The Protective Role of Religious Involvement in African American and Caribbean Black Adolescents’ Experiences of Racial Discrimination

Abstract

For many Black adolescents, racial discrimination increases the risk of developing adverse psychological outcomes. The purpose of this study is to investigate the interrelationships among religious involvement, racial discrimination, and psychological outcomes among a nationally representative sample of African American adolescents and Caribbean Black adolescents from the National Survey of American Life. Multiple regression models were used to determine the interactive effects of religious involvement and racial discrimination experiences on Black adolescents’ psychological outcomes. Findings indicate that religious involvement was a protective factor for Caribbean Black adolescents but not African American youth. The implications of these findings underscore the varied roles of religious involvement for African American and Caribbean Black adolescents.

Keywords

religious involvement racial discrimination protective factor psychological functioning adolescents

Introduction

Adolescence is the developmental period when youth have new experiences as they venture beyond their families. For Black adolescents,¹ some of those experiences may involve racial discrimination. Racial discrimination refers to actions embedded within systems under the control of dominant groups intending to differentiate treatment and ensure negative impacts for subordinate racial groups (Cashmore, 1996; Fishbein, 1996; Seaton, Caldwell, Sellers, & Jackson, 2008; Williams, Neighbors, & Jackson, 2003). Whether covert or overt, frequent racial discrimination experiences can negatively impact psychological outcomes among Black adolescents (e.g., Brody et al., 2006; Seaton et al., 2008; Sellers, Copeland-Linder, Martin, & Lewis, 2006; Simons, Chen, Stewart, & Brody, 2003). In addition, frequent racial discrimination experiences could adversely impact the development and preservation of interpersonal relationships across different life domains such as school, church, and society (Martin, 2011; Mattis & Jagers, 2001; Mattis & Mattis, 2011). However, despite adolescents’ exposure to racial discrimination, not all students are impacted by these experiences. According to Neblett, Rivas-Drake, and Umaña-Taylor (2012), ethnic and racial identity, cultural orientation, and ethnic racial socialization can serve as promotive and protective factors against racial and ethnic discrimination experiences. Our study considers another culturally based protective factor, religiosity. Research on Black adolescents has identified the church as one significant domain that Black youth use as a coping resource (e.g., Wallace & Forman, 1998). Previous research on religiosity among Black adolescents has reported that religious involvement has some positive benefits, helping youth transcend problems such as substance abuse (Wallace, Brown, Bachman, & Laveist, 2003), teenage pregnancy (McCree, Wingood, DiClemente, Davies, & Harrington, 2003), and low academic achievement (Mattis & Mattis, 2011). Thus, the purpose of this study is to examine religious involvement as a protective factor between racial discrimination and psychological outcomes among Black American youth.

Racial Discrimination Among African American and Caribbean Black Adolescents

A growing body of research indicates that Black adolescents have repeated racial discrimination experiences (e.g., Fisher, Wallace, & Fenton, 2000; Gibbons, Gerrard, Cleveland, Wills, & Brody, 2004; Greene, Way, & Pahl, 2006; Sellers et al., 2006; Simons et al., 2003). Gibbons et al. (2004) found that 91% of African American adolescents reported at least one racial discrimination experience in their lifetime. Simons et al. (2003) reported that 67% of their preadolescent sample indicated that they had been insulted because they were African American, 46% had experienced racial slurs, 33% had been excluded from an activity due to race, and 18% indicated that they had been threatened with physical harm because they were African American. African American adolescents also report that their schools are contexts in which they frequently have racial discrimination experiences (Cooper, McLoyd, Wood, & Hardaway, 2008; DeCuir-Gunby, Martin, & Cooper, 2012). These types of racial discrimination experiences among African American adolescents have been linked to numerous emotional problems (e.g., Brody et al., 2006; Sellers et al., 2006), juvenile delinquency (Prelow, Danoff-Burg, Swenson, & Pulgiano, 2004), substance abuse (Gibbons et al., 2004; Guthrie, Young, Williams, Boyd, & Kintner, 2002), externalizing behaviors such as “cursing out loud” (Scott, 2003, p. 528), lower self-esteem (Wong, Eccles, & Sameroff, 2003) and lower academic achievement in school (Brody et al., 2006; Eccles, Wong, & Peck, 2006; R. D. Taylor, Casten, Flickinger, Roberts, & Fulmore, 1994). Furthermore, empirical research indicates that racial discrimination experiences have a deleterious impact on African American adolescents’ psychological outcomes over time (Brody et al., 2006; English, Lambert, & Ialongo, 2014; Gibbons et al., 2012; Lambert, Herman, Bynum, & Ialongo, 2009).

To date, few studies have examined the racial discrimination experiences of Blacks in the United States who are native to other parts of the African Diaspora. Seaton et al. (2008), using nationally representative data, reported that 90% of Caribbean Black adolescents had racial discrimination experiences in the past year. This study also found that racial discrimination experiences might have more deleterious impact on Caribbean Black adolescents’ psychological outcomes than on the psychological outcomes of their African American counterparts. In a longitudinal study of ethnically diverse, immigrant adolescents, Portes and Rumbaut (2001) reported that Caribbean Black adolescents (especially Haitians and Jamaicans) believed that attainment of higher education would not protect them from future racial discrimination experiences. Thomas, Caldwell, Faison, and Jackson (2009) corroborated these findings, citing that some Caribbean Black adolescents reported discrimination from their teachers. Consequently, additional research needs to clarify how protective factors may mitigate racial discrimination experiences among Black adolescents. One such protective factor is religious involvement among Black youth (i.e., African American and Caribbean Black).

