Longitudinal Effects of Racial Discrimination on Depressive Symptoms Among Black Youth: Between- and Within-Person Effects

Racial discrimination predicts depressive symptoms throughout adolescence among Black youth.

“…Fourth, data collection occurred between 1997 and 2005. Given that Black youth continue to face high levels of racial discrimination (English et al, 2020) and our findings are consistent with those from more recent samples (e.g., 2013–2016 in Lavner et al, 2022), it is unlikely that this feature significantly influences the conclusions from this study. Nonetheless, in light of changes in the broader social context (e.g., greater exposure to vicarious discrimination and racially motivated violence through social media), it will be important to replicate these findings in other contemporary samples to examine potential cohort differences in the magnitude of the between- and within-person associations between racial discrimination and depressive symptoms and to consider potential amplifying effects of other forms of discrimination experienced by Black youth today.…”

Measuring the biological embedding of racial trauma among Black Americans utilizing the RDoC approach

“…Again, residing in disadvantaged neighborhoods creates increased exposure to chronic stressors and specific traumas, some of which may constitute racial trauma, such as harassment by police. Finally, Black Americans often experience incidents of interpersonal racial discrimination, ranging from subtle insults to flagrantly racist incidents (e.g., English et al, 2020;Lanier, Sommers, Fletcher, Sutton, & Roberts, 2017) resulting in effects on mental health (e.g., Benner et al, 2018;Jones & Neblett, 2017;Lavner, Hart, Carter, & Beach, 2021). Because of these pervasive stressors, Black Americans routinely experience both chronic stress and discrete traumatic events with the potential to increase their risk for negative mental and physical health outcomes, including increased exposure to death and loss (Massey, 2017) leading to elevated risk for early life morbidity and mortality (Geronimus, Hicken, Keene, & Bound, 2006;Simons et al, 2021) as well as the trauma associated with interpersonal loss.…”

“…Bryant- Davis and Ocampo (2005) indicated that an important feature of racism is that it "strikes at the core of one's selfhood." There is substantial research evidence that the stress and toll of racism-related experiences negatively impacts mental health, with recent research providing rigorous evidence that greater experiences of racial discrimination lead to greater depressive symptoms 8 months later, and that elevated experiences of racial discrimination relative to one's own average experience of racial discrimination also leads to increased depressive symptoms (e.g., Lavner et al, 2021). In addition, there is a larger body of research indicating associations of racism with well-being across the lifespan (Brody et al, 2014;Brondolo et al, 2008;Pascoe & Smart Richman, 2009), and associations with the health disparities seen in Black American populations.…”

Racial Discrimination and Resting-State Functional Connectivity of Salience Network Nodes in Trauma-Exposed Black Adults in the United States

“… 5 The association between racial discrimination and negative health outcomes, such as depression, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), hypertension, and heart disease, among others, has been well-established. 4 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 Experiences of racial discrimination have also been linked to dysfunction of biological stress response systems, including greater allostatic load 19 , 20 , 21 and shortened telomere length, 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 suggesting an association with premature aging and declining health. Evidence of the association between racial discrimination and negative mental health outcomes has mostly relied on demonstrating this connection through self-reported data.…”