lench & Chang, 2007), suggesting the presence of moderator variables. One possible moderator is racial identity status, which influences how ethnic minority individuals relate to members of the in-group and outgroups, as well as themselves (Atkinson, Morten, & Sue, 1998). For instance, whereas individuals who are in the immersion status may experience anger and mistrust of out-group members and be anxiously hypervigilant (Helms, 1995) individuals in the conformity or dissonance stage may have lower internal self-esteem and more shame, respectively (Atkinson et al., 1998), contributing to depressive symptoms. Because we did not measure racial identity status, this explanation is speculative. Researchers might investigate this and other potential moderators of the associations between BUW and psychological distress. This study is not without limitations. First, because of the correlational nature of the study, any suggestion of causality must be made with caution. We cannot rule out other directional associations between variables, particularly the possibility that greater BUW influences PED. Moreover, BUW may itself be influenced by psychological distress. Future research, particularly longitudinal designs, will be necessary to determine the direction of these relationships. Second, the findings may not be generalized to individuals who are not college students. Non-college aged populations should be studied in future research. Third, data from multiple racial minority groups were aggregated in our analyses. Our limited sample size did not allow us to test the mediation models
for any one group. Thus, further tests of these mediation models for specific groups are recommended. Limitations notwithstanding, this study suggests that BUW is associated with greater PED and worse anxiety, aggression, and social connectedness. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine these relationships. Future studies might extend this study by examining whether the association between BUW and negative psychological health outcomes is mediated by another variable. Further research also is needed to determine whether chronic PED results in stable BUW that put people at risk for negative chronic health outcomes. Alternatively, positive consequences of BUW, such as increased desire for and commitment to collective action, also should be studied.
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Beliefs in an unjust world mediate the associations between perceived ethnic discrimination and psychological functioning Christopher T.H. Liang a,⇑, Ashley Borders b a b
Department of Psychology, University of La Verne, United States Department of Psychology, The College of New Jersey, United States
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 7 January 2012 Received in revised form 9 March 2012 Accepted 12 April 2012 Available online 15 May 2012 Keywords: Perceived discrimination Unjust world beliefs Coping
a b s t r a c t Belief in an unjust world (BUW) was studied to understand its role in the relationships between perceived ethnic discrimination (PED) and aggression, anxiety, sense of social connectedness, and depressive symptoms among 170 racial minority college students. Consistent with stress and coping theory, as well as the literature on BUW, stronger BUW mediated the relationships between higher PED and greater aggression, anxiety, and decreased social connectedness but not depressive symptoms. These analyses indicate that BUW plays a role in discrimination-related psychological outcomes. Implications of these results as well as recommendations for future studies are discussed. Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction Perceived ethnic discrimination (PED) refers to the subjective experience of differential treatment based on phenotype, linguistic or cultural characteristics. Because it emphasizes appraisal, PED is not limited to ‘‘objective’’ discriminatory occurrences but may also include more subtle experiences that outside observers might not identify as discrimination (Clark, Anderson, Clark, & Williams, 1999). Thus, although PED is a subset of the larger phenomenon of ethnic discrimination, it has received recent attention as an important stressor. PED has been found to be associated with a number of negative outcomes for ethnic minorities and immigrant groups (Pascoe & Richman, 2009). In recent years, the focus of research has shifted to understand mechanisms of the relationship between PED and negative health outcomes. In particular, stress and coping theory highlights how individual difference variables may influence how people perceive, respond to, and are affected by discrimination. The purpose of this current study was to examine Beliefs in an Unjust World (BUW) as a defensive coping strategy that may play a role in the relationship between PED and psychological well-being among ethnic minority individuals. 2. Perceived racism, stress, and coping In his review of racism research, Paradies (2006) found that self-reported racism experiences are associated with poorer mental health for ethnic minority individuals. Specifically, PED has ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (C.T.H. Liang). 0191-8869/$ - see front matter Ó 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2012.04.022
