Date of Award

Summer 8-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Counseling & Human Services

Program/Concentration

Counseling

Committee Director

Jeffry Moe

Committee Member

Alan M. Schwitzer

Committee Member

Tony C. Perez

Abstract

Research shows that marginalized populations experience disproportionately higher psychological distress (Budhwani et al., 2015; Bailey et al., 2019). Everyday discrimination, defined as chronic interpersonal mistreatment such as microaggressions and disrespect, is associated with greater depression and lower psychological well-being (Essed, 1991; Calabrese et al., 2015). Although the negative effects of discrimination are well established, less is known about protective factors that may reduce these outcomes. One such factor is hope, conceptualized by Snyder et al. (1991) as agency thinking and pathways thinking and linked to lower depression and greater resilience (Arnau et al., 2007; Banks et al., 2008). This study examined whether hope mediated the relationship between everyday discrimination and depression among college students. A cross-sectional, non-experimental design was used with 352 college students who completed the Everyday Discrimination Scale, Trait Hope Scale, and Patient Health Questionnaire-9. Structural equation modeling was used to test mediation and measurement invariance across White and BIPOC participants (Byrne, 2016). Findings supported configural, metric, and scalar invariance. Everyday discrimination was positively associated with depressive symptoms, while hope negatively associated with depression. However, hope did not mediate the relationship because discrimination was not significantly associated with hope. These findings suggest that discrimination and hope may relate to depressive symptoms through separate pathways and highlight the importance of culturally responsive interventions that address discrimination while strengthening students’ psychological resources.

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In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/wa6p-2m86

ISBN

9798193214199

ORCID

0009-0002-9930-6140

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