Going beyond ethnoracial discrimination and social support in accounting for psychological adjustment: Evidence for the importance of hope as a positive psychological construct in multiethnoracial adults

ABSTRACT

In the present study, we examined the role of ethnoracial discrimination, social support (viz., family & friends), and hope (viz., agency & pathways) in accounting for negative psychological adjustment (viz., worry & depressive symptoms) and positive psychological adjustment (viz., vitality & life satisfaction) in a sample of 203 (164 females & 39 males) multiethnoracial adults. Results of conducting a series of hierarchical regression analyses indicated that beyond ethnoracial discrimination and social support, the inclusion of hope was found to augment the prediction model of psychological adjustment. Within the hope set, agency was found to be uniquely associated with adjustment. Pathways was found to be uniquely associated with positive indices of psychological adjustment. The present findings are the first to highlight the significance of hope in multiethnoracial adults. Some implications of the present findings for understanding psychological adjustment in multiethnoracial adults are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Ethnoracial discrimination
• social support
• hope
• psychological adjustment
• multiethnoracial adults

Acknowledgement

The first author would like to thank Chang Suk-Choon and Tae Myung-Sook for their encouragement and support throughout this project, and to acknowledge the late C. R. Snyder for sharing his passion for the study of hope in the lives of all people.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.