Major depression is a psychiatric disorder that is highly prevalent and debilitating in the United States and worldwide (Kessler & Üstün, 2004; Williams et al., 2007). Depression is estimated to be the fourth most common cause of disability worldwide (Üstün, Ayuso-Mateos, Chatterji, Mathers, & Murray, 2004) and is associated with poorer socioeconomic status (SES; Adler et al., 1994; Brown & Adler, 1998; Dohrenwend et al., 1992; Link, Lennon, & Dohrenwend, 1993). Many African Americans are socially and economically disadvantaged (Mezuk et al., 2011; Walsemann, Gee, & Geronimus, 2009; Walsemann, Geronimus, & Gee, 2008) and numerous studies indicate that African Americans are exposed to substantial levels of stress and adversity over the life course (Turner & Avison, 2003; Turner & Lloyd, 2004). Exposure to stress is an important factor in the development of mental disorders within the mental health literature (Farley, Steeh, Krysan, Jackson, & Reeves, 1994; Mirowsky & Ross, 2003; Schulz et al., 2006; Turner & Lloyd, 1999, 2004). Racial discrimination is a potent stressor, related to both increased levels of depressive symptoms (Brody et al., 2006; Gibbons, Gerrard, Cleveland, Wills, & Brody, 2004) as well as increased odds of depression (Hudson et al., 2012; Kessler, Mickelson, & Williams, 1999). A key component in the relationship between exposure to stress and development of mental illness is coping. High-effort coping, defined as “sustained cognitive and emotional engagement,” is described as a problem-focused coping strategy (James, Hartnett, & Kalsbeek, 1983). It is possible that high-effort coping strategies may be used by African Americans of higher SES when individuals appraise stressful situations that are sometimes related to racial discrimination, such as job loss or being passed over for promotion, as situations that can be altered by hard work (Geronimus & Thompson, 2004). However, high-effort coping may be a “mental health cost” paid by African Americans who maintain greater levels of sustained effort and energy expenditures in order to cope with stress (Cole & Omari, 2003).

It is likely that many African Americans who do possess greater levels of SES have had to overcome substantial odds to gain higher levels of education and gain entry into more prestigious, higher paying occupations. Scholars have argued that African Americans must engage in an arduous process of upward social mobility to improve their SES (Cole & Omari, 2003; Heflin & Patillo, 2002; Neckerman, Carter, & Lee, 1999). In fact, many African Americans, even those who appear to be solidly middle class, begin their lives in poverty (Heflin & Patillo, 2002; Patillo-McCoy, 1999). Hertz (2005), using data drawn from the Panel Survey of Income Dynamics (PSID), revealed that 42% of African Americans born into the bottom 10th of the income distribution remained in that same income bracket as adults. In 2006, a third of African Americans younger than 18 years were living in poverty and until 1996, the percentage of African Americans younger than 18 years living in poverty was consistently 40% or greater (Macartney, 2011). Despite efforts to overcome, often, humble beginnings, findings from several studies suggest that African Americans of higher SES contend with numerous stressors related to overt and covert racial discrimination manifested in many forms, including racial residential segregation, diminished returns for investments in social and cultural capital, and limited advancement in occupational settings due to “racialized” glass ceilings (Cole & Omari, 2003; Hochschild, 1995; Williams, 2003).

The adoption of high-effort coping strategies may be a plausible coping response for African Americans who encounter stressors such as racial discrimination in settings such as school and the workplace. Feagin and McKinney (2003) interviewed African American respondents who described distress and pain resulting from discriminatory workplace encounters with White coworkers. It would certainly seem that these kinds of discriminatory experiences would threaten mastery and self-esteem, two established risk factors for depression, of African Americans, thereby increasing African Americans’ vulnerability to depression (Broman, Mavaddat, & Hsu, 2000; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Surgeon General, 2001).

Racial discrimination is independently associated with poorer mental health in African Americans (Clark, Anderson, Clark, & Williams, 1999; Kessler et al., 1999; Schulz et al., 2000; Schulz et al., 2006; Williams, Neighbors, & Jackson, 2008). Results from several studies indicate significant, positive associations between perceived racial discrimination and impaired psychological well-being and decreased self-esteem (Karlsen & Nazroo, 2002; Watkins, Hudson, Howard Caldwell, Siefert, & Jackson, 2010; Williams, Takeuchi, & Adair, 1992; Williams, Yu, Jackson, & Anderson, 1997). Findings from a variety of multidisciplinary studies indicate that African Americans with more socioeconomic resources report greater exposure to racial discrimination compared with those with lower levels of education and income (Cole & Omari, 2003; Dawson, 1994; Forman, 2003; Higginbotham & Weber, 1992; Hochschild, 1995). It is posited that African Americans of higher SES are more likely to work and live in integrated settings compared with poorer African Americans. Thus, higher SES is associated with increased exposure to racial discrimination among African Americans (Brayboy-Jackson & Stewart, 2003; Forman, 2003; Hudson et al., 2012; Williams, 2003).

