WED-059 - Relationship Between Spirituality, Ethnic Pride & Help Seeking Attitudes Amongst African, Caribbean & Black Populations
Wednesday, April 22, 2026
12:30 PM - 1:30 PM PST
Location: Plaza Foyer, Plaza Level
Area of Responsibility: Area I: Assessment of Needs and Capacity Keywords: Cultural Competence@@@Race/Ethnicity@@@Social Determinants of Health (SDOH), Subcompetencies: 1.3.2 Determine the knowledge, attitudes, beliefs, skills, and behaviors that impact the health and health literacy of the priority population(s)., 1.3.3 Identify the social, cultural, economic, political, and environmental factors that impact the health and/or learning processes of the priority p Research or Practice: Research
Student Minnesota State University Mankato Mankato, Minnesota, United States
Learning Objectives:
At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
Examine the relationship between ethnic pride and help-seeking attitudes among an ethnically diverse sample of n=239 African, Caribbean, and African American, respondents from the US and Canada.
Examine the relationship between spirituality and help-seeking attitudes among an ethnically diverse sample of n=239 African, Caribbean, and African American, respondents from the US and Canada.
Examine sub group differences in ethnic pride, spirituality and health-seeking attitudes in our sample.
Brief Abstract Summary: The goal of this study is to understand the relationship between ethnic pride and spirituality and help-seeking attitudes among an ethnically diverse sample of n=239 African, Caribbean, and African American, respondents from the US and Canada. Results from the analysis indicated that higher levels of spirituality were positively associated with health-seeking behaviors (p=.017) as measured by agreement with the statement “I got a health care appointment as soon as I needed”. Alternatively, greater ethnic pride was linked to lower engagement in health seeking behaviors (p=.001).
Detailed abstract description:
Background: It is well known that spirituality and ethnic pride play a large part in the lives of people of African descent. Religious sites, traditions, and forms of spiritual expression hold healing capabilities that may be transcendent and transpersonal in nature for people of African descent (Hamilton et al., 2020; Moodley & Bertrand, 2011; Parks, 2003). Ethnic identity has been connected to security, stability, and a sense of pride (Phelps et al., 2001). This study examines the role of spirituality and ethnic pride on the health-seeking behaviors of a sample of African(n=48), Caribbean (n=51), and African American (n=140) respondents.
Objectives: The goal of this study is to understand the relationship between ethnic pride and spirituality and help-seeking attitudes among an ethnically diverse sample of n=239 African, Caribbean, and African American, respondents from the US and Canada.
Methods: All the analyses were conducted in IBM SPSS v 27. For our first research question, “Is there a relationship between measures of ethnic pride and health-seeking behavior?” a Spearman’s correlation was run between measures of ethnic pride, “Being black is an important reflection of who I am” and “I am proud to be black”, and the dependent variable, “I got a health care appointment as soon as I needed.” Spearman’s correlation was also run to analyze the question, “Is there a relationship between spirituality and health-seeking behavior? Spirituality was measured by the following: “My spirituality; Guides how to treat myself,” “Guides how to treat others,” “Helps shape my reaction to stress,” and “Guides me to pray daily.” Finally, ordinal regression was used to confirm relationships and control for key demographic variables for both research questions.
Results: Results from the analysis indicated that higher levels of spirituality were positively associated with health-seeking behaviors (p=.017) as measured by agreement with the statement “I got a health care appointment as soon as I needed”. Alternatively, greater ethnic pride was linked to lower engagement in health seeking behaviors (p=.001).
Conclusion: The findings of this study reveal that there are differences in health-seeking behaviors in Black populations across the United States and Canada. The findings show that spirituality and ethnic pride play a role in shaping health-seeking behaviors of African, Caribbean, and African American populations. This is important because in order to promote health equity, public health professionals need to use culturally competent public health messages that acknowledge the unique role of spirituality and ethnic pride to ensure receptivity of our health promotion message by ACB populations (Elbers, Vaughan, & Tiruneh, 2024).
