Perceived discrimination and psychological well-being in the USA and South Africa

OBJECTIVE: To explore levels of perceived racial and non-racial discrimination and their associations with self-esteem and mastery in the U.S.A. and South Africa. DESIGN: We used ordinary least square regressions to test the cross-sectional associations between discrimination and psychological resources using two national probability samples of adults: the National Survey of American Life and the South African Stress and Health Study. RESULTS: Levels of perceived racial discrimination were higher in the U.S.A. than in South Africa. In the U.S.A., both African-Americans and Caribbean blacks have comparable or higher levels of self-esteem and mastery than whites. In contrast, South African whites have higher levels of both self-esteem and mastery than Africans, Coloureds, and Indians. Perceived discrimination, especially chronic everyday discrimination, is inversely related to self-esteem and mastery in both societies. In South Africa, stress and socioeconomic status (SES) but not discrimination are important determinants of racial differences in self-esteem and mastery. CONCLUSIONS: In two racialized societies, perceived discrimination acts independent of demographic factors, general stressors, social desirability bias, racial identity, and SES, to negatively affect the psychological resources of self-esteem and mastery.