Education and Human Sciences, College of (CEHS)
First Advisor
Michael J. Scheel
Date of this Version
Fall 10-4-2019
Document Type
Thesis
Citation
Emery, A. D. The Protective Influence of Self-Compassion Against Internalized Racism Among African Americans (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE.
Abstract
Racist experiences and internalized racism may lead to poorer mental health outcomes for African Americans born and socialized in the United States (Graham, West, Martinez & Roemer, 2016; Mouzon & McLean, 2017). Self-compassion has been shown to protect against poor mental health outcomes, but limited research exists with respect to African Americans specifically (Lockard, Hayes, Neff and Locke, 2014). The present study explored whether self-compassion could serve as a protective factor between the relations of internalized racism and racist experiences, and the negative mental health outcomes of anxiety, depression, and stress among (N = 230) African American adults. To examine these relations, structural equation modeling was utilized to determine the best fit for the data. Though both internalized racism and racist experiences negatively predicted self-compassion, racist experiences failed to predict anxiety, depression, and stress, while internalized racism did positively predict these mental health outcomes. Self-compassion also was found to negatively predict anxiety, depression, and stress. Further analysis of fit statistics suggested that the model excluding racist experiences demonstrated best model fit. Ultimately, it was found self-compassion moderated the relation between internalized racism, and anxiety, depression and stress.
Advisor: Michael J. Scheel
Comments
A DISSERTATION Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy, Major: Psychological Studies in Education (Counseling Psychology), Under the Supervision of Professor Michael J. Scheel. Lincoln, Nebraska: October, 2019
Copyright 2019 Alexandra D. Emery