A culturally congruent approach to life satisfaction: The role of personality traits, social stressors, and coping in African American adults.

This preregistered study* used a socioeconomically diverse, African American sample (N = 573) to examine the association between personality traits, facets, discrimination, and culturally informed coping strategies (spirituality, interconnectedness, problem-oriented, and disengagement) with life satisfaction. Higher extraversion (β = 0.035) and conscientiousness (β = 0.028) and lower neuroticism (β = -0.036) and discrimination (β = -0.146) were associated with greater life satisfaction (all ps < 0.001); anxiety and depression (neuroticism), positive emotion (extraversion), and achievement-striving (conscientiousness) were the strongest facet-level correlates. Personality traits were related to coping, but coping was surprisingly unrelated to life satisfaction. An exploratory structural equation model generally supported these associations, except for a contradictory association between spirituality coping and lower life satisfaction. This work clarifies personality and coping associations with life satisfaction in African American adults and highlights similarities and differences in these associations when compared to non-minority samples. The structural model indicates avenues to further refine frameworks for understanding life satisfaction that consider both individual level and broader environmental/culturally specific factors contributing to well-being.