The literature on multiculturalism and career counseling (Harro, 2010) has extensively documented the role and influence of environments such as school in the perpetuation of behavioral attitudes like discrimination and racism. Indeed, researchers suggested that early racial discrimination experiences in school may lead African Americans to believe that their education will not benefit them because of the many perceived racial barriers associated with professional careers and employment success (O’Hara et. al., 2011). Due to effects of such experiences, African American students are likely take the path of academic underachievement and low participation in higher education. It is, therefore, of great importance that rehabilitation, school, and college counselors understand the effects of racism on the lives of African Americans. More important, the effects of stress related to the potential experiences of racism on the attainment of a vocational or career goal should be understood. Hence, the purpose of this study was to explore whether there is a relationship between race- related stress and the occupational planning and confidence of African American college students in a predominantly White institution. Results of the present study suggest that participants of the present study are on their way of demonstrating elements of self-efficacy (Lent, Brown, &Hackett, 2000), by the fact that the majority of them have already selected a major area of study. This may suggest that the process of career selection is well on its way from career selection to career confidence or implementation. It is noteworthy the number of majors selected and how many of them are in careers of high demand like engineering. Results from the present study also suggest that participants perceive race related stress variables in the domains of cultural and institutional racism, as having a moderate association with their career importance. This may be interpreted as African American students who participated on this study perceive that stress experienced due to issues related to cultural and organizational racism are an important factor that should be considered when choosing a career. Data also suggests that race-related stress does not affect the career confidence of African American students who participated on this study. As a group, participants of this study do not seem prepared to or have made a plan for achieving a career path as indicated by the lower scores and negative correlations in the Career Planning area. This is an important finding and although out of the scope of this study, lack of access to resources like career counseling or guidance may be an indicator or potential explanation for this finding. Although sample size was one of the limitations of this study, future research should try to replicate this study and further explore the potential relationship between experiencing race-related stress and the selection and implementation of a career plan.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Exposure to racial discrimination has been consistently linked with risk for substance use. However, outside of affect-based factors, few other mechanisms have been examined in the literature. One potential candidate is locus of control (LOC). LOC is a learning processes that involves the degree to which an individual attributes rewards as resulting from their own control (internal LOC) versus outside control (external LOC). There is evidence that exposure to stressors is associated with LOC, with a separate body of literature linking LOC with substance use. Thus, it is plausible that LOC may be a mechanism underlying the relationship between racial discrimination and substance use. Additionally, there is evidence that depression is related to LOC. Thus, the relationship between racial discrimination, locus of control, and substance use may also be serially mediated through depressive symptoms. The current study investigated these two pathways among 503 racial/ethnic minority adults aged 18-35 who completed an online questionnaire that included measures on racial discrimination related stress, locus of control, depressive symptoms, and substance use. Results indicated a significant indirect effect of racial discrimination related stress through external locus of control, specifically the chance orientation, on substance use. Moreover, for both domains of external locus of control (i.e., chance and powerful others) a significant serial indirect effect was found through depressive symptoms within the racial discrimination-substance use pathway among racial/ethnic minority adults. These findings expand our understanding on potential mechanisms that underlie the racial discrimination-substance use risk pathway among racial/ethnic minority adults, which may in turn provide important targets for substance use intervention programming for this population

No description available.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how race-related stress influenced marital satisfaction among ten African American married couples. Each couple participated in a 60 to 90 minute interview and completed a measure of marital satisfaction. Using phenomenology, symbolic interactionism, and family systems theory as a theoretical lens, this study described how African American married couples came to understand if and how the phenomenon of race-related stress influenced their marital satisfaction, and what meanings they created from this experience. Using modified analytic induction, couples discussed how their individual factors influenced their perceptions of race-related stress. Race-related stress couples also discussed how the phenomenon strengthened and challenged their marital satisfaction. It was also discovered that couples with race-related stress developed ways of coping with race-related stress in an effort to protect their marital satisfaction. One of the ten couples reported not experiencing race-related stress. A conceptual model, future research, and clinical implications from these findings are discussed. / Master of Science

This study examines whether Compassion Meditation (CM) can help ethnic minority college students heal from race-related stress. The present study hypothesized that through participation in a CM intervention, the augmentation of adaptive coping strategies (i.e., self-compassion) and the reduction of maladaptive coping strategies (i.e., internalization, defined as self-blame, and detachment, defined as social isolation) would reduce depression and PTSD. Participants (N = 9) participated in an 8-session weekly CM intervention and completed three questionnaires at the beginning, middle, and end of the intervention. Results demonstrated that increasing self-compassion predicted decreases in depression, and that reducing coping via detachment predicted decreases in PTSD. In addition, all nine participants met the clinical cutoff for major depression at pre-intervention, but only five remained above the cutoff point by post-intervention. Implications for future CM interventions, research, and prevention strategies are discussed.