10.1177/0095798414560018">
 

Title

The moderating role of coping strategies in understanding the effects of intragroup race-related stressors on academic performance and overall levels of perceived stress for African American students

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2015

Department/School

Teacher Education

Publication Title

Journal of Black Psychology

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to test coping strategies as moderators of the effects of intragroup race-related stressors on academic performance and overall perceived stress for 201 African American students at a predominantly White college institution. Few investigations have documented effects of intragroup race-related difficulties for African American college students. Even fewer investigations have pinpointed types of coping efforts that are used to address intragroup race-related difficulty. It was hypothesized that coping strategies would moderate the effects of intragroup race-related stressors on academic performance and perceived stress, such that adaptive strategies would be associated with low levels of perceived stress and positive academic performance, whereas maladaptive strategies were expected to be associated with high levels of perceived stress and poor academic performance in relation to exposure to intragroup race-related stressors. Moderated regression analyses revealed no significant interactions in predicting academic performance. Results further revealed that greater use of disengagement strategies were associated with increased levels of perceived stress in relation to increased exposure to intragroup race-related stressors. Implications of the findings are discussed.

ISSN

0095-7984

Volume

41

Issue

6

Pages

565-585

Link to Published Version

10.1177/0095798414560018

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