Religious Involvement Among African American and Caribbean Black Adolescents

Empirical studies indicate that African American adolescents place a high importance on religion and report higher levels of religious involvement (Donahue & Benson, 1995; C. Smith, Faris, Denton, & Regnerus, 2003) in comparison with other groups of American adolescents (Ball, Armistead, & Austin, 2003; Donahue & Benson, 1995; Markstrom, 1999; Wallace et al., 2003). In addition, the preponderance of this research on African American adolescents’ religious involvement concentrates on the relationship between religion and health-risk behaviors. For instance, among African American adolescents, religious involvement is associated with less involvement in premarital sex and substance use (Ball et al., 2003; McCree et al., 2003; Nasim, Corona, Belgrave, Utsey, & Fallah, 2007; Nasim, Utsey, Corona, & Belgrave, 2006; Wallace et al., 2003). Other studies suggest that religious involvement serves as a protective factor against a number of health-risk behaviors that typically increase during the adolescent period like juvenile delinquency and aggression (e.g., see Cotton, Zebracki, Rosenthal, Tsevat, & Drotar, 2006; Rew & Wong, 2006, for reviews). In summary, these studies highlight the importance of religious involvement in promoting healthy development.

The religion research on Caribbean Black adolescents is less clear as very few studies have focused on the religious beliefs and practices of Caribbean Black adolescents within the U.S. context. However, the religion research on Caribbean adolescents residing on their native islands may help explain the role of religious involvement on psychological outcomes. For example, Maharajh, Ali, and Konings (2006) found that church attendance and prayer was associated with lower depression rates among Trinidadian and Tobago adolescents. In a study using representative samples of adolescents from nine Caribbean countries, church attendance was associated with fewer violent behaviors and premarital sex (Blum et al., 2003). Although there is reason to believe Caribbean adolescents might have similarities with African American adolescents regarding religious involvement (Chatters, Taylor, Jackson, & Lincoln, 2008; R. J. Taylor, Chatters, & Jackson, 2009), there is still much more research on African American adolescents’ religious involvement in comparison with Caribbean Black American adolescents. This is a major concern as there continues to be few research studies exploring the experiences of African American and Caribbean Black American adolescents and the role of religiosity. Too often in the research literature, the experiences of religiosity within the United States have focused on the experiences of African American adults and Caribbean Black adults. Our focus is on the diaspora of Black American adolescents and how religiosity operates.

Our focus on the racial and ethnic differences of Black Americans is similar to empirical studies that explore the diversity within Latinos (e.g., Dominican, Puerto Rican, or Colombian) and Asians (e.g., Chinese, Japanese, or Korean); see ADD Health http://www.cpc.unc.edu/projects/addhealth/data and the Latino National Survey http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/RCMD/studies/20862. Our study contributes to this work by seeking to explore whether and how religiosity is associated with the mental health outcomes of African American and Caribbean Black youth by using the National Survey of American Life (NSAL). Thus, our study is exploratory because of the dearth of research on the diversity of Black American adolescents and the use of religiosity in everyday life. This is especially important as various religious attitudes and beliefs have been documented in the literature as being related to specific mental health outcomes (e.g., Krause, 2006; R. J. Taylor, Chatters, & Joe, 2011). According to R. J. Taylor et al. (2011), organizational religiosity is the frequency in which one attends formal religious services (e.g., church attendance), non-organizational religiosity is the amount of time spent engaging in religious activities (prayer and reading scriptures), and subjective religiosity is the overall importance of being religious in everyday life (i.e., self-report of the importance of religion). Chatters, Taylor, Bullard, and Jackson (2009) found that older African Americans were more likely to report higher levels of organizational and non-organizational religiosity. However, in comparison, older Caribbean Blacks reported higher non-organizational religious behavior. R. J. Taylor, Chatters, and Jackson (2007) found that religious patterns existed between older African American and Caribbean Black Americans, with Caribbean Americans reporting higher subjective religiosity, while older African Americans reported higher levels of organizational religious behaviors. Our work extends this line of research by exploring the religious beliefs and attitudes of African American and Caribbean Black adolescents because it is unclear how these religious beliefs and attitudes buffer the negative impact of racial discrimination experiences on mental health outcomes.

Risk and Resilience Framework

Not all Black adolescents succumb to racial discrimination’s negative outcomes. In the current study, a risk and resilience framework helps explain differences in vulnerability to negative outcomes (e.g., Fergus & Zimmerman, 2005; Garmezy, 1991; Masten, 1994). According to Fergus and Zimmerman (2005), resilience results from promotive factors that facilitate well-being despite risk exposures. Promotive factors may be internal assets (i.e., coping skills, intelligence) or external resources (i.e., family support) that buffer the negative effects of exposure to risk on developmental outcomes (Fergus & Zimmerman, 2005; Zimmerman et al., 2013). Although several models have been used to explain how promotive factors contribute to positive developmental outcomes, the protective model of resilience (Fergus & Zimmerman, 2005) will be examined in the present study. In the protective model, the promotive factor (i.e., non-organizational, organizational, & subjective religiosity) buffers the effects of risk exposures (e.g., racial discrimination experiences) such that the relationship between risk exposure and negative outcomes is weaker for individuals with higher levels of the promotive factor than their peers with lower levels of the promotive factor. Therefore, statistical analysis of this model requires a test for the buffering role of the promotive factor (Zimmerman, Bingenheimer, & Notaro, 2002). For instance, the belief in eternal life may cause Black adolescents to interpret hardship as a temporary setback or they may attribute stressful events as God’s will and these perspectives may help them cope in more adaptive ways. Gaylord-Harden and Cunningham (2009) found that discrimination stress predicted cultural coping strategies, including spiritual coping. These findings underscore a need to examine cultural coping resources such as religious involvement as promotive factors among minority youth. In the present study, we examine the following aspects of religious involvement as promotive factors: prayer (non-organizational), church attendance (organizational), and subjective religiosity.

