The moderating role of critical consciousness among racial and ethnic minorities with chronic pain.

Abstract

Objective: Psychosocial interventions for racial and ethnic minority (REM) individuals with chronic pain have largely focused on adjusting to and coping with discrimination rather than empowerment and advocacy to contest discrimination and injustice. Scholars have called for the empirical shift from harm reduction to a strength-based and empowerment approach to help REM individuals not only survive but also thrive in an oppressive society. This study examines the moderating role of critical consciousness (CC), a theoretical construct that promotes individuals' awareness of injustice (i.e., critical reflection) and motivates them (i.e., critical motivation) to take action and advocate for themselves and their communities (i.e., critical action). CC has been found to potentially moderate the adverse effects of ethnic discrimination on REM individuals' psychological and health-related outcomes.

Research method: Grounded in empirical and theoretical evidence, this study tested three moderated meditation models to examine if three components of CC would moderate the adverse associations between perceived ethnic discrimination and pain severity via perceived pain injustice.

Results: The results indicated that critical reflection and action significantly moderated the association between perceived ethnic discrimination and perceived pain injustice. However, perceived pain injustice was not significantly associated with pain severity. Participants with higher levels of critical reflection and action reported higher perceived pain injustice at all levels of perceived ethnic discrimination.

Conclusions: The findings suggest that critical reflection and action could exacerbate the association between ethnic discrimination and perceived pain injustice. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).