been found to be associated with greater symptoms of depression and anxiety (Williams & Mohammed, 2009), increased aggressive behavior (Lau, Takeuchi, & Alegria, 2006; Smokowski & Bacallao, 2006), and interpersonal problems (Lee, 2003; Liang & Fassinger, 2008). Prospective studies show that PED precedes poor psychological functioning, rather than the other way around (Gee & Walsemann, 2009). In short, PED appears to be a stressor that affects individuals’ level of self-reported anxiety, depression, aggression, and relationship problems. Various coping strategies have been studied as potential mediators in the association between PED and well-being. Grounded in transactional stress frameworks (e.g., Harrell, 2000) researchers suggest that PED is an environmental stressor that influences an individual’s psychological well-being through mediating mechanisms such as coping responses. Coping responses, which entail a broad repertoire of cognitive and behavioral responses to environmental stressors, are often categorized broadly as active/passive or approach/avoidance strategies. Active and approach strategies generally have been linked to more positive outcomes, whereas passive and avoidance strategies typically have been found to be associated with negative outcomes. However, empirical evidence on these broad categories of coping strategies and PED does not paint such a clear picture. Some evidence suggests that greater active coping mediates the associations between more PED and less psychological distress (Alvarez & Juang, 2010). In contrast, Liang, Alvarez, Juang, and Liang (2007) reported that more active coping mediated the associations between greater perceived racism and worse racism-related stress. Finally, Bianchi and colleagues (2004) found that perceived discrimination was associated with less use of active coping, which partially
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explained poorer health behaviors. These dissimilar findings may be a result of differences in samples or in measures used across studies. It is also worth noting that categories of coping (i.e., active/passive, approach/avoidant) have been criticized for lacking clarity (Compas, Connor-Smith, Saltzman, Thomsen, & Wadsworth, 2001; Skinner, Edge, Altman, & Sherwood, 2003). For instance, these constructs often have different loadings across samples and may confound the roles of specific forms of coping (Litman, 2006). Perhaps as a response to the lack of definitional clarity associated with broad coping categories, research has examined more specific mechanisms that may mediate the relationship between PED and psychological distress. For instance, increased rumination, which entails repetitively and passively dwelling on negative emotions or events, accounted for the association between higher PED and worse distress (Borders & Liang, 2011). Relatedly, lower perceived control has also received support as a mechanism between greater PED and worse psychological distress (Moradi & Hasan, 2004; Moradi & Risco, 2006). Identifying specific maladaptive coping responses such as these should contribute clarity to the literature and might also suggest particular targets for clinical interventions. In this study, we examine the role of another specific coping response that may help explain the associations between PED and its many negative consequences.
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4. The current study This study examined the associations between PED, BUW, and several psychological outcomes that have been found to be associated with PED. Based on the literature, we hypothesized that stronger BUW would mediate the relationship between more PED and higher levels of aggression, depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and lower levels of social connectedness. 5. Methods 5.1. Participants The sample consisted of 170 ethnic minority students attending a small public liberal arts college in the northeast or a small private university in southern California. Approximately 77.6% of participants were female, 21.1% were male, and 0.3% were transgender. The sample was comprised mainly of heterosexual-identified individuals (97%). Approximately 35% were Latino/a, 25% were African American, 25% were Asian American, and 15% were ‘‘other’’ (e.g., biracial, Pacific Islander, Arab American, or ‘‘other’’). Participants’ mean age was 20 years (range = 18–44). 5.2. Measures and procedures
3. Belief in an unjust world The importance of worldviews has long been noted in understanding people’s reactions to traumatic events (Janoff-Bulman, 1992). Belief systems that attempt to explain status differences in society may be particularly relevant to perceived discrimination (Major, Kaiser, O’Brien, & McCoy, 2007). BUW, described as ‘‘cognitions that rationalize to the self that people often get what they do not deserve or do not get what they deserve’’ (Lench & Chang, 2007; p. 126), may be one set of world beliefs that emerge as a result of perceived injustice. Furnham and Procter (1989) argued that this belief system reflects a view of the world as unfair and arbitrary. Lench and Chang further proposed that BUW is a cognitive process that people engage into rationalize the negative experiences they witness or encounter. They conceptualize BUW as a defensive coping strategy that is a reaction to perceived injustices, which in turn is likely related to poorer psychological outcomes. In support of this hypothesis, Lench and Chang found that BUW was related to passive coping strategies such as mental and behavioral disengagement and denial. BUW was also associated with higher perceived future risk, as well as greater recent depressive symptoms and state anger. Therefore, we propose that BUW is a specific type of passive/avoidant coping that should serve to mediate the association between greater PED and worse psychological distress. BUW is related to but conceptually different from belief in a just world (BJW), or the beliefs that the world is fair and just and that people will be rewarded for their hard work. Repeated factor analyses have found that BJW and BUW are statistically distinct constructs (Dalbert, Lipkus, Sallay, & Goch, 2001; Lench & Chang, 2007; Loo, 2002). Dalbert and colleagues (2001) argue that BUW is not simply the absence of BJW but is a reaction to negative life events. The association between BUW and PED has never been examined. However, greater perceived discrimination has been found to be associated with weaker BJW (Lipkus & Siegler, 1993). Unfortunately, the statistical evidence mentioned above suggests that weaker BJW is not the same construct as BUW. Because BUW is conceptualized as a coping response to negative life events, we believe that it is a potential mediator in the association between PED and negative psychological functioning.
