Race and Health Status as Determinants of Anger Expression and Adaptive Style in Children

Abstract

As part of a study examining the construct of adaptive style among healthy children and those with a serious illness, children (N= 589) completed measures of defensiveness, anxiety, anger expression, and anger control. Scores on these measures differed as a function of both race and illness status. African American children demonstrated lower levels of anger expression and higher levels of anger control and defensiveness than did Caucasian children. Applying Weinberger's adaptive style paradigm (Weinberger, Schwartz, & Davidson, 1979), a significantly higher prevalence of repressors was found in the African American children. Similarly, children with a variety of serious illnesses (cancer, cystic fibrosis, diabetes, juvenile rheumatoid disorders) demonstrated lower anger expression and higher levels of repressive adaptation than did healthy children. An additive effect of race and illness status was observed, whereby African American children with serious illness evidenced the lowest levels of anger expression and highest levels of repressive adaptation, in contrast to healthy Caucasian children who had the highest anger expression and lowest levels of repression. The construct of social stigmatization as a function of minority status is posited as a partial explanation for these findings.