Insomnia symptoms and repressive coping in a sample of older Black and White women.

BACKGROUND: This study examined whether ethnic differences in insomnia symptoms are mediated by differences in repressive coping styles. METHODS: A total of 1274 women (average age = 59.36 +/- 6.53 years) participated in the study; 28% were White and 72% were Black. Older women in Brooklyn, NY were recruited using a stratified, cluster-sampling technique. Trained staff conducted face-to-face interviews lasting 1.5 hours acquiring sociodemographic data, health characteristics, and risk factors. A sleep questionnaire was administered and individual repressive coping styles were assessed. Fisher's exact test and Spearman and Pearson analyses were used to analyze the data. RESULTS: The rate of insomnia symptoms was greater among White women [74% vs. 46%; chi2 = 87.67, p < 0.0001]. Black women scored higher on the repressive coping scale than did White women [Black = 37.52 +/- 6.99, White = 29.78 +/- 7.38, F1,1272 = 304.75, p < 0.0001]. We observed stronger correlations between repressive coping and insomnia symptoms for Black [rs = -0.43, p < 0.0001] than for White women [rs = -0.18, p < 0.0001]. Controlling for variation in repressive coping, the magnitude of the correlation between ethnicity and insomnia symptoms was substantially reduced. Multivariate adjustment for differences in sociodemographics, health risk factors, physical health, and health beliefs and attitudes had little effect on the relationships. CONCLUSION: Relationships between ethnicity and insomnia symptoms are jointly dependent on the degree of repressive coping, suggesting that Black women may be reporting fewer insomnia symptoms because of a greater ability to route negative emotions from consciousness. It may be that Blacks cope with sleep problems within a positive self-regulatory framework, which allows them to deal more effectively with sleep-interfering psychological processes to stressful life events and to curtail dysfunctional sleep-interpreting processes.

Breast self-examination practices among women from six ethnic groups and the influence of cancer worry.

Diverse samples of women (N = 1364) from Brooklyn, New York, were interviewed regarding their breast cancer screening practices. Of interest here is the relation between cancer worry and adherence to breast self-examination (BSE) guidelines among the six ethnic groups identified--European American, African American, Haitian, Dominican and English-speaking Caribbean women. There was a significant difference in cancer worry by ethnicity. Logistic regression analysis indicated that education, cancer worry, and perceived efficacy of BSE significantly predicted adherence. Furthermore, there were significant differences among women of African descent in BSE adherence and cancer worry. These differences reflect the emerging need for researchers to empirically and methodically investigate ethnic and cultural factors, as well as emotions and affect in preventive health behaviors.