Participants completed an anonymous computer-based survey as part of an undergraduate psychology course requirement. The respondents completed questionnaires addressing PED, BUW, aggression, depressive and anxious symptoms, and sense of social connectedness, as well as a demographic questionnaire. The questionnaires were presented in random order for each participant. 5.2.1. Perceived ethnic discrimination Participants completed the General Ethnic Discrimination Scale (GEDS; Landrine, Klonoff, Corral, Fernandez, & Roesch, 2006), an 18-item measure of PED. On the first 17 items, respondents rate the frequency of perceived racist events during (a) the past year and (b) their entire life. Recent and life experiences with racism are rated on a 6-point scale from ‘‘never’’ to ‘‘almost all the time.’’ Respondents also indicate their appraisal of how stressful the experience was, on a 6 point scale from ‘‘not at all stressful’’ to ‘‘extremely stressful.’’ The final item on the questionnaire asks participants whether they would perceive their life differently if they had not experienced racism. Responses are summed to create subscale scores for recent PED (18 items), lifetime PED (18 items), and appraisal of discrimination (17 items). Higher scores indicated greater levels of PED. The GEDS has the same factor structure across different ethnic groups (Landrine et al., 2006) and shows comparable validity to other discrimination measures (Bastos, Celeste, Faerstein, & Barros, 2010). Given that recent discrimination has been found to have a more significant negative impact on mental health outcomes than lifetime experiences (Pascoe & Richman, 2009), only the recent PED scale was used. 5.2.2. Belief in an unjust world The 5-item Unjust Views Scale (Lench & Chang, 2007) assesses both personal and general beliefs in an unfair world (‘‘People who do evil things get away with it’’). The measure utilizes a 5-point Likert-type scale with responses ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). Higher summed scores indicate a greater BUW. This measure loaded on a separate factor than BJW, suggesting discriminant validity. Higher scores on this measure also correlated with greater use of denial and other disengagement coping strategies, providing support for its hypothesized function as a defensive coping strategy.
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5.2.3. Aggression The 29-item Aggression Questionnaire (Buss & Perry, 1992) was used to measure aggression (‘‘Given enough provocation, I may hit another person’’). Participants indicated how much each item describes them on a 5-point scale from ‘‘extremely uncharacteristic of me’’ to ‘‘extremely characteristic of me.’’ Higher summed scores reflect more aggression. This measure reliably differentiates between violent and non-violent samples and correlates with both peer and self reports of aggression, as well as observed aggressive behavior (O’Connor, Archer, & Wu, 2001). 5.2.4. Depressive symptoms The 20-item Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D; Radloff, 1977) is frequently used to measure depressed mood and cognitions, as well as physiological symptoms of depression (e.g., eating, sleeping). Participants respond to all items using a series of four anchored alternatives ranging from 0 to 3 in terms of severity. Higher summed scores indicate more depression. The CES-D shows convergent validity with other indices of depression and reflects individual differences in depressive severity in college samples (Radloff, 1991). 5.2.5. Social connectedness The 8-tem Social Connectedness Scale (SCS; Lee & Robbins, 1995) measures an individual’s closeness with peers, friends, and society (‘‘I don’t feel related to anyone’’). The measure utilizes a 6-point Likert-type scale with responses ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Higher summed scores represent a greater sense of belonging. The SCS shows significant correlations with collective self-esteem, personal self-esteem, and social support (Lee & Robbins, 1998). 5.2.6. Anxiety The 21-item Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI; Beck, Epstein, Brown, & Steer, 1988) assesses common symptoms of clinical anxiety, such as nervousness, fear of losing control, and related somatic symptoms. Participants indicate the degree to which they have been bothered by each symptom in the past month on a 4-point scale ranging from 0 (not at all) to 3 (severely). Higher summed scores indicate higher anxiety. The BAI demonstrated convergent validity with other measures of anxiety and was able to discriminate between anxious and non-anxious diagnostic groups (Beck et al., 1988). 5.3. Plan of analyses Path analyses were used to test whether BUW mediated the associations between PED and depressive symptoms, anxiety, aggression, and social connectedness. We used the MPlus program 5.0 (Muthén & Muthén, 1998–2007) with the missing at random assumption (Little & Rubin, 1987) and maximum likelihood estimation. First, we fit a model where the outcome variables were regressed on PED (see Fig. 1a). In this model, we allowed the outcome variables to intercorrelate. We then introduced BUW as a mediator in the model (see Fig. 1b). Traditionally, a test of mediation has several requirements (Baron & Kenny, 1986). First, the independent variable (IV; PED) must predict the dependent variables (DVs). Second, the IV must significantly predict the proposed mediator (BUW). Third, the mediator must predict the DVs, even with the IV also entered into the equation. If these three conditions are met, then the coefficients for the IV in this final equation are examined. Statistically, full mediation occurs when these coefficients drop to zero, indicating that the IV no longer affects the DVs after inclusion of the mediator. Partial mediation is indicated when the coefficients decrease in size.
