Discrimination, attributional tendencies, generalized self-efficacy, and assertiveness as predictors of psychological distress among African Americans

This study tested whether perceived past racial discrimination and a tendency to attribute negative outcomes across varied life situations to racial prejudice or discrimination (TAND) predicted unique variance in psychological distress among 195 African American college students. The authors also examined whether generalized self-efficacy and assertiveness uniquely predicted distress and moderated hypothesized TAND distress and past discrimination-distress relationships. Both generalized self-efficacy and as sertiveness inversely predicted distress, accounting together for about 12% of the variance in distress. Past discrimination and age also inversely predicted distress, together accounting for about 14% of the variance. Assertiveness partly mediated the relationship between generalized self-efficacy and psychological distress. These results suggest that counselors can help reduce African American clients' psychological distress by augmenting their general self-efficacy and assertiveness.