Racial identity and the quality of life among blacks and whites in the U.S

K Jill Kiecolt; Michael Hughes

doi:10.1016/j.ssresearch.2017.08.008

Racial identity and the quality of life among blacks and whites in the U.S

Soc Sci Res. 2017 Sep:67:59-71. doi: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2017.08.008. Epub 2017 Aug 9.

Authors

K Jill Kiecolt¹, Michael Hughes²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Sociology, 225 Stanger St. MC0137, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA. Electronic address: kiecolt@vt.edu.
² Department of Sociology, 225 Stanger St. MC0137, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA. Electronic address: mdh@vt.edu.

PMID: 28888292
DOI: 10.1016/j.ssresearch.2017.08.008

Abstract

Social identity theory and research on mental health among racial minority groups suggest that a stronger, more positive racial identity will be related to a higher subjective quality of life. We investigate how ingroup closeness, ingroup evaluation, and ingroup bias are associated with happiness, positive affect about life, and generalized trust for blacks and whites, using partial proportional odds models. Data came from the 1996-2014 General Social Surveys (N = 6553). Ingroup closeness and more favorable ingroup evaluation had mostly positive associations with the quality of life dimensions. Contrary to what social identity theory would predict, ingroup bias was either unrelated or negatively related to them. Racial identity functions somewhat differently for blacks and whites. Ingroup evaluation and ingroup bias were related to greater positive affect about life for blacks but lower positive affect about life for whites.

Keywords: Quality of life; Race; Racial identity; Social identity theory.