Racial discrimination as a moderator of the links among stress, maternal psychological functioning, and family relationships

This study focuses on the links between social contexts and normative famil y patterns to identify factors at the societal, community, family, and indi vidual levels that enhance African Americans' ability to overcome stressful life events and foster positive family relationships. The Mundane Extreme Environmental Stress Model was used to explore these links. From urban and rural areas in Iowa and Georgia, 383 families with 10- or 11-year-old child ren were recruited. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypot heses. Maternal psychological distress was linked with parent-child relatio nship quality both directly, and indirectly through its association with in timate partnership quality. When racial discrimination was greater, stronge r links emerged between stressor pileup and psychological distress, as well as between psychological distress and the quality of both intimate partner ships and parent-child relationships. Future research on African American f amily processes should include the effects of racial discrimination.