For African American adolescents, research documents that talking to God through prayer may provide opportunities to actively seek support and process religious cognitions (Humphrey, Hughes, & Holmes, 2008; Mattis & Mattis, 2011). In addition, church attendance may provide adolescents with external resources like increased social support and tangible resources for coping with stressful events (Mattis & Mattis, 2011; R. J. Taylor, Chatters, & Levin, 2004), and opportunities to mobilize, worship, and fellowship with other church members. Unfortunately, much less is known about how religious involvement aids Caribbean Black adolescents in the United States. Like their African American counterparts, these adolescents may use religious involvement as an external resource. The little available research on Caribbean Black adolescents’ religious involvement does note that they access cultural values via their church involvement. For instance, Caribbean Black churches may convey messages about academic achievement and education attainment to their congregants (i.e., adults and adolescents alike). Moreover, Caribbean Black adolescents attending churches may be exposed to religious messages, which incorporate island traditions. Some of those religious messages might address Americanization to help adolescents traverse deterrents (e.g., racially based discrimination experiences) to their upward mobility in U.S. society, especially challenges due to their status as the children or grandchildren of immigrants. Depending on whether they are first-, second-, or third-generation Americans, church-going Caribbean Black adolescents may fully adhere to religious teachings concerning how best to navigate U.S. society as persons of color. Because Black Americans are not monolith in their experiences, there are differences between race and ethnicity as it pertains to a psychological phenomenon and how the role of race and ethnicity matters. Race implies physiognomic features (e.g., skin color, hair type/texture, and facial features; see Okazaki & Sue, 1995) and differs in society based on these characteristics (e.g., Lee, 2009; Winker, 2004). In comparison, ethnic groups are persons who share a culture that is based on a unique set of historical and social experiences. This involves shared symbols and practices (e.g., language, religion, & values; Cornell & Hartmann, 1998; Lee, 2009; Okazaki & Sue, 1995).

The Present Study

Based on the current research literature on the religious beliefs and practices of Black adolescents, this study represents one of the very first empirical assessments of religious involvement as a protective factor for racial discrimination experiences and psychological outcomes among African American and Caribbean Black American adolescents. Thus, we hypothesized that (a) racial discrimination experiences will be associated with lower self-esteem and increased levels of depressive symptomatology and perceived stress, (b) religious beliefs and attitudes will be associated with higher self-esteem and lower levels of depressive symptomatology and perceived stress, and (c) prayer, church attendance, and subjective religiosity would moderate the associations between racial discrimination experiences and mental health outcomes (e.g., self-esteem, depressive symptomatology, and perceived stress), such that religious beliefs and attitudes may reduce the negative impact of racial discrimination experiences on mental health outcomes. Last, based on previous literatures (e.g., Seaton et al., 2008; R. J. Taylor et al., 2007; R. J. Taylor et al., 2011) the final aim is to compare African American and Caribbean Black adolescents because of the distinct experiences of each group within the United States. For instance, immigration status may shape the experiences of Caribbean Black adolescents in unique ways. As stated previously, Black youth are not monolith in their experiences, and examining these groups separately will contribute to the dearth of research on the role of religion in the lives of Black American adolescents.

Method

Participants

The participants were African American and Caribbean Black youth who participated in the NSAL. The initial adolescent sample comprised 1193 cases but 23 were removed from the analyses because they were 18 or 19 at the time of the interview. Thus, the final sample comprised 1166 African American (n = 807) and Caribbean Black (n = 354) youth ranging in age from 13 to 17 years, who were matched to adult households participating in the study. The sample was equally composed of males (n = 562 unweighted, 50% weighted) and females (n = 608 unweighted, 50% weighted), and there was an equal gender distribution for African American and Caribbean Black youth. Approximately 96% of the sample was still enrolled in high school, and ninth grade was the average. The median family income was $28,000 (approximately $38,291 for African Americans and approximately $38,829 for Caribbean Blacks).

Procedure

The NSAL is a comprehensive study of Black Americans, which investigated mental disorders, stressors, and risk/resilient factors among Black sub-populations (Jackson et al., 2004). The NSAL was part of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Collaborative Epidemiology Survey, an initiative that included three national representative surveys: the NSAL, the National Comorbidity Survey Replication, and the National Latino and Asian American Study (NIMH, 2004). The NSAL utilized a stratified, multi-stage area probability sample (Jackson et al., 2004). The Survey Research Center (SRC) at the University of Michigan oversaw data collection from February 2001 to June 2003.

