experiencing their own chronic strains that generate additional stressors (Everett, Hall, & Hamilton-Mason, 2010). The nature of African Americans’ family ties and racial disparities in health and income may create a context for family tensions to arise while increasing African Americans’ vulnerability to network events, such as a parent’s health problem or brother’s financial hardship. Therefore, we hypothesize that African Americans will be exposed to more family stressors compared to European Americans (Hypothesis 1).
