RESUMEN
BACKGROUND: Race-related stress negatively impacts the mental health of Black Americans to a greater degree than other racialized groups. Additionally, trauma exposure is associated with more severe levels of posttraumatic stress disorder for individuals who also experience race-related stress. Therefore, an accurate assessment of race-related stress in a trauma-exposed sample of Black Americans is necessary to ensure the validity and reliability of empirical findings regarding race-related stress and intervention efficacy. The Index of Race-Related Stress (IRRS) is one of the most commonly used measures to assess race-related stress among Black Americans. Due to a lack of psychometric support for the abbreviated version of IRRS-brief (IRRS-B) on a trauma-exposed sample of Black Americans, our study aims to address this gap in literature. METHOD: We used item response theory (IRT) to assess item difficulty, discrimination, and factor structure in a sample of trauma-exposed Black Americans (n = 226). We employed a multidimensional graded response model with corresponding items loaded on to the three previously established factors of the IRRS. RESULTS: The most discriminating items asked about observing harsh treatment of Black individuals, experiencing less courtesy in establishments, and being stared at as though you do not belong. The item with the lowest difficulty described negative media representation of Black individuals while the item with the highest difficulty described lack of positive media portrayals of Black Americans. DISCUSSION: These results indicate that items varied considerably in the degree to which they adequately captured race-related stress. Future research should use IRT with newly worded questions to further improve the assessment of race-related stress in Black Americans. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
RESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: Racism is a multifaceted system of oppression that disproportionately harms Black mothers and children across the lifespan. Despite reliable evidence that racism is associated with worse mental health outcomes (eg, increased depressive symptoms), less is known about potential intergenerational effects of Black mothers' experiences of racism on children's mental health, as well as how traumatic experiences influence these pathways. In this cross-sectional quantitative study, we aimed (1) to replicate the finding that maternal experiences of racism are associated with both maternal and child depression; (2) to identify whether maternal experiences of racism are indirectly associated with child depression via the effect of maternal depression; and (3) to test whether the indirect effect of racism on child depression via maternal depression is conditioned on maternal trauma. METHOD: Black mothers and their children (N = 148 dyads) were recruited from an urban hospital and were interviewed about their experiences of racism, trauma, and mental health symptoms. The mothers' average age was 35.16 years (SD = 8.75) and the children's average age was 10.03 years (SD = 1.51). RESULTS: First, we found that maternal experiences of racism were associated with more severe maternal depression (r = 0.37, p < .01) as well as more severe child depression (r = 0.19, p = .02). Second, we found that maternal experiences of racism were indirectly associated with child depression through the effect of maternal depression (ab = 0.76, 95% CI = 0.26, 1.37). Third, we found that maternal trauma exposure moderated this indirect effect such that, at relatively lower levels of maternal trauma exposure, the indirect effect of maternal experiences of racism on child depression was nonsignificant (ωlow = -0.05, 95% CI = -0.50, 0.45), whereas at relatively higher levels of maternal trauma exposure, the indirect effect of maternal experiences of racism on child depression was statistically significant (ωhigh= .65, 95% CI = 0.21, 1.15). CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that the indirect effect of maternal experiences of racism on child depression through the effect of maternal depression depends on the degree of maternal trauma exposure. This study advances the literature by shedding light on key processes that can explain the intergenerational effects of racism as well as contextual factors that can exacerbate racism's downstream consequences across generations.
