Racial Discrimination Predicts Mental Health Outcomes Beyond the Role of Personality Traits in a Community Sample of African Americans

Abstract

Despite a consistent body of work documenting associations between racial discrimination and negative mental health outcomes, the utility and validity of these findings have recently been questioned because some authors have posited that personality traits may account for these associations. To test this hypothesis in a community sample of African Americans ( n = 419, age: M = 43.96 years), we used bivariate relations and hierarchical regression analyses to determine whether racial discrimination accounted for additional variance in depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress symptoms beyond the role of personality. Bivariate relations between personality traits and racial discrimination were small and positive (i.e., rs ≈ .10). Regression results demonstrated that racial discrimination accounted for variance in depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress independent of personality traits ( ps < .01). These results suggest that personality traits do not fully explain associations between racial discrimination and negative mental health outcomes, further supporting the detrimental impact of racial discrimination on the mental health of African Americans.

Harmonizing Assessments of Everyday Racial Discrimination Experiences: The Multigroup Everyday Racial Discrimination Scale (MERDS)

“…Scale is linked to POC's psychological distressed, internalizing symptoms, and hazardous drinking even when controlling for neuroticism. These observations are consistent with findings reported elsewhere (Lui, 2020;Mekawi et al, 2021). To the extent that racism mediated by interpersonal exchanges may account for 10% of the variance in general distress and internalizing symptoms related to depression and anxiety, assessing everyday racial discrimination systematically and routinely may be important in research and clinical practice to understand its impact on minority health and health disparities.…”

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

“… 57 In tandem, racial discrimination increases risk of PTSD. 15 , 83 , 84 Previously, in this sample, we found that racial discrimination was associated with baseline posttraumatic stress symptoms and nonremitting (6 months post injury) PTSD symptoms. 6 Thus, acute trauma exposure and racial discrimination together present a compounded risk factor that may affect neural connectivity and lead to subsequent PTSD.…”

“… 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.…”

COVID-19, stress, and inequities in (neuro)science

“…Anxiety is a strong risk factor for the development of stress-related disorders ( Weger and Sandi, 2018 ). Owing to discrimination or other causes, women, ethnic minorities, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and asexual (LGBTA+) individuals generally show higher rates of anxiety and depression and, accordingly, a particular vulnerability to life stressors ( Yarns et al., 2016 ; Mekawi et al., 2021 ). Importantly, stress undermines self-confidence particularly in highly anxious individuals ( Weger and Sandi, 2018 ), which may contribute to a competitive disadvantage in work-related settings.…”