The primary focus of Dr. Roesch’s current research program is a funded grant entitled, “Intra and interethnic differences in daily stress and coping.” Very little research has been conducted on ethnic minority individuals that explains or predicts mental health outcomes with psychosocial variables such as coping or personality characteristics such as Neuroticism. Therefore, the goals of the proposed study are four-fold:
(a) to develop a predictive model of the stress and coping process within each specific ethnic minority group

(b) to make between-ethnic group comparisons (including comparisons to Caucasians) to evaluate the similarities and differences of these predictive models

(c) to build and test a broader conceptualization of the stress and coping process by incorporating the dimensions of the Five-Factor model of Personality (FFM), a model referred to as the Behavioral Concordance Model (BCM); and

(d) to test for within- and between-ethnic differences with respect to the predictions of the BCM.

Using an internet-based daily diary approach, 300 ethnic minority (Mexican Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans) and 100 Caucasian participants will complete measures that assess the daily stressors they experience, the specific coping strategies that they employ to deal with these stressors, and indices of psychological health over the course of 5 consecutive days.

In addition, participants will complete measures of the Five-Factor model of Personality and cultural orientation (individualism, collectivism). Because of the nested nature of this data (repeated observations nested with individuals), hierarchical linear modeling will be employed to examine the proposed relations. The findings from the proposed research will have important clinical implications. Specifically, the predictive models will identify both maladaptive and adaptive coping repertoires within specific minority adolescent ethnic groups, thus informing both clinicians and interventions researchers who emphasize coping skills training. Moreover, the importance of the proposed research is further realized because specific personality traits and cultural values (and their multiplicative combination) might identify individuals who are particularly prone to use maladaptive coping strategies on a daily level.