Citation

Odom EC, Vernon‐Feagans L. J. Marriage Fam. 2010; 72(2): 346-359.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, National Council on Family Relations, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1741-3737.2010.00704.x

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The current study examines racial discrimination as a predictor of depression in a sample of 414 rural, low‐income African American mothers of young children. The potential moderating role of optimism and church‐based social support was also examined. Mothers completed questionnaires when their child was 24 months old. Hierarchical regression revealed that mothers' perception of racism was a significant predictor of depression even after controlling for a variety of distal demographic characteristics and environmental stressors. Significant interactions suggested the importance of psychological and social characteristics in understanding maternal depression. Specifically, high levels of optimism and church‐based social support buffered mothers from increased depressive symptomology attributable to perceived racism.