Quantity and quality: Dimensions and provisions of social support inform the role of social pain minimization in the discrimination-to-mental health relation among Black Americans
{"title":"Quantity and quality: Dimensions and provisions of social support inform the role of social pain minimization in the discrimination-to-mental health relation among Black Americans","authors":"Kyle Benbow, Jonathan W. Kunstman","doi":"10.1521/jscp.2024.43.1.81","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Introduction: Despite growing evidence that emotion invalidation, termed social pain minimization (SPM), contributes to discrimination's negative effect on mental health and suicidality (Benbow et al., 2022; Kinkel-Ram et al., 2021), it is unclear what elements of social support give rise to SPM. Is SPM related to social support quantity (e.g., the number of support providers and frequency with which people seek support)? Or, is social support quality (e.g., active versus passive destructive responses and threatened support needs) most central to SPM? This work addresses these questions and provides evidence that support quality rather than quantity shapes feelings of SPM and informs SPM's mediating role in the discrimination-to-mental health relation. Methods: With a cross-sectional correlational design, 232 Black participants (42.9% female; Mage = 34.86, SDage = 11.15) completed measures of daily discrimination, social support quantity and quality, SPM, and mental health. Results: At a bivariate level, indices of support quality, but not quantity, predicted SPM and mental health. However, when these indices of support quality were entered simultaneously in multiple regression, only passive destructive (PD) treatment and provisions of worth positively and negatively predicted SPM, respectively. Serial parallel mediation analysis further revealed that PD treatment and threats to self-worth fueled SPM's mediating role in the association between discrimination and mental health. Discussion: The results suggest that support quality, not quantity, sets the stage for SPM. Although many dimensions of support quality related to SPM, PD treatment and threats to self-worth had the strongest unique relationships to minimization. Moreover, these support dimensions contributed to SPM's mediating role in the link between discrimination and mental health. In discrimination's wake, PD responses and threatened self-worth increased SPM, which then undermined mental health.","PeriodicalId":48202,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":1.0000,"publicationDate":"2024-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology","FirstCategoryId":"102","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1521/jscp.2024.43.1.81","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"心理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Introduction: Despite growing evidence that emotion invalidation, termed social pain minimization (SPM), contributes to discrimination's negative effect on mental health and suicidality (Benbow et al., 2022; Kinkel-Ram et al., 2021), it is unclear what elements of social support give rise to SPM. Is SPM related to social support quantity (e.g., the number of support providers and frequency with which people seek support)? Or, is social support quality (e.g., active versus passive destructive responses and threatened support needs) most central to SPM? This work addresses these questions and provides evidence that support quality rather than quantity shapes feelings of SPM and informs SPM's mediating role in the discrimination-to-mental health relation. Methods: With a cross-sectional correlational design, 232 Black participants (42.9% female; Mage = 34.86, SDage = 11.15) completed measures of daily discrimination, social support quantity and quality, SPM, and mental health. Results: At a bivariate level, indices of support quality, but not quantity, predicted SPM and mental health. However, when these indices of support quality were entered simultaneously in multiple regression, only passive destructive (PD) treatment and provisions of worth positively and negatively predicted SPM, respectively. Serial parallel mediation analysis further revealed that PD treatment and threats to self-worth fueled SPM's mediating role in the association between discrimination and mental health. Discussion: The results suggest that support quality, not quantity, sets the stage for SPM. Although many dimensions of support quality related to SPM, PD treatment and threats to self-worth had the strongest unique relationships to minimization. Moreover, these support dimensions contributed to SPM's mediating role in the link between discrimination and mental health. In discrimination's wake, PD responses and threatened self-worth increased SPM, which then undermined mental health.
期刊介绍:
This journal is devoted to the application of theory and research from social psychology toward the better understanding of human adaptation and adjustment, including both the alleviation of psychological problems and distress (e.g., psychopathology) and the enhancement of psychological well-being among the psychologically healthy. Topics of interest include (but are not limited to) traditionally defined psychopathology (e.g., depression), common emotional and behavioral problems in living (e.g., conflicts in close relationships), the enhancement of subjective well-being, and the processes of psychological change in everyday life (e.g., self-regulation) and professional settings (e.g., psychotherapy and counseling). Articles reporting the results of theory-driven empirical research are given priority, but theoretical articles, review articles, clinical case studies, and essays on professional issues are also welcome. Articles describing the development of new scales (personality or otherwise) or the revision of existing scales are not appropriate for this journal.