Black Young Adult Superwomen in the Face of Gendered Racial Microaggressions: Contextualizing Challenges With Acceptance and Avoidance and Emotional Eating.

BACKGROUND: Black young adult women (ages 18-35) are at disproportionate risk for obesity and emotional eating. Emotional eating interventions target psychological flexibility, such as reducing experiential avoidance and increasing acceptance of food-related thoughts. Yet Black women face gendered racism, and some endorse roles that reduce psychological flexibility, such as the superwoman schema role. Culturally centered stress and coping has often been overlooked, leading to an incomplete understanding of processes that engender emotional eating and the implications for appropriate and effective interventions for Black young adult women. PURPOSE: We investigated direct and indirect pathways of associations between stress from gendered racial microaggressions to emotional eating through the endorsement of superwoman schema and two aspects of psychological flexibility. METHODS: Black young adult women (N = 504; Mage = 24.72; 75.2% African American; 98.4% cisgender) participated in an online survey wherein they reported demographics, stress from gendered racial microaggressions, superwoman schema, experiential avoidance, acceptance of food-related thoughts, and emotional eating. Path analysis was conducted to examine direct and indirect effects. RESULTS: Results provided evidence for indirect associations between more stress from gendered racial microaggressions and more emotional eating. More stress was associated with greater endorsement of the superwoman schema which was associated with more experiential avoidance and less acceptance of food-related thoughts, which were each associated with more emotional eating. CONCLUSIONS: Endorsement of superwoman schema and concomitant avoidance and less acceptance may be one way that gendered racial stress propels emotional eating. Future research could test intervention components that disrupt this path.

Emotional eating is eating in order to alleviate negative emotions, like those from stress. Black young adult women face particular forms of stress from being mistreated at the intersection of their race and gender. This research was needed to better understand processes that engender emotional eating for Black young adult women so that appropriate and effective interventions can be developed for this group. In this correlational study, Black young adult women (ages 18­35) completed an online survey wherein they answered questions about their experiences, thoughts, and behaviors. The study results indicated that stress from mistreatment due to being a Black woman was associated with endorsing a need to be strong. This need to be strong was associated with avoiding experiences that may lead to negative emotional states and being less accepting of distressing thoughts about food. More avoidance and less acceptance were each associated with more emotional eating. Therefore, if emotional eating or obesity-related interventions already target acceptance and avoidance, but do not reference or contextualize them for Black young adult women­particularly in terms of stress from mistreatment as a Black woman and the need to be strong­such interventions may be less effective.

Discrimination and Cardiovascular Health in Black Americans: Exploring Inflammation as a Mechanism and Perceived Control as a Protective Factor.

OBJECTIVE: Inflammation may be an integral physiological mechanism through which discrimination impacts cardiovascular health and contributes to racial health disparities. Limited research has examined psychosocial factors that protect against the negative effects of discrimination on inflammation. Perceived control is a promising possible protective factor, given that it has been shown to moderate the relationship between other psychosocial stressors and physiological outcomes. This study thus tested whether systemic inflammation mediated the link between discrimination and cardiovascular health and whether perceived control moderated this relationship. METHODS: Data for this project included 347 non-Hispanic/Latinx Black adults (mean [standard deviation] age = 51.64 [11.24] years; 33% female) taken from the Midlife in the United States study. Perceived control and daily discrimination were assessed via self-report, and inflammation was measured via circulating levels of C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), fibrinogen, and tumor necrosis factor α. Cardiovascular health was measured by morbidity of cardiovascular conditions: heart disease, hypertension, and/or stroke. RESULTS: CRP (indirect effect: b = 0.004, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.001-0.007) and fibrinogen (indirect effect: b = 0.002, 95% CI = 0.0003-0.005) mediated the link between discrimination and cardiovascular conditions. Perceived control moderated the relationship between discrimination and CRP ( F (1, 293) = 4.58, Δ R2 = 0.013, b = -0.02, SE = 0.01, p = .033). CRP mediated the link between discrimination and cardiovascular conditions only for those who reported low levels of perceived control (Index = -0.003, 95% CI = -0.007 to -0.0001). CONCLUSION: Findings provide empirical evidence of inflammation as a mechanism linking discrimination to cardiovascular conditions among Black Americans. Additionally, perceived control may be protective. Findings could suggest beliefs about control as a potential intervention target to help reduce the negative effects of discrimination on cardiovascular health among Black Americans.

Imperial algorithms: Contemporary manifestations of racism and colonialism.

In this special issue, we invited contributions that critically examined issues of imperialism, colonialism, power, justice, etc. to expand the canon of anticolonial scholarship and critical scholarship in community psychology. Our two objectives were: (1) to build on the canon of anticolonial and critical race scholarship to cultivate an empirical and theoretical body of work and conceptual frameworks about racism and colonialism within the field of community psychology and (2) to unpack the different manifestations of racism in society from the lens of community psychology and reflect on the implications of these varied forms of injustice in the contemporary moment. Rooted in African epistemology and methodology (Martin, 2012), we find the concept of the algorithm to serve as a potent metaphor for the ways in which these oppressive structures operate given the prevalence of algorithms in our daily lives and the algorithm is symbolic of the information age and predictive powers that seem to govern society beyond conscious control. In this sense, imperial algorithms are these structures, patterns, processes, and procedures that perpetuate imperialism. These imperial algorithms manifest as neo-colonialism, surveillance, social engineering, carcerality, reality warping of contemporary racism, health disparities exacerbated by COVID-19, and environmental grids of oppression.

