The Role of Family Values and Percived Social Support in Stress Appraisal among Black and ...

100 Pages·2015·1.99 MB·English

by  Taiye N. Nelson

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Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School
2004
The Role of Family Values and Perceived
Family Social Support in Stress Appraisal
Among Black and White College Students
Taiye N. Nelson
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THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY
COLLEGE OF HUMAN SCIENCES

THE ROLE OF FAMILY VALUES AND PERCEIVED FAMILY SOCIAL SUPPORT IN
STRESS APPRAISAL AMONG BLACK AND WHITE COLLEGE STUDENTS

BY

TAIYE N. NELSON

A Dissertation submitted to the
Department of Family and Child Sciences
in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Awarded:
Fall Semester, 2004
The members of the committee approve the
Dissertation of Taiye Nelson defended on October 28, 2004

________________________
Ronald L. Mullis
Professor Directing
Dissertation

_________________________
Kaisheng Song
Outside Committee Member

_______________________
Marsha Rehm
Committee Member

Approved:

______________________________________________________
Kay Pasley, Chair, Department of Family and Child Sciences

_____________________________________________________
Penny Ralston, Dean, College of Human Sciences

The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First, to the Divine Spirit, who is the ultimate guiding force in my life and to my
ancestors, whose strengths I draw on continuously. I am truly grateful for the blessing, lessons
and the challenges.
To my advisor, Dr. Ronald L. Mullis, I am grateful for your commitment and exemplary
work ethic that I aspire to make my own. To Dr. Marsha Rehm, thank you for sharing your
perspective and knowledge with me. Dr. Song, thank you for your assistance and energy.
I would like to thank my wonderful son, Sundjata who displayed a tremendous amount of
patience throughout my academic tenure, and who’s favorite question “Mommy do you have a
lot of work to do today?” helped me to keep my focus. Sundjata, you are mommy’s greatest
inspiration and I feel blessed that you are my son. I am sincerely grateful to my mother and
grandparents, your unconditional love and support has truly allowed me to reach this
monumental achievement. To my brother and my sister, your encouragement and love has been a
constant source of support for me. Many thanks to all my family members, your collective
strength and energy have definitely been felt. To the network of support that my friends have
provided I am forever grateful. Amber thanks for helping me balance the mommy thing and the
school thing. Stefanie thanks for always reminding me to laugh. Judith, thanks for always been
real and all the positive energy. Telli, I thank you for believing in me. Anthony, I thank you for
the friendship and support.
I would like to acknowledge the psychology department at Florida State University, for
allowing me to utilize their students in my dissertation project. The psychology department at
Florida A&M University, Dr. Bell, Dr. Chambers, Dr. Robinson, Dr. Ola, thank you for making
your classes available to me and the constant support. To the department of psychology at
Lincoln University, thank you for your continuous support and the opportunity to come home.
Also, I would like to thank Dr. Larry Barlow, for allowing me access to his classes. I humbly
thank, Dr. Norejane J. Hendrickson, for the scholarship established in her name, which provided
financial support for the completion of this research project.
Finally, to Osceola, so much of this accomplishment is due to your never ending support
and belief in me, I am thankful always.
What I have gained from this experience is the importance of trust and support for that, I
say Asante Sana (Thank you very much).

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Tables ……………………………………………………………………. vi
Abstract ………………………………………………………………………... vii

1. INTRODUCTION …………………………………………………… 1

Stress and Young Adults ………………………. ……………… 2
Stress and Coping ………………………………………….…. 3
Social Support …………………………………………….. ... 5
Family Values/Family Influences and Stress …………………… 6
Theoretical Orientation ……………………………………….. 7
Research Questions ………………………………………….. 9
Operational Definitions …………………………………………. 10
Limitations ………………………………………………….. .. 10

2. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE …………………………………… 11

Stress ………………………………………………………….. 11
Appraisal of Stress ………………………………………………. 13
Research Findings ……………………………………………… 14
Coping ……………………………………………………… 15
Research Findings ……………………………………………… 17
Social Support …………………………………………………. 18
Research Findings ……………………………………………… 21
Family Values …………………………………………………. 24
Research Findings ……………………………………………… 25
Summary and Conclusions ……………………………………… 26

3. METHODOLOGY ………………………………………………. . 29
Participants …………………………………………………. 29
Procedure …………………………………………………. 29
Instruments …………………………………………………. 29
Data Analyses …………………………………………………. 31

4. RESULTS ……………………………………………………………. 33
Demographics of Sample... …………………………………… 33
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Research Question 1 …………………………………………… 34
Research Question 2 …………………………………………… 34
Research Question 3…………………………………………….. 35
Research Question 4 ……………………………………………. 35
Research Question 5 ……………………………………………. 35
Research Question 6 …………………………………………….. 35

4. DISCUSSION……………………………………………………. 36
Summary …………………………………………………… 44
Limitations …………………………………………………. 45
Implications for Research…………………………………. 46
Appendix A. Tables ……………………………………………………….. 47
Appendix B. Figure ………………………………………………………… 56
Appendix C. Florida State University Human Subjects Review Board……. 58
Appendix D. Informed Consent Form ……………………………………. . 60
Appendix E. Instruments …………………………………………………. 62
References ………………………………………………………………….. 76
Biographical Sketch ………………………………………………………… 88