Race matching of the interviewer were important objectives, and a number of strategies were developed to complement the variability in the sample due to the social class, geographical, and cultural differences of the participants (Jackson et al., 2004). Every adult residing in a household was screened for an eligible adolescent also living in the household, and all eligible adolescents were recruited using a random selection procedure utilized by the SRC (see Kish, 1965). In cases in which more than one adolescent was eligible for the study, the recruitment protocol allowed up to two adolescents per household to be selected based on the gender of the first selected adolescent (Jackson et al., 2004). Due to the random selection process, data were weighted to account for the non-independence. More specifically, data from the NSAL-adolescent sample were weighted to adjust for the differences in the probabilities of selection with households, non-response rates for households, and the non-response rates for individuals. The weighted data were also post stratified to approximate adolescents’ gender (boy or girl) and age (i.e., 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 years) from the national population distributions for subgroups among Black youth (Seaton et al., 2008). The response rate was 80.6%, more specifically, 80.4% for African Americans and 83.5% for Caribbean Black adolescents.

Informed consent was obtained from the adolescent’s legal guardian before conducting the interview, and assent was obtained from the adolescent. The majority of the adolescent interviews were conducted in their homes using a face-to-face, computer-assisted instrument, and approximately 18% of the interviews were administered by telephone. The interviews averaged 1 hour 40 minutes in length for the African American sub-sample and averaged 1 hour 50 minutes for the Caribbean adolescent participants. For his or her participation in the study, each participant was compensated $50.

Measures

Demographic and control variables

The demographic and control variables included gender, age, household income, and immigration status.

Religion

Religion was measured using three religious involvement items (i.e., organizational, non-organizational, and subjective religiosity). Church attendance was examined by a single item. The item was “How often do you usually attend religious services?” The response options ranged from 1 (never) to 6 (nearly every day). Subjective religiosity was measured by one item—“How religious would you say you are?” The response options included 1 (not religious at all) to 4 (very religious). Prayer was assessed using a single item—“How often do you pray?” The responses ranged from 1 (never) to 4 (very often). The authors understand the problems with utilizing one item scales because of the potential biases in measurement error and unreliable responses (e.g., Campbell & Fiske, 1959), and we note the potential measurement issue in using a single-item indicator. However, numerous empirical studies have utilized a single item to measure religious involvement (i.e., church attendance, subjective religiosity, and prayer) and different psychological functioning outcomes (Bergkvist & Rossiter, 2007; Bierman, 2006; Brega & Coleman, 1999; Chatters et al., 2008; Ellison, Boardman, Williams, & Jackson, 2001; Nooney, 2005; Petrescu, 2013; R. J. Taylor et al., 2007; Wallace et al., 2003).

Discrimination

Discrimination was assessed using the Everyday Discrimination Scale, which assesses chronic, covert, and overt experiences of discrimination that have occurred in the prior year (Williams, Yu, Jackson, & Anderson, 1997). This was a 10-item measure. The stem question is “In your day-to-day life, how often have any of the following things happened to you?” Some example items include “People act as if they think you are dishonest” and “You are followed around in stores.” Likert response scale for frequencies ranged from 1 (never) to 6 (almost every day). The scale has demonstrated good reliability for African American (α = .86) and Caribbean Black adolescents (α = .80). Higher scores represent a greater number of events that occurred in the previous year, regardless of the frequency for each event.

Depression

Depressive symptoms were measured using the Center for Epidemiological Studies–Depression (CES-D) scale. The 12-item shortened version of the CES-D was used to assess the frequency of depressive symptoms experienced within the past week (Radloff, 1977). Participants used Likert scale rated responses ranging from 0 (rarely) to 3 (most or all of the time). Example items include “I did not feel like eating, my appetite was poor” and “My sleep was restless.” Higher scores were indicative of higher occurrences of depressive symptomatology with adequate reliability for the African American (α = .68) and Caribbean Black (α = .71) adolescents.

Self-esteem

The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale was used to examine self-esteem (Rosenberg, 1989). This measure is a 10-item Likert scale with responses ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree). Example items include “I feel that I have a number of good qualities” and “On the whole, I am satisfied with myself.” Negative items were reversed so higher scores represent higher levels of self-esteem. The measure demonstrated adequate reliability for the African American (α = .73) and Caribbean Black (α = .69) adolescents.

Perceived stress

The Perceived Stress Scale was used to assess stress. This 14-item scale, adapted from S. Cohen, Kamarck, and Mermelstein (1983), is a self-report measure of globally perceived stress during the past week. The responses range from 1 (never) to 5 (very often). High scores represent more stress, and the measure demonstrated adequate reliability for African American (α = .77) and Caribbean Black (α = .80) adolescents. A sample item includes “In the last month, how often have you felt that things were going your way?”

Results

To explore differences across racial or ethnic group membership, analyses were conducted separately for African American and Caribbean American adolescents. The representation of the NSAL Caribbean Black adolescents were 32% Jamaica, 18.7% Haiti, 10.5% Trinidad and Tobago, 5.6% Guyana, 4.7% Barbados, and 3.8% Puerto Rico. The six countries represent approximately 75.3% of the Caribbean Black adolescent sample.

Table 1 provides the mean and standard errors for the study variables: adolescent age, depressive symptomatology, self-esteem, perceived stress, everyday discrimination, subjective religiosity, church attendance, and prayer. A total of 810 adolescents self-identified as African American (93.3%) and 360 identified as Caribbean Black (6.63%). Both boys (50%) and girls (50%) were represented equally in the sample. The average adolescent age was 15 years. Forty percent of the sample was early (age 13-14 years), 41% middle (age 15-16 years), and 19% late (age 17 years) adolescence. In addition, a t test was conducted to compare the religiosity beliefs and experiences between African American and Caribbean Black adolescents. The results indicated there were no significant differences between African American and Caribbean Black adolescents on religiosity beliefs and experiences. Last, the average household income for African American adolescents was $38,291, and for Caribbean Black adolescents, the average income was $38,829.