There are several ways to test for significance of mediation. One promising method of testing indirect effects uses bootstrapping methodology (MacKinnon, Lockwood, & Williams, 2004). A ‘‘bootstrap sample’’ consists of N individuals sampled randomly with replacement from the original data set, where N is the size of the original dataset. One thousand bootstrap samples are created in this way, resulting in an empirical sampling distribution from which 95% confidence intervals can be estimated. These resampling methods have more power than traditional tests that assume normality (MacKinnon et al., 2004). Recent simulation studies suggest that the bias-corrected bootstrap method has greater power and more accurate Type I error rates than other bootstrap methods (Cheung & Lau, 2008; MacKinnon et al., 2004). Therefore, we calculated the estimated indirect effects as well as bias-corrected bootstrap confidence intervals for each DV (Preacher & Hayes, 2008). Any indirect effect whose confidence interval does not include zero is considered significantly different from zero, indicating a meaningful effect of mediation.
6. Results 6.1. Preliminary analyses Variables were first evaluated for deviations from normality. The discrimination and anxiety variables were positively skewed. PED required an inverse transformation to achieve acceptable normality1. The anxiety variable was corrected with a log transformation2. All other variables were normally distributed. Means, standard deviations, alphas and zero-order correlations are presented in Table 1. Anxiety was significantly associated with greater depressive symptoms and aggression and with less social connectedness. Depressive symptoms and aggression were significantly associated with less social connectedness. Depressive symptoms and aggression were modestly and positively correlated.
6.2. Test of mediation hypotheses To test the first requirement of mediation, we ran a path model with the four outcome variables regressed on PED. As predicted, higher PED was associated with lower levels of social connectedness and higher levels of aggression, anxiety, and depressive symptoms (Table 2, column 2). Next, we added BUW as a mediator variable. PED significantly predicted BUW, b = .36, p < .001, supporting the second requirement of mediation. Moreover, BUW significantly predicted anxiety, aggression, and social connectedness, but did not significantly predict depressive symptoms (Table 2, column 3). Thus, we found statistical support for the first three conditions of mediation for all of the DVs except depressive symptoms. We next examined how the bs between PED and outcomes changed with the inclusion of BUW. The coefficients for the associations between PED and anxiety, aggression, and social connectedness decreased in size with the inclusion of BUW, suggesting partial mediation (Table 2, column 4). We also calculated indirect effect estimates and bias-corrected bootstrap confidence intervals (Table 2, column 5). The indirect effects for anxiety, aggression, and social connectedness were all meaningfully different from zero, providing evidence for significant mediation with these variables. 1 Skewness values before and after inverse transformation were 1.60 and .12, respectively. Although using an inverse transformation changes the sign of variable, we will continue to report the variable such that higher values indicate higher levels of recent discrimination. 2 Skewness values before and after log transformation were 1.32 and .58, respectively.
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Fig. 1. (a) Path model with PED predicting outcome variables. (b) Mediation model with BUW mediating the association between PED and outcome variables. Note: PED = perceived ethnic discrimination, BUW = belief in unjust world. The models also included intercorrelations between all outcome variables (not shown on figures).
Table 1 Correlations and descriptive statistics. PEDa PED BUW SCS Anxiety symptoms Aggression Depressive symptoms M SD (Range) Alpha
– .36*** .22** .32*** .31*** .22** 30.15 11.82 (18–74) .92
BUW
SCS
Anxiety symptomsa
Aggression
Depressive symptoms
– .44*** .28*** 13.58 10.90 (0–52) .92
.19* 66.32 17.55 (32–111) .90
21.73 7.87 (0–40) .75
– .52*** .34*** .51*** .23** 13.86 3.65 (5–25) .80
– .32*** .30*** .30** 35.39 8.44 (8–48) .92
Note: PED = perceived ethnic discrimination, BUW = belief in unjust world, SCS = social connectedness. a For ease of interpretation, untransformed means, SDs, and ranges are presented. All correlations were run using transformed variables. * p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001.
