In this paper, in the interest of economy and recognition of individual dignity, we use the term “race” to refer to all of the U.S. government’s official racial and ethnic categories and we use the most preferred terms for these categories (i.e., Black and African American, Hispanic and Latino) interchangeably (Williams et al., 2010). Researchers posit that racial health disparities may be due to differential exposure to stressors (i.e., experiencing more stressors) and/or differential vulnerability to stressors (i.e., experiencing worse health outcomes in response to stressors relative to Whites). Despite some support for the differential vulnerability hypothesis (Aneshensel 1992; Kessler 1979), the differential exposure hypothesis has generally received more attention (Turner et al., 1995). Nevertheless, the evidence to support the differential exposure hypothesis is limited. A review article on stressful life events and race found only ten studies between 1989 and 2005 that examined how stress exposure varied by race (Hatch and Dohrenwend, 2007). Studies generally show that stressful events are more frequent among Blacks and other minority groups relative to Whites, but the literature is not entirely consistent (Franko
