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Structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationships among stress, social support, negative interaction, and mental health in a sample of African American men and women between ages 18 and 54 (N = 591) from the National Comorbidity Study. The study findings indicated that social support decreased the number of depressive symptoms, did not mitigate the effects of stress, and was reduced in response to financial strain. Financial strain and traumatic events were associated with increased negative interaction with relatives and depressive symptoms. The findings verify that stressful and traumatic events have direct influences on levels of depressive symptoms and affect the quality of social interactions and suggest how social interaction processes contribute to mental health.
Key Words: African Americans, depression, negative interaction, social support.
Informal social support networks are important for health and well-being and can be particularly helpful during difficult times. Social interactions involving support network members, however, can also be a source of stress. Recent evidence examining negative social interactions (e.g., criticisms, excessive demands) documents both the costs and benefits of social relationships for mental health (e.g., Lakey, Tardiff, & Drew, 1994; Okun & Keith, 1998; Swindle, Heller, & Frank, 2000). With few exceptions, however, studies on this topic rarely focus on social support and negative interactions within representative samples of African Americans (Lincoln, 2000). The lack of studies on this topic on African Americans and other racial minority groups fosters an assumption of race or ethnic similarity that characterizes a good deal of social science research (Hunt, 1996; Hunt, Jackson, Powell, & Steelman, 2000); that is, social theories and models are conceptually and functionally equivalent across racial and ethnic groups.
The current investigation, drawing on a representative sample of African Americans, uses structural equation modeling to examine the effects of social support and negative interactions on depressive symptoms among African Americans. The study explores whether these constructs mediate the effects of stressful and traumatic events on depressive symptoms. The following sections discuss the relevant literature for this investigation and a conceptual model that depicts the proposed relationships among model constructs.
Informal Social Support Networks of African Americans
The reliance on informal networks as a viable and consistent source of support to African Americans (Taylor, Chatters, & Jackson, 1997)...