Mastery as a Mediator for the Effects of Work Discrimination on Racial Disparities in Life Satisfaction

We examine racial disparities in the association between work discrimination and life satisfaction among older adults and whether any differences are mediated by one's sense of personal mastery using data from the 2010 and 2012 waves of the Health and Retirement Study. The results from the structural equation models (SEM) show White people who experience work discrimination report the lowest life satisfaction, followed by Hispanic and then Black people. After accounting for the mediating effect of one's sense of mastery to cope with discriminatory work experiences, we find work discrimination still has a direct negative association with the life satisfaction of White and Black respondents but the effect for Hispanic people is no longer statistically significant. The results of the direct and total effects also suggest the mediating effects of mastery on the association between work discrimination and life satisfaction among older workers is strongest for White people, followed by Hispanic people and then Black people. These findings suggest that a person's efficiency at drawing upon their coping resources like mastery when needed is essential for protecting their well-being from the harmful effects of work discrimination, especially for Black and Hispanic people.