Sex Differences in the Impact of Racial Discrimination on Mental Health Among Black Americans.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Greater racial discrimination is associated with poorer mental health among Black Americans; yet, there remains an incomplete understanding of sex differences in exposure to racial discrimination, and further, of how sex differences in coping with racial discrimination may heighten or diminish risk for poorer mental health. RECENT FINDINGS: Black men may experience greater exposure to both structural and communal forms of racial discrimination, whereas Black women may face both a wider range of potential sources, as well as encounter greater variability in the subjective experience of racial discrimination. For both Black women and men, racial discrimination may be similarly associated with maladaptive coping strategies (i.e., emotional eating, rumination) that also are linked to poorer mental health; however, emerging findings suggest that mindfulness may partially buffer these deleterious effects. Overall, the recent literature reveals mixed findings with respect to sex differences in the experience and negative mental health impact of racial discrimination. Despite this heterogeneity, evidence documents sex differences in the settings, type, and qualitative experience of racial discrimination among Black Americans. Additionally, growing evidence indicating that racial discrimination is associated with physiological markers of stress reactivity and psychopathology risk further bolsters its characterization as a unique form of chronic stress among Black Americans and other minority groups in the USA.

Night/day ratios of ambulatory blood pressure among healthy adolescents: roles of race, socioeconomic status, and psychosocial factors.

BACKGROUND: Elevated nighttime blood pressure (BP) predicts hypertension and its complications in adulthood. PURPOSE: This study aimed to assess the independent effects of race and family income on night/day BP among adolescents and to examine whether negative emotions, low positive resources, and unpleasant interactions during the day are also related. METHODS: Healthy African American and Caucasian high school students (N = 239) wore an ambulatory BP monitor for 48 h, recorded quality of ongoing interpersonal interactions, and completed questionnaires. RESULTS: African Americans and those with lower family income had higher night/day BP ratios. African Americans reporting greater negative emotions, lower positive resources, and more unpleasant interactions had higher night/day BP ratios. CONCLUSIONS: Racial differences in night BP emerge by adolescence, independent of family income. African Americans, especially those high in negative emotions and low in positive resources, may be at higher relative risk for hypertension later in life in part due to elevated night BP.

Multiple Pathways Linking Racism to Health Outcomes.

This commentary discusses advances in the conceptual understanding of racism and selected research findings in the social neurosciences. The traditional stress and coping model holds that racism constitutes a source of aversive experiences that, when perceived by the individual, eventually lead to poor health outcomes. Current evidence points to additional psychophysiological pathways linking facets of racist environments with physiological reactions that contribute to disease. The alternative pathways emphasize prenatal experiences, subcortical emotional neural circuits, conscious and preconscious emotion regulation, perseverative cognitions, and negative affective states stemming from racist cognitive schemata. Recognition of these pathways challenges change agents to use an array of cognitive and self-controlling interventions in mitigating racism's impact. Additionally, it charges policy makers to develop strategies that eliminate deep-seated structural aspects of racism in society.