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. 2021 May:144:110403.
doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychores.2021.110403. Epub 2021 Feb 22.

Keeping hope alive: Racial-ethnic disparities in distress tolerance are mitigated by religious/spiritual hope among Black Americans

Roger McIntosh  1 , Gail Ironson  2 , Neal Krause  3
Affiliations

Keeping hope alive: Racial-ethnic disparities in distress tolerance are mitigated by religious/spiritual hope among Black Americans

Roger McIntosh et al. J Psychosom Res. 2021 May.

Abstract

Racial and ethnic minorities, including Blacks/African-Americans and Hispanics/Latinos,indicate lower tolerance to psychological distress (DT) and secular hope yet endorse more religious and spiritual hope than their non-Hispanic White (NHW) counterparts. Whether racial-ethnic minorities derive greater benefit from non-secular hope on the tolerance of psychological distress remains unclear. Self-reported endorsement of religious/spiritual (R/S) hope, secular hope, DT, and a number of other psychosocial, R/S and sociodemographic variables were analyzed from a nationwide survey of persons aged over 18 years (N = 2875) identifying as Black (14.2%), Hispanic (15.4%), or NHW (67.3%) using multiple regression. Overall, higher levels of both R/S and secular hope predicted greater DT. In turn, greater DT was associated with lower psychosomatic distress. Compared to NHW, the ethnic-minority groups reported lower overall levels of DT. An interaction for race-ethnicity further revealed that compared to distress intolerant NHW, Blacks/African-Americans at lower levels of DT report higher R/S and secular hope. Hispanics/Latinos were also higher on R/S and secular hope, but endorsed lower hope at higher levels of DT than the reference group. Although hope is considered a more passive form of coping, it is more frequently endorsed in marginalized ethnic-minority groups. However, compared to NHW, differences do exist in the extent to which R/S hope mitigates DT in Blacks/African-Americans compared to Hispanics/Latinos.

Keywords: Distress intolerance; Positive psychology; Psychosomatic distress; Racial-ethnic disparity; Religion and spirituality.

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Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Significant interaction plotted for Black x Religious/Spiritual Hope on Distress tolerance (Top) and interaction for Hispanic x Religious/Spiritual Hope on Distress tolerance (Bottom).
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Significant interaction plotted for Black x general hope on distress tolerance (Top) and interaction for Hispanic x general hope on Distress tolerance (Bottom).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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