Racial Identity and Sense of Belonging: Moderators of Black College Students' Institutional Race-Related Stress and Anxious Arousal

Objectives: Race-related stress due to institutional racism is a pervasive reality for Black college students and contributes to poor mental health outcomes such as anxious arousal symptoms. One framework which may account for this association between chronic stress and anxious arousal symptoms is the reserve capacity model. This study investigated whether racial identity dimensions (racial centrality, public regard, private regard) and sense of belonging to the racial group contribute to this population's reserve capacity and buffer the association between institutional race-related stress and anxious arousal symptoms. Method: A sample of 134 Black college students completed racial identity, sense of belonging, and mental health questionnaires. These data were subjected to multiple regression analysis to assess the main and interactive effects of institutional race-related stress and dimensions of interest as predictors of anxious arousal symptoms. Results: The analysis indicated that higher levels of institutional race-related stress, racial centrality, and public regard were each associated with higher levels of anxious arousal while higher levels of private regard and sense of belonging were associated with lower levels of anxious arousal. Further investigation of interaction effects revealed that high levels of sense of belonging and low levels of public regard, respectively, buffered the association between institutional race-related stress and anxious arousal symptoms. Conclusions: These findings illustrate how certain racial identity dimensions and sense of belonging contribute to the reserve capacity of Black students experiencing institutional race-related stress. Results are further discussed in the context of extant literature on Black racial identity and the university context.