Table 1.

Primary and Background Study Variables Means and Standard Errors.

Variable	Caribbean Black	SE	African American	SE
Age	15.22	0.06	14.96	0.06
Depressive symptomatology	8.29	1.27	9.08	0.21
Self-esteem	3.55	0.01	3.56	0.01
Perceived stress	35.76	1.58	35.37	0.32
Everyday discrimination	5.23	0.54	5.11	0.21
Subjective religiosity	1.82	0.09	1.87	0.03
Church attendance	2.87	0.04	3.09	0.05
Prayer	2.36	0.08	2.32	0.03

African Americans

Correlational analyses indicated that everyday discrimination was significantly positively associated with perceived stress (r = .16, p < .05) and depressive symptomatology (r = .13, p < .05). Everyday discrimination was also significantly negatively related to self-esteem (r = −.18, p < .05). Subjective religiosity was significantly negatively associated with depressive symptoms (r = −.10, p < .05) and perceived stress (r = −.09, p < .05). Last, prayer was significantly positively associated with self-esteem (r = .08, p < .05).

Caribbean Americans

Everyday discrimination was significantly positively related to depressive symptoms (r = .20, p < .05) and perceived stress (r = .25, p < .05) and negatively associated with self-esteem (r = −.28, p < .05). Subjective religiosity was significantly positively associated with self-esteem (r = .10, p < .05) and negatively associated with depressive symptoms (r = −.12, p < .05) and perceived stress (r = −.12, p < .05) (see Table 2).

Table 2.

Bivariate Correlations for African American and Caribbean Black Adolescents.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9
1. Age	—	−.02	.14*	−.14*	−.12*	.00	.03	.03	.01
2. Gender	.09	—	−.09*	.03	.10*	.10*	.03	.02	.13*
3. Everyday discrimination	.13*	−.09	—	−.04	−.03	−.01	.13*	−.18*	.16*
4. Subjective religiosity	−.04	.14*	−.04	—	.37*	.27*	−.10*	.07	−.09*
5. Church attendance	−.08	.09	−.11*	.47*	—	.26*	−.04	.06	−.02
6. Prayer	−.04	.20*	−.08	.37*	.24*	—	.02	.08*	.03
7. Depressive symptomatology	.01	.00	.20*	−.12*	−.12	−.08	—	−.50*	.58*
8. Self-esteem	.08	.04	−.28*	.10*	.07	.07	−.62*	—	−.50*
9. Perceived stress	.02	.10	.25*	−.12*	−.03	−.06	.67*	−.56*	—

Note. Coefficients above the diagonal are for African American adolescents (n = 807), and those below the diagonal are for Caribbean Black adolescents (n = 354).

p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

African American Adolescents, Religiosity, and Mental Health Outcomes

Multiple regression analyses were conducted in which depressive symptomatology, self-esteem, and perceived stress were regressed on church attendance, subjective religiosity, prayer, and racial discrimination experiences while controlling for age, gender, and household income for African American adolescents. The full model included adolescent age, gender, household income, subjective religiosity, church attendance, prayer, and everyday discrimination. Interactions were also entered in the model (i.e., Discrimination × Subjective Religiosity, Discrimination × Church Attendance, and Discrimination × Prayer). Consistent with Aiken and West (1991), variables were centered prior to assessing regression models when testing interaction effects.

African American adolescents and depressive symptomatology

The final model for depressive symptomatology was not significant, F(10,19) = 1.88, p = .11, accounting for 3% of the overall variance (see Table 3). There were no significant direct effects. There were also no significant interaction effects.

Table 3.

Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Variables Predicting Depressive Symptomatology Among African American Adolescents (n = 807).

Variable	B	SE B	p value
Age	.07	.14	.60
Household income	.01	.01	.11
Gender	.22	.42	.60
Subjective religiosity	−.53	.26	.06
Church attendance	−.05	.18	.78
Prayer	.05	.35	.88
Everyday discrimination	.30	.23	.20
Discrimination × Subjective Religiosity	.03	.06	.56
Discrimination × Church Attendance	−.03	.04	.47
Discrimination × Prayer	−.04	.07	.55

p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

African American adolescents and self-esteem

The final model for self-esteem was significant, F(10,19) = 6.19, p = .001, accounting for 5% of the overall variance (see Table 4). There was a significant direct effect of household income (B = .01, p = .01) on self-esteem, suggesting African American adolescents reporting a higher income was more likely to report higher levels of self-esteem. Reports of racial discrimination experiences were associated with lower levels of self-esteem (B = −.03, p = .01), such that African American adolescents who experienced higher amounts of discrimination had lower levels of self-esteem. There were no significant interaction effects.

Table 4.

Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Variables Predicting Self-Esteem among African American Adolescents (n = 807).

Variable	B	SE B	p value
Age	.02	.01	.07
Household income	.01	.01	.01**
Gender	−.01	.03	.78
Subjective religiosity	.01	.02	.51
Church attendance	.01	.01	.35
Prayer	.03	.02	.16
Everyday discrimination	−.03	.01	.01**
Discrimination × Subjective Religiosity	.01	.01	.94
Discrimination × Church Attendance	.01	.01	.65
Discrimination × Prayer	.01	.01	.17

p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

African American adolescents and perceived stress

The final model for perceived stress was significant, F(10,19) = 3.88, p = .001, accounting for 7% of the overall variance (see Table 5). There was a significant direct effect of gender (B = 2.46, p = .01), indicating that boys reporting higher levels of stress in comparison with African American girls. Everyday racial discrimination experiences were associated with higher levels of perceived stress (B = .92, p = .01). African American adolescents who experienced higher amounts of discrimination had higher levels of perceived stress. There were no significant interaction effects.

