Perceived Ethnic Discrimination in Relation to Daily Moods and Negative Social Interactions

Abstract

Ethnic discrimination experienced in an interpersonal context has been identified as a stressor contributing to racial disparities in health. Exposure to racism may influence the way people view their ongoing experiences, making it more likely that individuals will appraise new situations as threatening and harmful, adding to their overall stress burden. A multiethnic sample of 113 adults completed a diary page every 30 min for one day. The diary inquired about moods and perceptions of social interactions. When controlling for personality characteristics, mixed models regression analyses indicated that baseline measures of ethnic discrimination (assessed with the Perceived Ethnic Discrimination Scale-Community Version) were positively associated with daily levels of anger and the intensity of participants' rating of routine social interactions as harassing, exclusionary, and unfair. These findings have implications for models of the contribution of psychosocial factors to racial disparities in health.

Violations of people's dignity: Relationships of unfairness with the metabolic syndrome

“…Despite this relationship, unfairness was still associated with the MS independent of hostility. This result parallels work by Broudy et al [12] who observed that, when controlling for personality, discrimination was still associated with perceptions of social interactions as harassing. Harassment may trigger elevated physiological arousal in high hostile individuals [13], and unfair treatment certainly qualifies as harassment.…”

Racism and Hypertension: A Review of the Empirical Evidence and Implications for Clinical Practice

“…75 In contrast, there is substantial, clear and consistent evidence that individual-level racism is associated with indices of psychological distress (e.g., negative affect, anger, depression, and anxiety), as well as personality characteristics (e.g., hostility, trait negative mood) that increase the experience of distress. 15,17,76,77 Racism may also influence cardiovascular responses to stress exposure. BP reactivity to stress has been identified as an independent predictor of the development of HTN.…”

Interaction Between Race and Gender and Effect on Implicit Racial Bias Against Blacks

“…15 The discriminated individual may evaluate social interactions as harassment. 21 Vigilance also mediates the effects of discrimination on psychological distress. 20 Finally, discrimination may increase highrisk behaviors; for example, overt discrimination may result in social isolation and unhealthy behaviors.…”