Skin tone, life satisfaction, and psychological distress among African Americans: The mediating effect of stigma consciousness

Asia T. McCleary-Gaddy; Drexler James

doi:10.1177/1359105320954251

Skin tone, life satisfaction, and psychological distress among African Americans: The mediating effect of stigma consciousness

Asia T. McCleary-Gaddy, Drexler James

Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

12 Scopus citations

Abstract

This study examined the indirect effect of skin tone on psychological distress via (1) stigma consciousness and (2) life satisfaction among African American adults (N = 780; %Female = 57.65%; M_age = 37.68). Results show indirect effects of (1) skin tone on life satisfaction and (2) skin tone on psychological distress, each via stigma consciousness. Specifically, those with darker (vs. lighter) skin tones reported increased stigma consciousness, which then predicted (1) lower life satisfaction and (2) lower levels of psychological distress. Life satisfaction did not predict psychological distress. Implications for African American mental health are discussed.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	422-431
Number of pages	10
Journal	Journal of Health Psychology
Volume	27
Issue number	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/1359105320954251
State	Published - Feb 2022

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020.

Keywords

African Americans
life satisfaction
psychological distress
skin tone
stigma consciousness

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Applied Psychology

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1177/1359105320954251

Cite this

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abstract = "This study examined the indirect effect of skin tone on psychological distress via (1) stigma consciousness and (2) life satisfaction among African American adults (N = 780; %Female = 57.65%; Mage = 37.68). Results show indirect effects of (1) skin tone on life satisfaction and (2) skin tone on psychological distress, each via stigma consciousness. Specifically, those with darker (vs. lighter) skin tones reported increased stigma consciousness, which then predicted (1) lower life satisfaction and (2) lower levels of psychological distress. Life satisfaction did not predict psychological distress. Implications for African American mental health are discussed.",

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AB - This study examined the indirect effect of skin tone on psychological distress via (1) stigma consciousness and (2) life satisfaction among African American adults (N = 780; %Female = 57.65%; Mage = 37.68). Results show indirect effects of (1) skin tone on life satisfaction and (2) skin tone on psychological distress, each via stigma consciousness. Specifically, those with darker (vs. lighter) skin tones reported increased stigma consciousness, which then predicted (1) lower life satisfaction and (2) lower levels of psychological distress. Life satisfaction did not predict psychological distress. Implications for African American mental health are discussed.

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Skin tone, life satisfaction, and psychological distress among African Americans: The mediating effect of stigma consciousness

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

UN SDGs

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