Table 5.

Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Variables Predicting Perceived Stress Among African American Adolescents (n = 807).

Variable	B	SE B	p value
Age	0.12	.21	.55
Household income	−0.01	.01	.06
Gender	2.46	.54	.00***
Subjective religiosity	−0.65	.46	.17
Church attendance	−0.26	.27	.33
Prayer	0.22	.50	.66
Everyday discrimination	0.92	.34	.01**
Discrimination × Subjective Religiosity	−0.08	.08	.35
Discrimination × Church Attendance	−0.07	.07	.34
Discrimination × Prayer	−0.08	.10	.38

p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

Caribbean Black Adolescents, Religiosity, and Mental Health Outcomes

Caribbean Black adolescents and depressive symptomatology

To account for the immigration status, we used parent’s report of generational status (1 = respondent not born in the United States, 2 = respondent born in the United States and one or more parents not [spouse and/or significant other], and 3 = respondent and both parents born in the United States). These variables were dummy coded. Respondents not born in the United States were set as the reference group (coded 0) against which all other statuses were compared. The final model was statistically significant, F(12,3) = 7.70, p = .05, accounting for 17% of the variance (see Table 6). Age (B = .57, p = .01) was associated with depressive symptomatology such that older Caribbean Black adolescents exhibited higher levels of depressive symptomatology. Everyday discrimination (B = .58, p = .03) was associated with depressive symptomatology, such that adolescents who experienced racial discrimination reported higher levels of depressive symptoms. There were also two significant interactions: Discrimination × Church Attendance (B = −.15, p = .01) and Discrimination × Prayer (B = .18, p = .01). The interaction was graphed at the following intervals: one standard deviation below the mean, the mean, and one standard deviation (Aiken & West, 1991). The results indicated that Caribbean Black adolescents who attended church infrequently and experienced high amounts of discrimination reported higher levels of depressive symptomatology (see Figure 1). In comparison, attending church on a consistent basis and experiencing higher amounts of discrimination was associated with lower depressive symptomatology. In addition, less prayer was associated with higher levels of depressive symptomatology when experiencing higher amounts of discrimination in comparison with youth who reported more prayer (see Figure 2). The slopes were statistically significant.

Table 6.

Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Variables Predicting Depressive Symptomatology Among Caribbean Black Adolescents (n = 354).

Variable	B	SE B	p value
Age	0.57	0.16	.01**
Gender	0.99	0.59	.12
Household income	0.01	0.01	.49
Generational status
Respondent U.S. born & 1 or more parents not U.S. born	−0.66	1.47	.66
Respondent & both parents U.S. born	0.51	1.68	.76
Subjective religiosity	−0.61	0.43	.18
Church attendance	0.13	0.32	.69
Prayer	−0.80	0.81	.34
Everyday discrimination	0.58	0.24	.03*
Discrimination × Subjective Religiosity	−0.06	0.10	.53
Discrimination × Church Attendance	−0.15	0.04	.01**
Discrimination × Prayer	0.18	0.06	.01**

Note. The reference group for the generational status is respondent not U.S. born.

p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

Figure 1.

Interaction of church attendance and everyday discrimination on depressive symptoms among Caribbean Black adolescents.

Figure 2.

Interaction of praying frequency and everyday discrimination on depressive symptoms among Caribbean Black adolescents.

Caribbean Black adolescents and self-esteem

The final model was statistically significant, F(12,3) = 59.21, p = .01, accounting for 14% of the variance (see Table 7). The results indicated that everyday discrimination (B = −.04, p = .01) was associated with lower levels of self-esteem. There were no significant interaction effects.

Table 7.

Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Variables Predicting Self-Esteem Among Caribbean Black Adolescents (n = 354).

Variable	B	SE B	p value
Age	.01	.02	.87
Gender	.03	.06	.58
Household income	.01	.01	.11
Generational status
Respondent U.S. born & 1 or more parents not U.S. born	.09	.04	.07
Respondent & both parents U.S. born	−.03	.05	.59
Subjective religiosity	.05	.02	.06
Church attendance	−.01	.02	.70
Prayer	.01	.03	.89
Everyday discrimination	−.04	.01	.01**
Discrimination × Subjective Religiosity	.01	.01	.26
Discrimination × Church Attendance	.01	.01	.61
Discrimination × Prayer	−.01	.01	.56

Note. The reference group for the generational status is respondent not U.S. born.

p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

Caribbean Black adolescents and perceived stress

The overall model was significant, F(12,3) = 34.51, p < .001 (see Table 8), accounting for 21% of the variance. Prayer (B = −1.48, p = .04) was associated with lower levels of perceived stress. Everyday discrimination (B = 1.12, p = .01) was associated with higher levels of perceived stress. Last, there was a significant interaction effect for Discrimination × Church Attendance (B = −.33, p = .02; see Figure 3). Specifically, Caribbean Black adolescents who reported lower church attendance reported higher levels of perceived stress under conditions of experiencing higher amounts of racial discrimination. Both slopes were statistically significant.

Table 8.

Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Variables Predicting Perceived Stress Among Caribbean Black Adolescents (n = 354).

Variable	B	SE B	p value
Age	0.33	0.35	.35
Gender	0.49	1.25	.70
Household income	−0.01	0.01	.61
Generational status
Respondent U.S. born & 1 or more parents not U.S. born	−0.72	1.74	.68
Respondent & both parents U.S. born	0.28	2.57	.91
Subjective religiosity	0.21	0.89	.81
Church attendance	−0.49	0.28	.10
Prayer	−1.48	0.65	.04*
Everyday discrimination	1.12	0.33	.01**
Discrimination × Subjective Religiosity	0.15	0.17	.38
Discrimination × Church Attendance	−0.33	0.12	.02*
Discrimination × Prayer	0.14	0.11	.23

Note. The reference group for the generational status is respondent not U.S. born.

p < .05. **p < .01. ***p < .001.

Figure 3.

Interaction of church attendance and everyday discrimination on perceived stress among Caribbean Black adolescents.

Discussion

The purpose of this study was to investigate the protective role of religious involvement on racial discrimination experiences between two Black adolescent sub-populations. A risk and resilience framework undergirded the conceptualization of this study. The present study represents one of the first attempts to investigate religious involvement as a protective factor among Black American adolescents. Our results suggest that a risk and resilience framework is relevant to explicating the protective role of religious involvement among Caribbean Black adolescents. Surprisingly, the results failed to yield significant findings of religious involvement as a protective factor for African American adolescents. Although research suggests African American and Caribbean Black adolescents report similar averages of racial discrimination experiences (Seaton et al., 2008), they may utilize distinct coping strategies when experiencing potential stress from racial discrimination experiences. For some Caribbean Black adolescents, these youth may try to avoid being perceived as, linked to, or associated with African Americans. This aversion and/or avoidance acknowledging how racial hierarchy in the United States reifies stereotypes that assign labels such as criminal, lazy, and stupid to African Americans (see Grosfoguel & Georas, 2000; Rong & Brown, 2001). Given that racial/ethnic oppression is responsible for some Caribbean Blacks’ aversion for being mistaken as African Americans, aversion/avoidance also may actually influence the ways Caribbean Blacks acknowledge as well as respond to racial discrimination experiences. This model contends that different types of religious involvement may protect the psychological functioning of individuals who experience high levels of stress. The findings from this study provide empirical support that church attendance and prayer protect against depressive symptomatology and psychological distress (i.e., perceived stress) for Caribbean Black youth. The results also revealed that prayer reduces the negative impact of frequent racial discrimination on depressive symptoms for Caribbean Black adolescents regardless of low or high endorsement of racial discrimination experiences. The contemporary role of Black churches might offer explanations regarding the study’s African American adolescent findings. African American churches prepare adolescents for participation in the wider U.S. society differently from churches attended by Caribbean immigrants. The fact that African Americans are native to the United States as most are descendants of formerly enslaved Americans is the historical reason for the diverse function of African American churches. Much of the research on the experiences of African American adolescents influenced by Protestant faith supports the argument that Black churches constantly evolve to meet the changing, immediate needs of African American congregants (Lincoln & Mamiya, 1990; West & Glaude, 2003). For example, prior to the 1960s, racial discrimination experiences were certainly on the minds of preachers and parents alike who wanted to protect their children from racial threats due to overt segregation (e.g., Jim Crow policies of the South and covert, racial polices) prior to and during the modern Civil Rights Movement. In this post-modern, Civil Rights era, Black church theology or doctrine is being applied to detrimental behaviors that are deemed threatening to the entire race such as substance abuse, incarceration, gang violence, and sexual immorality. Consequently, these topics have tended to garner much more pulpit time and parental engagement than the messages conveyed in earlier periods of African American history when Black churches focused more on racial discrimination experiences. However, with the highly publicized, recent executions of African American youth (e.g., Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, and Renisha McBride), Black churches have begun to utilize what “protest politics” (Barnes & Nwosu, 2014) to call for both justice and morality in the face of persistently “unchecked” (C. Cohen, 2010; Rich, 2009; West, 1993) race-based violence against African Americans youth. Research suggests that church-going Caribbean Black adolescents attend congregations mostly comprised of individuals from their native islands (Waters, 1999). These churches preserve traditional culture practices such as language and secular holiday celebrations. Caribbean scholars explain that these “ethnically rooted” churches socialize congregants about assimilating into U.S. society through messages about hard work, education, and economic mobility while communicating messages that reinforce individual ties to native cultural identity and practices (Mooney, 2009; Waters, 1999). Church attendance may bolster adolescents’ perceptions of their religion due to the socialization messages that occur at the individual and communal levels.

Distinctions in socialization messages from parents and faith communities about ethnic differences such as national background, voluntary and involuntary immigration histories, and cultural practices might point to differences in coping strategies among Caribbean Black adolescents. For example, current Caribbean Black parents might communicate socialization messages that parallel the messages of 20th-century immigrant parents who also emphasized higher education, upward mobility, and hard work (Mooney, 2009). Previous qualitative studies among Caribbean Blacks posit that their faith communities do reinforce parental messages (Mooney, 2009; Waters, 1999). Thus, religious involvement, which includes church attendance and subjective religiosity coupled with diverse socialization messages, protects Caribbean Black adolescents from racial discrimination experiences.

