Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
2026
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Psychology
First Advisor
Jean Caraway
Abstract
Perceived discrimination is highly prevalent among people of color (POC) and is strongly associated with elevated posttraumatic stress symptom (PTSS) severity, even after accounting for socioeconomic factors. Guided by the minority stress model, this study examined whether two resilience factors - ethnic racial identity and psychological flexibility moderated the association between everyday discrimination and PTSS in a trauma exposed adult sample of POC. Participants (N = 355) were recruited through Prolific, an online crowdsource platform, and completed self report measures assessing discrimination, PTSS severity, ethnic racial identity, and psychological flexibility. Everyday discrimination was a robust predictor of PTSS severity across all models. Ethnic racial identity significantly moderated this association, with discrimination showing the strongest conditional effect at low identity and the weakest at high identity. Psychological flexibility also moderated the discrimination–PTSS severity relationship, such that higher flexibility was associated with reduced symptom severity. However, the three way interaction among discrimination, ethnic racial identity, and psychological flexibility was not significant, indicating that these resilience processes operated independently rather than synergistically. Age emerged as a consistent covariate, with older participants reporting lower PTSS severity. Findings underscore the substantial mental health impact of discrimination among POC and identify two distinct resilience factors that buffer this association, offering implications for culturally informed and psychologically grounded interventions. Implications for culturally informed and psychologically grounded interventions, as well as directions for future research, are discussed.
Subject Categories
Clinical Psychology
Keywords
Ethnic-Racial Identity, Minority Stress Model, People of Color, Perceived Discrimination, Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms, Psychological Flexibility
Number of Pages
140
Publisher
University of South Dakota
Recommended Citation
Anyanwu, Jacinta O., "PERCEIVED DISCRIMINATION AND POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS IN PEOPLE OF COLOR: THE MODERATING ROLE OF ETHNIC-RACIAL IDENTITY AND PSYCHOLOGICAL FLEXIBILITY" (2026). Dissertations and Theses. 439.
https://red.library.usd.edu/diss-thesis/439