A central paradox in the mental health literature is the tendency for black Americans to report similar or better mental health than white Americans despite experiencing greater stress exposure. However, black Americans’ higher levels of certain coping resources may explain this finding. Using data from the Nashville Stress and Health Study (n = 1,186), we examine whether black Americans have higher levels of self-esteem, social support, religious attendance, and divine control than white Americans and whether these resources, in turn, explain the black–white paradox in mental health. In adjusted models, the black–white paradox holds for depressive symptoms and any DSM-IV disorder. Findings indicate that black Americans have higher levels of self-esteem, family social support, and religiosity than white Americans. Causal mediation techniques reveal that self-esteem has the largest effect in explaining black–white differences in depressive symptoms, whereas divine control has the largest effect in explaining differences in disorder.

心理健康文献中的一个中心悖论是，尽管美国黑人承受的压力更大，但他们的心理健康状况却倾向于与美国白人相似或更好。然而，美国黑人较高水平的某些应对资源可能可以解释这一发现。使用纳什维尔压力与健康研究（n = 1,186）的数据，我们研究了美国黑人是否比美国白人拥有更高水平的自尊、社会支持、宗教参与和神圣控制，以及这些资源是否反过来解释了心理健康中的黑白悖论。在调整后的模型中，黑白悖论适用于抑郁症状和任何DSM-IV障碍。调查结果表明，美国黑人比美国白人有更高水平的自尊、家庭社会支持和宗教信仰。因果调解技术表明，自尊在解释抑郁症状的黑人与白人差异方面具有最大的影响，而神圣控制在解释混乱的差异方面具有最大的影响。