Strengths Despite Stress: Social-Structural Stressors and Psychosocial Buffers of Depressive Symptoms Among US Black Men

Public Policy Relevance Statement Findings from our study highlight the importance of contextualizing depressive symptoms among Black men through the prism of both social-structural stressors-particularly racial discrimination and incarceration-and individual-level protective factors, that is, social support and problem-solving coping. To successfully promote mental health among Black men, interventions at the individual level must be accompanied by broader social-structural efforts to reduce the detrimental impact of racial discrimination and mass incarceration on this population. We examined the association between social-structural stressors-racial discrimination, incarceration, and unemployment-and depressive symptoms among 578 predominantly low-income urban Black men, ages 18-45. We also examined the extent to which two protective factors-social support and problem-solving coping-moderated the relationship between social-structural stressors and depressive symptoms. Results showed that more everyday racial discrimination and incarceration, but not unemployment, significantly predicted more depressive symptoms. The links between discrimination, incarceration, and depressive symptoms were stronger for men who reported lower levels of problem-solving coping and social support than those with higher levels. Our study suggests that interventions emphasizing protective factors may help Black men cope with some of the deleterious effects of racial discrimination and incarceration. It also underscores a need for structural interventions that reduce racial discrimination and incarceration. Depression among Black men is not simply a biomedical or psychological condition, but also a critical health equity issue.