Dispositional Versus Situational Coping: Are the Coping Strategies African Americans Use Different for General Versus Racism-Related Stressors?

When faced with difficulties and problems, people use a variety of cognitive and behavioral strategies to cope, and culture influences the strategies that are chosen. Unfortunately, little is known about how culture influences coping because most research is done with White samples. As coping is a key determinant of a person’s adaptation to stressful life events, it is imperative that researchers develop a nuanced understanding of African American coping that is specific enough to guide prevention and intervention efforts. Thus, the aim of this study was to (a) investigate how African Americans differ from one another in the way they cope and (b) examine whether the strategies they typically use to cope (dispositional coping) differ from those used to cope with racism (situation-specific coping). Results indicate that African Americans cope differently depending on the type of stressor—they use one set of strategies generally but rely on a different set to cope with racism. Results also revealed gender and acculturation differences in how African Americans cope.