A total of 376 White and 156 Black volunteers responded to the Ways of Coping Questionnaire under standard instructions and under instructions to recall a racially stressful event. Significant situational and racial differences were found. Compared with Whites, Blacks engaged in significantly more problem-focused coping and its four components: accepting responsibility, confrontive coping, planfil problem solving, and seeking social support. Blacks also reported more emotion-focused coping and its four components: distancing, escape avoidance, positive reappraisal, and self-control. For both Whites and Blacks, racially stressful situations elicited more confrontive coping but less problem-focused and emotion-focused coping overall. Several interaction effects were also observed. The implications of the results for models of stress are discussed.

Purpose To produce a physician and scientific workforce capable of delivering high quality, culturally competent health care and research, academic medical centers must assess their capacity for diversity and inclusion and respond to identified opportunities. Thus, the Diversity Engagement Survey (DES) is presented as a diagnostic and benchmarking tool. Method The 22-item DES connects workforce engagement theory with inclusion and diversity constructs. Face and content validity were established based on decades of previous work to promote institutional diversity. The survey was pilot tested at a single academic medical center and subsequently administered at 13 additional academic medical centers. Cronbach alphas assessed internal consistency and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) established construct validity. Criterion validity was assessed by observed separation in scores for groups traditionally recognized to have less workforce engagement. Results The sample consisted of 13,694 individuals at 14 medical schools from across the U.S. who responded to the survey administered between 2011– 2012. The Cronbach alphas for inclusion and engagement factors (range: 0.68 to 0.85), CFA fit indices, and item correlations with latent constructs, indicated an acceptable model fit and that questions measured the intended concepts. DES scores clearly distinguished higher and lower performing institutions. The DES detected important disparities for black, women, and those who did not have heterosexual orientation. Conclusions This study demonstrated that the DES is a reliable and valid instrument for internal assessment and evaluation or external benchmarking of institutional progress in building inclusion and engagement.