To an increasing degree, researchers have investigated the intersection between SES, racial discrimination, and mental health (Forman, 2003; Hudson et al., 2012; Hudson, Puterman, Bibbins-Domingo, Matthews, & Adler, 2013; Williams, 1999). African Americans of higher SES experience a variety of race-related stressors, ranging from interpersonal racial discrimination and residential steering to lower levels of compensation and limited advancement in occupational settings (Cole & Omari, 2003; Forman, 2003; Hochschild, 1995; Williams, 2003). In a qualitative study conducted by sociologist Karyn Lacy (2007), her metropolitan Washington, D.C., middle-class African American respondents describe elaborate schemes used to construct “public identities” to signal their middle-class status to Whites in order to indicate that they belong in certain settings, such as shopping in upscale retail stores or seeking housing in predominantly White neighborhoods (Lacy, 2004). Although Lacy did not formally examine depression, she observed that her respondents seemed to have been harmed psychologically by the construction and practice of delicate racial and class interactions. Evidence from a study of middle-class African American men conducted by Sellers, Bonham, Neighbors, and Amell (2009) indicates a significant inverse association between racial discrimination and favorable self-rated mental health. In fact, they concluded that racial discrimination could be more hazardous to mental health than to physical health.

In addition to direct interpersonal experiences of racial discrimination, African Americans are compensated at lower levels than Whites, notwithstanding similar levels of education and work experience (Williams, 2003). While these kinds of discrepancies may be structural in nature, it is possible that African Americans attribute their successes and failures to their individual efforts (Smith, 2007). Findings from a qualitative study conducted by sociologist Sandra Smith (2007) indicate that despite structural barriers to gaining employment, such as racial discrimination from employers, lack of access to jobs, and fewer marketable skills due to poor educational preparation, African Americans in her study attribute a large portion of their difficulties in finding work to their own personal deficits and missteps. Considering these findings, is it possible that African Americans, especially those of higher SES, use high-effort coping strategies when faced with stressors such as difficulties with employment or achieving promotion? If African Americans of higher SES attribute their socioeconomic success to hard work, personal sacrifices, and ability to overcome obstacles, high-effort coping strategies may be used in this population. Yet it is unclear whether efforts to use individual agency to overcome obstacles that may be structural in nature, have negative effects on mental health.

The transactional model of stress and coping has been widely used to model the stress process (Pearlin, Lieberman, Menaghan, & Mullan, 1981; Pearlin & Schooler, 1978; Wenzel, Glanz, & Lerman, 2002). Wenzel et al. (2002) state that stressful experiences are “person-environment transactions,” in which the impact of an external stressor is mediated by a person’s appraisal of the stressor and the psychological, social, and cultural resources at their disposal. During the appraisal process, individuals evaluate their perceived control over the threat as well as their perceived control over emotional reactions. A key component of the stress paradigm is coping (Pearlin et al., 1981; Pearlin & Schooler, 1978; Wenzel et al., 2002). Disengaging coping strategies such as distancing, cognitive avoidance, and denial shift attention away from stressors. These strategies are considered maladaptive because they can lead to disruptive thoughts and prolong feelings of distress over time (Carver et al., 1993; Carver, Lawrence, & Scheier, 1999; Schwartz, Lerman, Miller, Daly, & Masny, 1995). “Emotion-focused” strategies are considered most adaptive when a stressor is not malleable to change. Conversely, “problem-focused” coping strategies are suggested when a stressor is appraised as controllable (Wenzel et al., 2002). Wenzel et al. (2002) emphasize the protective effect that “problem-focused” coping offers over emotional regulation.

Unlike system justification theory, which suggests an econometric perspective in which individuals see overarching social and economic stratification as an aspect of volitional control and natural order, the literature suggests that adoption of high-effort coping strategies implies the use of sustained individual effort, such as working long hours or not taking time off work, in order to cope with stress (Geronimus & Thompson, 2004; Jost, Banaji, & Nosek, 2004). As mentioned earlier, avoidance coping strategies such as denial coping might be an effective coping response to stressors that are apprised as not amenable to change (Carver et al., 1993; Meyer, Schwartz, & Frost, 2008; Schwartz et al., 1995). For instance, researchers have observed that the development of depressive symptoms such as fatigue and pessimism is a plausible reaction in the face of failed attempts to reach personal goals or when personal goals are unattainable (Nesse, 2000). Keller and Nesse (2006) found that feelings of guilt, rumination, fatigue, and pessimism were associated with failed efforts. Yet for many African Americans, especially those from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, hard, individual work may be perceived as the only way to achieve upward socioeconomic mobility and the socioeconomic benefits of investing in human capital (e.g., pursuit of higher education and training programs) and striving in the face of stressors may be worth great efforts. It is possible that individuals who engage in high-effort coping continue to strive despite individually and institutionally mediated racism. It is not clear whether African Americans, particularly those of greater SES, cope by striving in a high-effort manner and the mental health effects of such striving are unknown.

