Citation

McNeil SN, Fincham FD, Beach SR. Fam. Process 2014; 53(1): 109-119.

Affiliation

Department of Family and Child Sciences, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2014, Family Process Institute, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/famp.12054

PMID

24251910

Abstract

Social stress theory proposes that stress resulting from one's social position in society leads to fewer coping resources, and subsequently causes an increase in mental health problems. Guided by this framework, we investigated whether the relationship between perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms was moderated by spousal social support in a sample of 487 African American heterosexual couples. Using the actor-partner interdependence model, findings suggested that female partner's perceived racial discrimination was predictive of her depressive symptomology irrespective of spousal support and male partner's perceived racial discrimination was predictive of depressive symptomology only among men with low levels of spousal support. No partner effects were present. The results demonstrate the need to examine variability in social stress and mental health outcomes for those in close relationships.

Language: en