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LIST OF TABLES

1. Frequency Distribution for Age by Sex for Study Participants ………………. .…… 48
2. Means Scores and Standard deviations for study measurements …………………….. 49
3. Black and White Cronbach’s alpha coefficients for the research measurements …….. 50
4. Correlation coefficients for family values, perceived family social support, perceived stress
and daily stress for Black Students ………………………………………………….. 51
5. Correlation coefficients for family values, perceived family social support, perceived stress
and daily stress for White Students …………………………………………………... 52

6. Multiple Regressions for Study Participants’ With Perceived Stress as the
Dependent variable …………………………………………………………………. 53

7. Multiple Regressions for Black and White Students with Perceived Stress as

the Dependent Variable …………………………………………………………… 54
8. Analysis of Variance for Coping Styles among Study Participants …………………. 55

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ABSTRACT

Relationships between family values, perceived family social support, and stress
appraisal among Black and White College students were examined in this study. A total of 200
male and female undergraduate students complete a demographic/background questionnaire, a
culturally oriented measure of family values (Family Allocentrism Scale), a perceived family
social support measure (Social Supportive Behavior Scale), a perceived stress measure
(Perceived Stress Scale), a daily stress measure (Inventory of College Students Recent Life
Events Scale) and a coping measure (Coping in Stressful Situations). Results revealed no
significant differences among Black and White students in terms of family values, perceived
family social support, perceived stress and coping style. However a significant difference was
found in daily stress among Black and White students, with Black students reporting more daily
stress. In addition, perceived family social support was associated with daily stress and
perceived stress for White students. However, only family values were associated with perceived
stress for Black students. These findings suggest that Black students may place greater value on
family values/family connectedness in the appraisal of certain types of situations whereas White
students’ perceived availability of social support may be of greater value to them. Implications
for future research include further examination of the impact of culturally oriented family values
on stress appraisal and the examination of more complex models of stress among racially
heterogeneous groups.

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

College students are a group especially prone to stress due to the transitional nature of
college life (Greenberger & McLaughlin, 1998; Holahan, Valentiner & Moos, 1995; McCarthy,
Moller & Fouladi, 2001; McIntyre & Dusek, 1995). They are faced with adjusting to being away
from home perhaps for the first time, with maintaining a high level of academic achievement as
well as navigating the social milieu of college life, which means adjusting to new social norms
and establishing new relationships. Although Black college students typically encounter similar
developmental tasks, their (sub) cultural context may affect the types of stressor experienced,
their appraisal of an event as stressful, and the choice of coping strategies that an individual
utilizes in any given situation (Aldwin, 1994).
There is limited empirical research examining whether or not there are differences
between the appraisals of stress and coping among Black and White college students. Of the
studies conducted on this topic it has been found that the types of events identified as stressors
and the types coping strategies utilized to deal with those stressors differed among Black and
White respondents (Jung & Khalsa, 1988; Pliner & Brown, 1985; Prelow & Guarnaccia, 1997;
Slavin, Rainer, McCreary, & Gowda, 1991). However, we do not clearly understand why these
differences occur. Perhaps there is a cultural value on the family level and a specific coping
strategy, namely perceived social support that in combination acts as a moderator of stress
appraisal for these two groups. Hence, studying the cultural aspects of an individuals’ family
value orientation and pattern of social support adds a unique dimension to the understanding of
stress appraisal. It is the intent of this study to investigate how family value orientation and
perceived social support coincide with the process of stress appraisal.
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Stress and Young Adults
Late adolescence is marked by a variety of cognitive and emotional changes. First there
are normative tasks such as the development of identity, achieving independence from family
while still remaining connected, and learning to fit in one’s peer group. Second, there are
transitions from childhood to adulthood that are characterized by a variety of physiological
changes in the body, and by cognitive development (Frydenberg, 1997). Individuals within this
age group must come to terms with increasing demands made by the world that is, pivotal
decisions about work, lifestyle, friends, family, religion, and politics (Pillari, 1998). In addition,
as young people pass through the stage of late adolescence, they find that family, teachers,
neighbors, friends, and ethnic groups hold certain expectations about a variety of life issues for
an individual at this age. Individuals at this stage begin to choose their own pastimes and to build
meaningful emotional ties away from the family. They create their own value systems, often
influenced by the family and culture to which they belong (Pillari, 1998).
Many theorists suggest that a critical developmental task of adolescence is the
achievement of autonomy, which is characterized as the ability to make decisions independently
and to manage life tasks with limited dependence on others (Elkind, 1984; Erikson, 1968, 1982
& Kolhberg, 1973). For College students this developmental phase is further confounded by a
variety of new responsibilities that may not have been part of their pre college life. Many are
confronted for the first time with new responsibilities such as budgeting their own money and
setting their own limits on social activities (Lafreniere, Ledgerwood & Docherty, 1997).
Changing relationships with family and friends, eating and sleeping habits, and loneliness may
also affect some students adversely (Ross, Neibling & Heckert, 1999).
These developmental changes can be acutely stressful. However, these stressors do not
necessarily cause tension or anxiety by themselves. Instead it is the interaction between a variety
of stressors and more importantly how these stressors are perceived that may cause anxiety or
tension. A person’s ability to cope depends in part on personal resources, especially the amount
of social support available. How college students handle these perceived stressors may be
directly related to type and number of social support resources available to them and the
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