Racial Discrimination, Mastery, and Depressive Symptoms Among African American Men

Background and Purpose: The healthy development of African American men may largely depend on successful resolution of conflicts and mastery of tasks at each stage of adult development (Bowman, 1989). While approaches to studying depressive symptoms among African American men of different age-linked life stages have been limited, fewer studies have compared the influence of racial discrimination and mastery on depressive symptoms among African American men across life stages.

Methods: This study examines the influence of racial discrimination and mastery on depressive symptoms for African American men at young (18-34), middle (35-54), and late (55+) adulthood. Analyses are based on responses from 1271 African American men from the National Survey of American Life. Multivariate regression models were used to test both racial discrimination and mastery against depressive symptoms, while controlling for potential confounders such as age, education, income, employment status and marital status.

Results: On average, men in the middle adult group had attained the most education, with 14% of them having completed a graduate or professional degree program. Men in the middle adult group also reported the highest rate of employment (81%) while men in the late adult group were more likely to be married (52%) than men in the young and middle adult groups. Men in the late adult groups also reported lower racial discrimination, mastery, and CES-D scores than men in the other groups. Racial discrimination was found to be highly correlated with depressive symptoms for only African American male respondents aged 35-54. Mastery, alternatively, was found to be protective against depressive symptoms for all men in the sample.

Conclusions and Implications: Findings demonstrate the distinct differences among adult African American males and the need for future research that explores the socio-demographic and psychosocial correlates of depressive symptoms across different age-linked life stages. Future studies should also examine the impact of African American men's 'lived experiences' and incorporate intrinsically important social determinants that influence their lives, such as socio-economic status, successful life transitions, and gender role socialization. Logical next steps would involve proposing other determinants that could potentially influence the mental health of African American men and exerting greater effort toward understanding within and between group differences. Strategies to improve African American men's psychological resilience to risk factors are needed, and more focused research can help inform efforts to promote their positive transitions and mental health trajectories.