Effects of gender-matching and racial self-labeling on paranoia in African-American men with severe mental illness.
OBJECTIVE
The present study examined the effects of gender-matching and racial self-labeling on the paranoid symptoms of African-American men with severe mental illness. It was hypothesized that gender matching would: 1) reduce self-reports of both interpersonal and cultural paranoia in these male participants with severe mental illness, and 2) the gender effect would be strongest among those patients who racially self-label as African-American.


METHODS
One-hundred-twenty-four African-American male psychiatric patients were interviewed by a male or female black psychologist. A multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted with the Fenigstein Paranoia Scale (FPS) and Cultural Mistrust Inventory (CMI) as dependent variables, and the male gender-matched group (0=no, 1=yes) and racial self-labeling as the independent variables controlling for age; education; never married (0=no, 1=yes); diagnosis of schizophrenia (0=no, 1=yes); need for approval; self-esteem; and the scales of Distrust, Perceived Hostility of Others, and False Beliefs and Perceptions from the Psychiatric Epidemiology Research Interview.


RESULTS
There was a significant main effect for male gender-matching on the FPS. Participants in the male gender-matched group scored lower than the other group on the FPS. For the CMI, there was a significant interaction of male gender match by racial self-labeling effect. Participants who were male gender-matched and self-labeled as African-American reported the highest scores on the CMI.


CONCLUSIONS
The findings provide partial support for the hypotheses. Both gender-matching and racial identity together may be important considerations for black males needing mental health services.
Whaley
Arthur L
AL
New York State Psychiatric Institute, USA. awhaley@mail.utexas.edu
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology*; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010259:Paranoid Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D011368:Professional-Family Relations; D011594:Psychometrics; D012649:Self Concept; D012737:Sex Factors; D013240:Stereotyping; D035502:Trust; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology