What is there to be happy about? The impact of race and resilience in the United States

• Date: 29 August 2023
• Pages: 153-170
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-01-2023-0018
• Published date: 29 August 2023
• Author: Randi L. Sims,William C. Hawks,Baiyun Gong

What is there to be happy about?

The impact of race and resilience

in the United States

Randi L. Sims, William C. Hawks and Baiyun Gong

Department of Management,

Nova Southeastern University - Fort Lauderdale/Davie Campus, Fort Lauderdale,

Florida, USA

Abstract

Purpose –The purpose of this study is to investigate racial differences in the moderating role of factors linked

with resilience on the relationship between economic stress and happiness for Black and White residents of

the USA.

Design/methodology/approach–Secondary data were downloaded from the World Values Survey Wave 7

for adult respondents living in the USA. The entire sample of respondents who self-identified as belonging to

the Black race (n 5209) was statistically matched (based on sex –50% male and average age –39 years) with a

similarly sized random sample of respondents who self-identified as belonging to the White race (n 5217).

Findings –The results suggest that economic stress had the potential to trigger a resilience response.

However, the protective factors in the resilience process differed by race of the respondent. The relationship

between economic stress and perceptions of neighborhood safety was conditional on level of control for the

White sample. The relationship between economic stress and happiness for the Black sample was conditional

on the importance of faith.

Originality/value –The study was able to demonstrate the importance of race-based contextual differences

in the roles of faith and control in the resilience process. The findings also increase the understanding of how

life circumstances and individual characteristics, including race, impact happiness and how much or little

resilience may play a part in the achievement of happiness.

Keywords Resilience, Racial disparities, Happiness

Paper type Research paper

Research has empirically demonstrated that Black people living in the USA are adversely

impacted by structural, institutional, interpersonal and internalized racism (Roberson, 2020).

The inequalities have been described by scholars as the enduring inherent product of the

enslavementof Black Americans and theJim Crow segregation era from the1870s to the 1960s.

Evidence suggests these events servedas the genesis of ongoing intergenerational disparities

that exist between Black and White people in the USA(Williams, 2022). The inequities begin

before birth, withthree times higher rates of maternal deathfor Black mothers; persist during

everylife stage; and end withearlier deaths for BlackAmericans (Chinn et al., 2020;Hacker et al.,

2022). Contrary to popular views, morbidity is not a function of race itself, but the disparate

experiences of those of color. “At long last, medical science is declaring that race is not

biological, butthat racism has profound consequences for health”(Krumholz et al., 2022,p.1).

The United States Declaration of Independence ensures the right to life, liberty and the

pursuit of happiness. Yet, with over 200 years of persistent systemic discrimination, for Black

residents, life is shortened and liberty is curtailed. These effects leave us to wonder about the

potential effect of systemic inequality on reported levels of happiness. Although it may be

counterintuitive, recent research suggests that, in the USA, Black residents report the same

level of happiness as that reported by White residents (Haerpfer et al., 2020). It is our

contention that this apparent contradiction between increased life challenges and happiness

can be explained by resilience theory (Kumpfer, 1999) and the moderating roles of control and

religious faith.

Impact of race

and resilience

in the USA

153

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/2040-7149.htm

Received 17 January 2023

Revised 23 April 2023

Accepted 2 August 2023

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 43 No. 1, 2024

pp. 153-170

© Emerald Publishing Limited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-01-2023-0018

Resilience is the ability for an individual to positively adapt to challenging life

circumstances (Luthar et al., 2000). Research on resilience has come to several conclusions.

First, resilience is a process during which the individual interacts with negative

environmental/circumstantial conditions and concludes with something positive, including

but not limited to behavior, attitude and/or emotional outlook (Ungar and Hadfield, 2019).

Second, resilience is not a fixed personality trait, but rather something that can be learned

through education and experience (Robertson and Cooper, 2013). Third, resilience is a

multidimensional factor encompassing several internal characteristics (Kumpfer, 1999) that

continually interact and transform (Masten, 2014). Notwithstanding these conclusions, there

is still much to discover about the resilience process, how an individual develops resilience

(Luthar et al., 2000), the factors that are associated with resilience (Bonanno et al., 2007) and

how individual (Ong et al., 2006) and cultural/community differences interplay with the

resilience process (Brittian et al., 2013;Ungar and Hadfield, 2019).

Brittian et al. (2013) call for continuing research on how culturally relevant differences in

the resilience of minority groups in the USA aid in positive outcomes in the face of racial

disparity. Likewise, Odafe et al. (2017) call for further study in race-related stress and the

importance of considering contributing factors that may buffer the negative effects

associated with it. We contribute to the literature by answering these calls, both in studying

the culturally relevant differences in the resilience of Black residents of the USA and in

studying the factors that may buffer the negative effects of racial disparity. As such, our

purpose of this research is to study how economic stress associated with basic life necessities,

combined with individual differences associated with race, control and religious faith,

interplay with the resilience process leading to an influence on happiness.

Literature review and hypotheses development

Resilience theory

“Resilience refers to a dynamic process encompassing positive adaptation within the context of

significant adversity”(Luthar et al., 2000, p. 543). When faced with hardship, the resilient

individual actively adjusts, as needed, in order to remain positive and productive (Wang et al.,

1994). Although stressors are a natural part of life, the effects of those stressors are dependent

upon how the individual reacts (Freligh and Debb, 2019). The resilient individual uses

resources, both internal and external (Boullion et al., 2020) in order to positively adapt to life

challenges (Robertson and Cooper, 2013;London, 1983). Resilience leads to positive well-

being and adaptive behaviors.

Kumpfer (1999) proposes a resiliency framework with six constructs. The framework

begins with 1) a stressor or challenge for the subject which takes place within 2) an external

environmental context. The subject 3) interacts with the environment, during which 4)

individual internal resiliency factors (e.g. spiritual, emotional, cognitive, physical) come into

play. The 5) resiliency process takes place with, ideally, 6) a positive outcome. As Kumpfer

(1999) illustrates this process, it is not linear and unidirectional, but rather a continuous

process of interactions and feedback between the constructs. In addition, there are significant

individual and contextual variations in the resilience process (Ungar and Hadfield, 2019).

Following, we use Kumpfer’s resilience framework to both review existing literature and

propose the hypotheses tested within this study, considering happiness as a positive outcome

to the resilience process.

Stressor: economic stress. The resilience process is initiated when the individual faces a

stressor. These stressors might be major or minor and temporary or chronic (Amtmann et al.,

2020). In this study, we consider the stress related to economic stress. Research suggests that

significant stress comes are unable to afford basic life necessities like food, shelter and

medical care (Bauer and Boyce, 2004). All of these life needs are tied to a reliable and adequate

EDI

43,1

154