Social epidemiologist Sherman James posits that African Americans could use John Henryism, a “high-effort” coping strategy to cope with external stressors (James et al., 1983). James’s construct of John Henryism is based on the American folklore of an African American steel-driver named John Henry who famously raced a steam-powered machine during the construction of a rail road (Bronder, Speight, Witherspoon, & Thomas, 2014; James et al., 1983). As legend has it, John Henry won the race against the machine but soon dropped dead with a hammer in his hand. John Henryism is defined as a strong behavioral predisposition to cope actively with psychosocial and environmental stressors (Angner, Hullett, & Allison, 2011; Bennett et al., 2004; James, 1994; James et al., 1983). James (2002) further describes John Henryism as

… a cultural adaptation on the part of newly freed people faced with the daunting task of creating for themselves, an American identity. To be authentic, that identity had to make possible a coherent expression of core American values such as hard work, self-reliance, and freedom.

James argues that in the face of psychosocial stressors, African Americans may use high-effort coping due to their increased exposure to psychosocial stressors, particularly in response to race-related obstacles such as racial discrimination (James, 1994, 2002; James et al., 1983). According to James, high-effort coping strategies are characterized persistent, sustained efforts to cope with racial barriers. Furthermore, James argues that high-effort coping may be deleterious to health because considerable energy is expended to cope with psychosocial stressors and individuals have greater perceived control over the outcome of a stressful situation.

John Henryism was initially developed to examine hypertension among African Americans, and thus, the majority of research to date has primarily tested the relationship between John Henryism and hypertension (Bonham, Sellers, & Neighbors, 2004; Clark, 2003; Dressler, Bindon, & Neggers, 1998; James et al., 1983; McClure & Myers, 1999; Merritt, Bennett, Williams, Sollers John, & Thayer, 2004). While the John Henryism construct has been empirically tested in a variety of different studies, there are gaps in previous explorations.

There are very few previous studies that have investigated the relationship between John Henryism and mental health, particularly depression (Bronder et al., 2014; Neighbors, Njai, & Jackson, 2007). One study conducted by Neighbors et al. (2007) explored the relationship between John Henryism and depressive symptoms using the National Survey of American Life (NSAL). They found that John Henryism was not significantly associated with depressive symptoms among African Americans. However, this study did not test the relationship between SES and John Henryism nor did it examine whether SES played a significant factor in the relationship between John Henryism and depressive symptoms.

The vast majority of studies that examine John Henryism have primarily focused on poor or low-income samples (Bonham et al., 2004). Bonham et al. (2004) indicate that more research is needed on samples of varying SES, particularly among African Americans, not just low SES samples. For instance, it is possible that African Americans who possess greater levels of SES are likely to use high-effort coping when faced with psychosocial stressors. Higher SES African Americans may apply great amounts of pressure on themselves to succeed, working very hard as a coping strategy to overcome structural and individually mediated racial discrimination. For many African Americans who have greater levels of SES, it is through investments in human capital (e.g., pursuing higher education) and sheer effort, rather than social capital or family wealth that has propelled them into a higher social class (Conley, 1999; Patillo-McCoy, 1999; Shapiro, 2004). And due to immense lack of wealth in the African American community as well as changes to the overall labor market, the social and economic position of many African Americans is tenuous (McBrier & Wilson, 2004; Patillo-McCoy, 1999; Wilson, 1996).

Light et al. (1995) conducted a study to determine whether high job status and John Henryism were related to hypertension among a sample of African Americans and Whites. Compared with White men in high-status jobs, they found that African Americans and White women who held high-status jobs reported higher John Henryism scores. Additionally, Light et al. found that African Americans who held high status jobs and were more likely to use high-effort coping had higher diastolic and systolic blood pressure levels. Bronder et al. (2014) examined the relationship between John Henryism and psychological distress in a community sample of 314 Black women. They found a negative relationship between John Henryism and depressive symptomatology and suggested that John Henryism was predictive of better mental health status in their sample. They also tested whether SES, specifically income and education, moderated the relationship between John Henryism and depression. Their results indicated that SES did not moderate this relationship. Bonham et al. (2004) examined high-SES African American men to explore the relationship between John Henryism and self-rated health. Using a sample of 399 African American men who were members of a national fraternal organization, they found a positive relationship between John Henryism and favorable self-rated physical health. The authors concluded that for the high-SES African American men in their study, John Henryism is beneficial to health.