Greater social support is associated with decreased psychological distress among older adults. less psychological distress among Caucasians while it was not associated with African Americans’ distress in this sample. Achieving satisfaction with social support may be particularly important for Caucasians receiving therapy. Interventions may also address strategies to improve physical health emotional support and quality of social support which significantly predicted psychological distress for both groups. = 100; 64 African Americans and 36 Caucasians) were 60 and older in GANT 58 rural areas surrounding Tuscaloosa and Montgomery AL. Inclusion criteria included a T score of greater than 36 on the Global Severity Index (GSI) of the SCL-90R. Exclusion criteria were a history of schizophrenia bipolar disorder or current substance abuse; current treatment with psychotherapy; or apparent cognitive impairment evidenced by an MMSE score < 24 (Scogin et al. 2007 We eliminated participants with incomplete data in analyses which accounts for any deviation in sample size. We used the G*Power computer program to determine a sample size of 100 GANT 58 provided power of .80 to achieve a moderate effect size of 0.10 with α = .05 for two tested predictors and six total predictors (Faul Erdfelder Lang & Buchner 2007 Measures Psychological distress PD was measured with the Global Severity Index (GSI) total score of the Symptom Checklist-90-Revised (SCL-90R) an inventory of 90 psychological symptoms that characterize somatization obsessive compulsive interpersonal sensitivity depression anxiety hostility phobic anxiety paranoid ideation or psychoticism. Participants rate the severity of each symptom for the last week on a scale from 0 (= 2.19 = 1.03) reported significantly better physical health than Caucasians (= 1.53 = 0.65); < .01 GANT 58 (two-tailed). In contrast Caucasians had significantly more years of education than African Americans < .01 (two-tailed) (see Table 1). The overall model of the analysis of satisfaction with SS (= 92) was significant = .22 < .05. Race significantly moderated the relation between satisfaction with SS and PD (see Table 2). Figure 1 shows the nature of the moderation; Caucasians who were more satisfied with their SS experienced less PD while African Americans remained at about the same level of PD regardless of their satisfaction. FIGURE 1 Interaction of satisfaction with social support and race on psychological distress. Table 2 Hierarchical Multiple Regression of PD on Covariates Race and Total Satisfaction with Social Support The first model of the analysis of quality of SS (= 90) showed the covariates (i.e. sex income education self-rated health) accounted for 10.7% of the variance in PD < .05. Adding race and quality of SS to the model accounted for an additional significant 7.0% of the variance < GANT 58 .05. The interaction of race and quality of SS did not account for a significant additional portion of the variance so it was dropped from the model. The final second model demonstrated quality of SS was the only significant predictor of PD; as it decreased PD increased (see Table 3). Table 3 Hierarchical Multiple Regression of PD on Covariates Race and Quality Social Support The first model of Rabbit Polyclonal to AIBP. the analysis of emotional support (= 94) showed the covariates (i.e. sex income education self-rated health) accounted for 13.8% of the variance in PD < .05. Adding race and emotional support to the model accounted for an additional significant 6.9% of the variance < .01. The interaction of race and emotional support did not account for a significant additional portion of the variance so it was dropped from the model. The final second model demonstrated self-rated health and emotional support significantly predicted PD suggesting poorer self-rated health and less emotional support predicted greater PD (see Table 4). Table 4 Hierarchical Multiple Regression of PD on Covariates Race and Emotional Support Discussion Racial differences emerged when analyzing satisfaction with SS but not as hypothesized. Caucasians experienced decreased PD when they were more satisfied with their SS whereas African Americans’ PD did not seem to be influenced by their satisfaction. Bloor et al. (2006) and Jesse and Swanson (2007) found similar results. The former showed satisfaction with emotional support was moderated by race and predicted better mental health with Caucasians benefitting more than African Americans. Satisfaction was even.