Study Finds That Blacks With Strong Racial Identity Are Happier

March 8th, 2011 - By TheEditor

EAST LANSING, Mich. — Black people who identify more strongly with their racial identity are generally happier, according to a study led by psychology researchers at Michigan State University. The study, funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, appears in the current issue of Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, a research journal published by the American Psychological Association.

“This is the first empirical study we know of that shows a relationship between racial identity and happiness,” said Stevie C.Y. Yap, doctoral candidate in psychology at MSU and lead researcher on the project. Previous research has found a relationship between racial identity and favorable outcomes such as self-esteem, Yap said, but none has made the link with happiness.

For the study, the researchers surveyed black adults in Michigan. The results suggest the more the participants identified with being black – or the more being black was an important part of who they are – the more happy they were with life as a whole, Yap said.

The study also explored the reasons behind the connection. Yap said it may be fueled by a sense of belongingness – that is, blacks with a strong sense of racial identity may feel more connected to their racial group, which in turn makes them happy.

This sense of belongingness is especially important for happiness in women, Yap said. “For men, the potential fa tors relating identity to happiness is still an open question,” he said. Yap’s fellow researchers are Isis Settles, MSU associate professor of psychology, and Jennifer Pratt-Hyatt, assistant professor of psychology at Northwest Missouri State University.

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  • Anthony Thompson

    Racial Pride leads is a great part of obtaining self-acceptance.

  • Robert O’Connor

    The finding that African Americans who have a strong racial identity are happiest is not surprising, but is a God send of a scientific finding. I work to educate those European Americans who adopt African American children and try to convince them of the importance of helping their children develop a healthy racial identity and connection to the African American community.  This will certainly help my cause and the beautiful children we love! http://www.transracialadoptiontraining.com   

  • http://twitter.com/C_Rich75 @C_Rich75

    Accept your own & be yourself .

  • Bruce

    Who would of thought. *rollseyes* What a wasteful study.

  • Steven cole

    I’m a black man and I always felt this was true. I have everything I need and want in life and feel proud to be black. I have friends who have racial inferiority complex like Beatrice Rivera and they are pathetic to me. We no sense of Pride and Always looking down at their own people.

  • Joe

    Apparently, Beatrice Rivera is a pseudonym for someone who is spewing “haterade’ through her nose. Betcha’ Beatrice’s real name is “Bubba.”

    This story is about a so called study about blacks being happier when there is a strong racial identity component.

    The MSU research, IMHO, is bogus. The control group studied was predominantly female, from Michigan and failed in its inclusion of black men. The researchers, I assume, brought to the findings their own biases. Dr. Isis Settles, most likely is a black Cubana. Stevie Yap, doctoral candidate, is Asian and Jennifer Pratt-Hyatt is white. So, let's extrapolate–Cubans, Asians, whites and all other ethnicities with strong racial identities also are happier when in homogeneous groups. Most people are comfortable when they share language, culture, food, religion and other social structures.

    • Anonymous

      It's a small sample, but you're overstating the gender imbalance. It's about 57-43, women to men. Not perfect, but not 'fail[ing] in its inclusion' of African American men. Anyway, it corroborates others studies that've looked, for instance, at the relationship between healthy ethnic identity and self-esteem, especially for adolescent African Americans.

  • Beatrice Rivera

    As a people, we have much to be ashamed of – the disproportionate number of Black men in prison, the debasement of our women, the Yo-mother-f**ker language employed by our youth and now the burden of Mrs. Obama as First Lady. From her stereo-typical planting of a "truck" garden at the White House to her ape-like mimicking of white hair style and fashion, she is a mixed message of what it means to be Black in America today.

    It is no wonder that all too many of our people – if not most of us – feel inherently inferior to white people.

    If we cannot clean up our cultural icons in crime-rejectin versus injection, "ho" bashing rap music, role model ministers, and even first ladies, we cannot advance nor expect truly deserved equality with our white fellow citizens.