TY - JOUR
T1 - Keeping hope alive
T2 - Racial-ethnic disparities in distress tolerance are mitigated by religious/spiritual hope among Black Americans
AU - McIntosh, Roger
AU - Ironson, Gail
AU - Krause, Neal
N1 - Funding Information:
GI and NK are supported by the John Templeton Foundation .
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/5
Y1 - 2021/5
N2 - Racial and ethnic minorities, including Blacks/African-Americans and Hispanics/Latinos,indicate lower tolerance to psychological distress (DT) and secular hope yet endorse more religious and spiritual hope than their non-Hispanic White (NHW) counterparts. Whether racial-ethnic minorities derive greater benefit from non-secular hope on the tolerance of psychological distress remains unclear. Self-reported endorsement of religious/spiritual (R/S) hope, secular hope, DT, and a number of other psychosocial, R/S and sociodemographic variables were analyzed from a nationwide survey of persons aged over 18 years (N = 2875) identifying as Black (14.2%), Hispanic (15.4%), or NHW (67.3%) using multiple regression. Overall, higher levels of both R/S and secular hope predicted greater DT. In turn, greater DT was associated with lower psychosomatic distress. Compared to NHW, the ethnic-minority groups reported lower overall levels of DT. An interaction for race-ethnicity further revealed that compared to distress intolerant NHW, Blacks/African-Americans at lower levels of DT report higher R/S and secular hope. Hispanics/Latinos were also higher on R/S and secular hope, but endorsed lower hope at higher levels of DT than the reference group. Although hope is considered a more passive form of coping, it is more frequently endorsed in marginalized ethnic-minority groups. However, compared to NHW, differences do exist in the extent to which R/S hope mitigates DT in Blacks/African-Americans compared to Hispanics/Latinos.
AB - Racial and ethnic minorities, including Blacks/African-Americans and Hispanics/Latinos,indicate lower tolerance to psychological distress (DT) and secular hope yet endorse more religious and spiritual hope than their non-Hispanic White (NHW) counterparts. Whether racial-ethnic minorities derive greater benefit from non-secular hope on the tolerance of psychological distress remains unclear. Self-reported endorsement of religious/spiritual (R/S) hope, secular hope, DT, and a number of other psychosocial, R/S and sociodemographic variables were analyzed from a nationwide survey of persons aged over 18 years (N = 2875) identifying as Black (14.2%), Hispanic (15.4%), or NHW (67.3%) using multiple regression. Overall, higher levels of both R/S and secular hope predicted greater DT. In turn, greater DT was associated with lower psychosomatic distress. Compared to NHW, the ethnic-minority groups reported lower overall levels of DT. An interaction for race-ethnicity further revealed that compared to distress intolerant NHW, Blacks/African-Americans at lower levels of DT report higher R/S and secular hope. Hispanics/Latinos were also higher on R/S and secular hope, but endorsed lower hope at higher levels of DT than the reference group. Although hope is considered a more passive form of coping, it is more frequently endorsed in marginalized ethnic-minority groups. However, compared to NHW, differences do exist in the extent to which R/S hope mitigates DT in Blacks/African-Americans compared to Hispanics/Latinos.
KW - Distress intolerance
KW - Positive psychology
KW - Psychosomatic distress
KW - Racial-ethnic disparity
KW - Religion and spirituality
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2021.110403
DO - 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2021.110403
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85102365200
VL - 144
JO - Journal of Psychosomatic Research
JF - Journal of Psychosomatic Research
SN - 0022-3999
M1 - 110403
ER -