7. Discussion The relationship between perceived PED and negative psychological and physiological health outcomes has been demonstrated in a number of studies (Pascoe & Richman, 2009). In line with this past research, we found that PED was related to higher levels of aggression, more anxious and depressive symptoms, and lower levels of social connectedness. More importantly, this study sought to examine the role of BUW in the association between PED and
psychological functioning. We found that stronger BUW statistically mediated the relationship between greater PED and higher anxiety, more aggression, and less social connectedness. Although cross-sectional, these results suggest that perceiving more ethnic discrimination may result in higher levels of BUW, which in turn contribute to anxiety, aggression, and decreased social connectedness. These findings support Lench and Chang’s (2007) contention that BUW is both an outcome of perceived or real experiences with trauma and a predictor of negative psychological
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Table 2 Mediation analyses. Dependent variable (DV)
Coefficient between IV (PED) and DV, without inclusion of mediator (BUW)
Coefficient between mediator (BUW) and DVa
Coefficient between IV (PED) and DV, with inclusion of mediator (BUW)
Estimated indirect effect (bias-corrected bootstrap CI)b
Social connectedness Aggression Depression symptoms Anxiety symptoms
.23*** .34*** .26*** .34***
.50*** .46*** .17 .27**
.05 .15* .20* .24**
.18 ( .28 to .17 (.09–.24) .06 (.00–.13) .10 (.02–.18)
.08)
Note: For ease of interpretation, all reported values are standardized coefficients and effect sizes. PED = perceived ethnic discrimination; BUW = belief in unjust world. a These values indicate the coefficient between the mediator (BUW) and the DV, when the IV (PED) is also entered in the equation. b Confidence intervals (CIs) that do not include zero indicate a significant indirect effect. * p < .05. ** p < .01. *** p < .001.
outcomes. One reason BUW may contribute to negative psychological functioning is that the repeated perception of identity-based microaggressions (e.g., racism, sexism) and perceived unfairness may result in individuals ‘‘giving up’’ on their meritocratic beliefs (Sue, 2010) as well as on their sense of hope (Clark et al., 1999). We should note that we only found evidence of partial mediation in our analyses. Therefore, other mechanisms also likely partially account for the links between PED and psychological distress. As discussed above, empirical evidence confirms the mediating role of different specific coping strategies (Borders & Liang, 2011; Moradi & Hasan, 2004; Moradi & Risco, 2006). Therefore, BUW may be just one consequence of experiencing discrimination that contributes to emotional distress. Moreover, BUW may influence other coping strategies that people use, and likewise other coping styles may influence the extent to which individuals develop the belief that the world is unfair. In turn, use of maladaptive coping strategies (e.g., rumination) may lead to further negative situations, resulting in an even stronger BUW. Further research should examine the associations between BUW and the strategies individuals use to cope with PED. BUW failed to significantly mediate the association between PED and depressive symptoms. This finding reflects the fact that BUW and depressive symptoms were weakly correlated in our sample. However, previous work found stronger associations than we did between BUW and depressive symptoms (Lench & Chang, 2007), suggesting the presence of moderator variables. One possible moderator is racial identity status, which influences how ethnic minority individuals relate to members of the in-group and outgroups, as well as themselves (Atkinson, Morten, & Sue, 1998). For instance, whereas individuals who are in the immersion status may experience anger and mistrust of out-group members and be anxiously hypervigilant (Helms, 1995) individuals in the conformity or dissonance stage may have lower internal self-esteem and more shame, respectively (Atkinson et al., 1998), contributing to depressive symptoms. Because we did not measure racial identity status, this explanation is speculative. Researchers might investigate this and other potential moderators of the associations between BUW and psychological distress. This study is not without limitations. First, because of the correlational nature of the study, any suggestion of causality must be made with caution. We cannot rule out other directional associations between variables, particularly the possibility that greater BUW influences PED. Moreover, BUW may itself be influenced by psychological distress. Future research, particularly longitudinal designs, will be necessary to determine the direction of these relationships. Second, the findings may not be generalized to individuals who are not college students. Non-college aged populations should be studied in future research. Third, data from multiple racial minority groups were aggregated in our analyses. Our limited sample size did not allow us to test the mediation models
for any one group. Thus, further tests of these mediation models for specific groups are recommended. Limitations notwithstanding, this study suggests that BUW is associated with greater PED and worse anxiety, aggression, and social connectedness. To our knowledge, this is the first study to examine these relationships. Future studies might extend this study by examining whether the association between BUW and negative psychological health outcomes is mediated by another variable. Further research also is needed to determine whether chronic PED results in stable BUW that put people at risk for negative chronic health outcomes. Alternatively, positive consequences of BUW, such as increased desire for and commitment to collective action, also should be studied.
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