Our results revealed Caribbean Black adolescents who reported low religious involvement (i.e., church attendance and prayed less) and who experienced higher racial discrimination experiences reported higher levels of depressive symptomatology and perceived stress. A plausible explanation is that religion as a protective factor may operate differently depending on the level of religious involvement. For these adolescents, less religious involvement may not prepare them with learning opportunities about how to cope with racial discrimination experiences. Consequently, the expected relationship between risk (i.e., racial discrimination) and outcome (depressive symptomatology & perceived stress) is not diminished. Studies on Caribbean Blacks indicate church participation assists with promoting congregants’ socialization regarding Caribbean cultural values. Due to the less frequent involvement in church and prayer, we speculate that the cultural socialization messages received through religious involvement is lower, and therefore, these adolescents’ do not cope as well with racial discrimination experiences, leading them to report higher levels of depressive symptomatology.

Moreover, theological teachings might provide another explanation for African American adolescents’ non-significant findings. Mattis and Jagers (2001) argue that the religion literature fails to move beyond traditional measures of religious involvement to explore how different theological teachings functions in the daily lives of African Americans. Although research studies have documented religious involvement as a protective factor for African American adolescents, African American churches’ theological teachings rather than religious involvement might serve as a protective factor for African American adolescents’ racial discrimination experiences. Future research is needed to probe the implications of this possibility.

Another unique finding was that African American boys perceived higher amounts of stress. However, upon further examination, in comparison with Caribbean Black youth, African American boys and girls reported higher levels of perceived stress. These findings highlight the potential risk and corroborate previous literature underscoring the unique experiences of African American boys and girls (e.g., Belgrave, 2009; Belgrave & Brevard, 2014). In addition to the diversity of Black American youth, our findings suggest that gendered experiences have implications on psychosocial adjustment outcomes. Taken together, this evidence suggests the importance of using an intersectionality (e.g., race, class, ethnicity, gender, religion) framework in adolescence.

Study Limitations and Considerations

The present study had some limitations. First, the cross-sectional self-report data inhibit one from drawing causal inferences of the hypothesized relationships. Future longitudinal studies are needed to shed light on the ways religious involvement serves as a protective factor across developmental stages (i.e., early adolescence into adulthood). The use of a single-item measure to assess religious involvement may not have been comprehensive enough to account for the diversity among Black adolescents. Although the preponderance of research on religion has utilized single items to assess religious involvement (Ball et al., 2003; Brega & Coleman, 1999; Donahue & Benson, 1995; Ellison et al., 2001; Ellison, Musick, & Henderson, 2008; Markstrom, 1999; Wallace et al., 2003), several religion scholars have examined religious involvement as latent constructs such as non-organizational religiosity, organizational religiosity, and subjective religiosity (Chatters, 2000; Levin, Taylor, & Chatters, 1995). Future research should explore religious involvement as a latent construct to investigate relationships between racial discrimination and psychology outcomes.

Conclusion

The current study makes significant contributions to the empirical literature. Our findings indicate that religious involvement such as church attendance, prayer, and subjective religiosity counters the impacts of racial discrimination experiences on psychological outcomes such as depressive symptomatology, perceived stress, and self-esteem. Several researchers have emphasized the need to investigate differences within the Black population (Jackson et al., 2004; McLoyd, 1990). One significant contribution indicates that African American and Caribbean Black adolescents are not monolith regarding the role of religious involvement as a protective factor. Our findings highlight that religious involvement may function differently for Black adolescents, which broadens current investigations of the role of religious involvement in mitigating the role of racial discrimination experiences among African American and Caribbean Black adolescents.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: The National Survey of American Life (NSAL) is supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH; U01-MH-57716) with supplemental support from the OBSSR Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research and the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the University of Michigan.

Notes

Author Biographies

Sheretta T. Butler-Barnes is an assistant professor in the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at the Washington University in St. Louis. She received her PhD in Developmental Psychology from Wayne State University. Her research interests examine how culturally strength-based assets serve as protective factors for African American children and youth and the impact on developmental competencies.

Pamela P. Martin is an associate dean of the College of Juvenile Justice and Psychology at Prairie View A & M University. She received her PhD in Ecological-Community Psychology and Urban Studies from Michigan State University. She currently investigates the many different ways faith communities support families in the rearing of adolescents.

Nikeea Copeland-Linder is a clinical psychologist at Johns Hopkins University. She received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on the impact of psychosocial stressors on adolescent mental health and health risk behaviors. She is particularly interested in the role of protective factors in promoting resilience among youth in high-risk contexts.

Eleanor K. Seaton is an associate professor in the T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics at Arizona State University. She received her PhD in Developmental Psychology from Temple University. Her research interests examine racial discrimination and racial identity among African American and Caribbean Black youth. Dr. Seaton’s work also focuses on resilience and positive youth development.

Niki Matusko is a research area specialist for the Program for Research on Black Americans at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. She received her BA in mathematics with a concentration in statistics from the University of Michigan. Her work focuses on data management and data analysis of the National Survey of American Life: Adolescent supplement, the Family Connections data, and the Caribbean data.

Cleopatra H. Caldwell is a professor in the Department of Health Behavior and Health Education in the School of Public Health at the University of Michigan. She received her PhD in social psychology at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on social relationships and social supports within African American communities, including factors influencing adolescent risk behaviors and psychological well-being.

James S. Jackson is a professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Michigan. He received his PhD in social psychology at Wayne State University. His research focuses on issues of racial and ethnic influences on life course development, attitude change, reciprocity, social support, and coping and health among blacks in the Diaspora.

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