Abstract
Relationships between family values, perceived family social support, and stress appraisal among Black and White College students were examined in this study. A total of 200 male and female undergraduate students complete a demographic/background questionnaire, a culturally oriented measure of family values (Family Allocentrism Scale), a perceived family social support measure (Social Supportive Behavior Scale), a perceived stress measure (Perceived Stress Scale), a daily stress measure (Inventory of College Students Recent Life Events Scale) and a coping measure (Coping in Stressful Situations). Results revealed no significant differences among Black and White students in terms of family values, perceived family social support, perceived stress and coping style. However a significant difference was found in daily stress among Black and White students, with Black students reporting more daily stress. In addition, perceived family social support was associated with daily stress and perceived stress for White students. However, only family values were associated with perceived stress for Black students. These findings suggest that Black students may place greater value on family values/family connectedness in the appraisal of certain types of situations whereas White students’ perceived availability of social support may be of greater value to them. Implications for future research include further examination of the impact of culturally oriented family values on stress appraisal and the examination of more complex models of stress among racially heterogeneous groups.
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