Ethnic identity and health information avoidance: Moderation by self-affirmation.

Abstract

Objective: Health information avoidance can prevent or delay the detection and diagnosis of a disease. One resource that could mitigate health information avoidance in individuals of African descent is engagement with ethnic identity. However, historical medical mistrust in these communities could make ethnic identity exacerbate information avoidance. The present study examines the association between ethnic identity and health information avoidance and the potential moderating effect of spontaneous self-affirmation (which has been shown to be protective against information avoidance) in an African descent cohort participating in an exome sequencing study (ClinSeq).

Method: Participants were 407 individuals who self-identified as African, African American, or Afro-Caribbean (M_age = 57.52 years old, SD_age = 6.22; 75.2% female). Prior to receiving their sequencing results, participants reported their engagement with their ethnic identity, tendency to self-affirm, and tendency to avoid health information in a baseline assessment. We used the Hayes PROCESS macro to test a moderation model with age, sex, education, and income as covariates.

Results: The model revealed a positive association between ethnic identity and health information avoidance only when self-affirmation was low, producing a significant interaction (b = -.25, SE = .11, p = .03, 95% confidence interval = [-.47, -.02]). No other associations were significant.

Conclusions: Self-affirmation may be protective against health information avoidance among individuals of African descent who engage highly with their ethnic identity. Future research should consider ethnic identity and self-affirmation as factors in health information avoidance. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).