Ethnic Harassment, Ethnic Identity Centrality, and Well-Being

• Published in: Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities Vol. 5; no. 5; pp. 1118 - 1130
• Main Authors: Wolfram, Hans-Joachim, Linton, Kenisha, McDuff, Nona
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer Science + Business Media 01.10.2018; Springer International Publishing; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Black people; Black white relations; College students; Cultural identity; Emotions; Epidemiology; Ethnic factors; Ethnic groups; Ethnic identity; Ethnicity; Evaluation; Gender; Gender aspects; Gender identity; Harassment; Hypotheses; Medicine; Medicine & Public Health; Minority & ethnic groups; Minority groups; ORIGINAL PAPERS; Positive emotions; Protective factors; Quality of Life Research; Respondents; Risk factors; Self esteem; Social Inequality; Social Structure; Undergraduate students; Variables; Well being; Identity centrality; Well-being; Discrimination; Ethnic harassment
• ISSN: 2197-3792; 2196-8837
• DOI: 10.1007/s40615-018-0461-6

In this study, we examined the direct effect of (positive vs. negative) evaluation of potentially harassing experiences due to ethnic background on impaired well-being as well as the moderating effect of ethnic identity centrality on the relationship between (lower vs. higher) frequency of potentially harassing experiences and impaired well-being. Using a gender-balanced sample with equal proportions of black and minority ethnic and white undergraduate students (N = 240), we found that, expectedly, ethnic identity centrality intensified the effects of higher frequency of potentially harassing experiences on lower self-esteem and lower positive affect. Unexpectedly, however, gender identity centrality buffered the effects of higher frequency as well as more negative evaluation of potentially harassing experiences on lower self-esteem, indicating that gender identity centrality may be a protective resource, even though it is not specific to ethnic harassment. Exploratory analyses revealed that for black and minority ethnic respondents with high ethnic identity centrality and for white respondents with low ethnic identity centrality, there were associations between more negative evaluation of potentially harassing experiences and lower self-esteem and lower positive affect. This finding might indicate that ethnic identity centrality was a risk factor in black and ethnic minority respondents, but a protective factor in white respondents.