Coping Strategies as Moderators of the Relationship Between Race- and Gender-Based Discrimination and Psychological Symptoms for African American Women

The present study tested the moderating effect of culture-specific coping strategies to understand the relationships between race-and gender-based discrimination and psychological symptoms for African American women. Previous literature suggests that African American women experience adverse psychological outcomes related to race and gender discrimination. Therefore, it was hypothesized that coping strategies would influence the severity of discrimination-related psychological consequences, such that frequent use of coping efforts would be related to less severe psychological symptoms. Moderated structural equation modeling was used to test the study hypothesis. Results revealed that race and gender discrimination were associated with increased psychological symptoms. No moderating effect of coping strategies was found. Implications for future research are discussed.