An examination of cultural and race -related variables as predictors of Black men's psychological well -being

This study examined the relationship among African self-consciousness, Black racial identity, and Africultural coping as predictors of psychological distress and self-esteem in a sample of African American men. There is little literature that examines psychological distress and self-esteem in African-Americans, the purpose of this study was to determine if culturally relevant factors indigenous to the African American community are related to psychological well-being in African American men.;Participants were 130 Black men from a college and community sample recruited from the northeastern and southern regions of the United States, aged 18--25 years. Participants completed a demographic survey, the African Self-Consciousness Scale, a racial identity scale, the Africultural Coping System Inventory, a symptom checklist, and a self-esteem inventory.;Two main hypotheses were tested: (1) African self-consciousness, racial identity, and Africultural coping would be associated with psychological distress in African American men. (2) African self-consciousness, racial identity, and Africultural coping would be associated with self-esteem in African American men.;Pre-encounter ego status of the racial identity scale was positively related to psychological distress and negatively related to self-esteem. There was no support for the hypothesis that Immersion would be positively related to psychological distress and negatively related to self-esteem. The Internalization ego status of the racial identity scale was related to greater self-esteem, but not associated with psychological distress. Against expectation, two subscales of the Africultural Coping Systems Inventory, and African self-consciousness were positively related to psychological distress and not associated with self-esteem.;Findings suggest that racial and cultural identities predict African Americans men's psychological well-being in complex ways. There are psychological stressors for African American men who utilize the White majority as a reference group, but other psychological stressors for African American men who adopt a more Black frame of reference. African self-consciousness may provide a sense of pride and identification with other African Americans, but with greater psychological distress. Findings are discussed with implications for prevention and remediation efforts with African American men.