The Impact of Cultural and Institutional Race-Related Stress on Mental Health Outcomes Among Ethnic/Racially Minoritized Young Adults: Ethnic Identity as a Protective Factor

Racism is multidimensional with three main domains: individual, cultural, and institutional. Much of the research linking racism/race-related stress to negative health outcomes have focused on race-related stress based on full-scale scores or within the individual domain of racism. Far less research has examined the cultural and institutional domains. Thus, the present study examined whether (a) there is a direct positive effect of cultural and institutional race-related stress on anxiety and depressive symptoms among a sample of ethnic/racially minoritized (ERM) young adults and whether (b) ethnic identity affirmation, belongingness, and commitment (EI-ABC), which has been identified as a protective factor of racism, buffers the effect of cultural and institutional race-related stress on symptoms of anxiety and depression. A total of 515 ERM young adults (58.5% females, M-age = 23.94, SD = 5.86) completed an online study examining stress and health outcomes among ERM young adults. A series of multiple regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between race-related stress and anxiety and depressive symptoms and the moderating role of EI-ABC. Cultural and institutional race-related stress were found to significantly predict symptoms of depression and anxiety. Further, EI-ABC significantly buffered the effect of cultural (but not institutional) race-related stress on anxiety symptoms. Interventions for cultural race-related stress among ERMs that target anxiety symptoms should include building high EI-ABC. Additional research should identify factors that may alleviate symptoms of anxiety or depression associated with experiencing cultural and institutional race-related stress among ERM young adults.