A Physiological Approach to Examining the Role of Racial Coping on Mental Health Among Black Adolescents

PROJECT SUMMARY Racial discrimination has been identified as the primary social stressor for Black youth1 where 90% of Black youth (age 8-16) reportedly experienced at least one racial discriminatory encounter.2 As a result of these encounters, Black adolescents experience racial stress, or race-related transactions

between individuals and their environment that are perceived as taxing or threaten well-being (e.g., racial microaggressions, threats of harm or injury, and witnessing harm to Black individuals).3,6 Racial stress has been associated with an increase in depression, anxiety, and psychological distress.4 The

prevalence of racial stress among Black adolescents is alarming as it increases the likelihood of youth engaging in risky sexual behavior and substance abuse.16To address the pervasive and ubiquitous public health concern of the presence of racial stress in the lives of Black adolescents and their subsequent adjustment, the overarching goal of this NRSA proposal is to utilize a multi-method

approach to (1) understand the nature of racial coping among Black adolescents, (2) identify cultural parenting processes that predicts racial coping among Black adolescents, and (3) examine the attenuating effects of racial coping on the association between racial discrimination and mental health (i.e., symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress) among Black adolescents. Present understanding of

racial coping among Black adolescents is limited due to (1) the lack of inclusion of physiological processes in racial coping measurement, (2) the use of variable-centered approaches in investigations of racial coping, and (3) the lack of inclusion of emotion socialization in parents’ racial coping

socialization. Anticipated findings can ultimately inform the enhancement and tailoring of current and future racial coping and mental health interventions for Black adolescents. The current project leverages data from an existing longitudinal study on Black adolescents’ emotion regulation processes

during middle school (grades 6-8) in Richmond, Virginia: Emotion Regulatory Flexibility among African American Adolescents Study (ERFAA; PI: Lozada, NSF CAREER Award: 2046607). The ERFAA study collects relevant data to test the specific aims of this proposal using the assessment of physiological and self-reported arousal and regulation while watching a video vignette of racial discrimination and

self-reported measures of racial discrimination experiences depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms. Utilizing a person-centered approach will advance the literature by enhancing understanding of: (1) individual differences in racial coping and (2) how those individual differences contribute to the ways

racial discrimination is associated with Black adolescents’ mental health. Additionally, I will examine a novel observational measure of parents’ socialization to examine how Black parents' messages about behavioral and emotional coping with racism predict Black adolescents’ racial coping profiles. Results

from the proposed research can ultimately inform the enhancement and tailoring of current and future racial coping and mental health interventions for Black adolescents. Anticipated findings have implications for mental and physical health development research among Black adolescent populations and align with the key goals of the NIMH, and the NIMHD. Specifically this proposal includes the

integrative investigation of biological, behavioral, and experiential factors during an important developmental period that can inform an understanding of the developmental pathways of health and psychopathology.