Experience of discrimination reported during pregnancy and infant's emerging effortful control.

Discrimination reported during pregnancy is associated with poorer offspring emotional outcomes. Links with effortful control have yet to be examined. This study investigated whether pregnant individuals' reports of lifetime racial/ethnic discrimination and everyday discrimination (including but not specific to race/ethnicity) reported during pregnancy were associated with offspring emerging effortful control at 6 months of age. Pregnant individuals (N = 174) and their offspring (93 female infants) participated. During pregnancy, participants completed two discrimination measures: (1) lifetime experience of racial/ethnic discrimination, and (2) everyday discrimination (not specific to race/ethnicity). Parents completed the Infant Behavior Questionnaire-Revised when infants were 6 months old to assess orienting/regulation, a measure of emerging effortful control. Analyses were conducted in a subsample with racially/ethnically marginalized participants and then everyday discrimination analyses were repeated in the full sample. For racially/ethnically marginalized participants, greater everyday discrimination (ß = -.27, p = .01) but not greater lifetime experience of racial/ethnic discrimination (ß = -.21, p = .06) was associated with poorer infant emerging effortful control. In the full sample, greater everyday discrimination was associated with poorer infant emerging effortful control (ß = -.24, p = .002). Greater perceived stress, but not depressive symptoms, at 2 months postnatal mediated the association between everyday discrimination and emerging effortful control. Further research should examine additional biological and behavioral mechanisms by which discrimination reported during pregnancy may affect offspring emerging effortful control.

The immediate effect of discrimination on mental health: A meta-analytic review of the causal evidence.

This meta-analysis synthesizes experimental studies on the immediate effects of discrimination on mental health, exploring the effects of different paradigms and discrimination types on diverse facets of mental health. We analyzed data from a systematic literature search (73 studies; 12,097 participants; 245 effect sizes) for randomized controlled trials with manipulation of discrimination as a predictor and mental health as an outcome using a three-level random-effects model. Experimentally manipulated discrimination led to poorer mental health (g = -0.30), also after controlling for publication year, region, education level, and methodological quality. Moderator analyses revealed stronger effects for pervasive (g = -0.55) compared to single-event manipulations (g = -0.25) and a trend toward weaker effects for samples with nonmarginalized (g = -0.16) compared to marginalized identities (g = -0.34). Gender and age did not moderate the effect. Discrimination had the largest effects on externalizing (g = -0.66) and distress-related outcomes (g = -0.41); heterosexism (g = -0.66), racism (g = -0.32), and sexism (g = -0.30) had the largest effects on mental health. Convenience sampling compromised generalizability to subgroups and the general population, downgrading methodological quality for all included studies. When interpreting the findings, selective samples (mostly young female adults with higher education), often limited ecological validity, and ethical restrictions of lab-induced discrimination need to be considered. These constraints likely led to conservative estimates of the mental health effects of discrimination in this meta-analysis. Future research should investigate more diverse samples, further explain the heterogeneity of findings, and explore protective factors of the effects of discrimination on mental health. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Online racial discrimination, centrality, and academic outcomes among Black youth.

Online racial discrimination (ORD) has been found to have deleterious effects on the psychological and academic outcomes of youth of color. Racial centrality (i.e., the extent to which one regards their racial group membership as important to their identity) may be a powerful buffer of these effects and has been identified as an important sociocultural asset for Black youth in particular. This study examined the relations among ORD, racial centrality, academic self-efficacy (ASE), and academic achievement among Black children and adolescents (ages 8-17). Results indicated that ORD and centrality increased with age, and the majority (76%) of youth reported at least one incident of ORD in the last year. Racial centrality moderated ORD's relationship with ASE but not with achievement; specifically, ORD and ASE were more strongly related at higher levels of centrality. Centrality was not significantly related to achievement; however, it was indirectly related to achievement via ASE. These findings underscore the importance of disrupting ORD as well as providing support for children and adolescents who experience it. This study also highlights racial centrality as an important mechanism for promoting academic achievement among Black youth. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Asian Hate, religion, and perceived changes in physical health: exploring the flip side of minority stress during the COVID-19 pandemic.

OBJECTIVES: Prior research suggests that racism is associated with adverse mental health outcomes for Asians in the United States. Relatively less research has been conducted to examine the effects of racism on physical health, particularly the changes in physical health among Asians and Asian Americans. This study aims to fill in this gap in prior research. DESIGN: Survey was conducted via Qualtrics in March 2023. A panel sample of 356 Asian and Asian American adults from across the US was collected. Ordinary Least Squares Regression was employed to examine the interrelationships among racism, religion, and perceived changes in physical health during the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS: Contrary to conventional wisdom, more frequent experience with blatant racism was associated with a perceived improvement in physical health after controlling for subtle racism, anxiety, acculturation, and various sociodemographic variables. Interestingly, this robust relationship was more significant among Asians who attended religious services more frequently. Additional three-way interactions revealed that the interaction between blatant racism and religious service attendance on perceived changes in physical health was more significant for US-born Asians and Asians of Indian or Japanese ethnicity. CONCLUSION: Racism exerts a significant influence on physical health outcomes among Asians and Asian Americans. However, this relationship was contingent upon the specific aspect of racism and intersected with religiosity, acculturation, and ethnic identity.

Effect of daily discrimination on naturalistic sleep health features in young adults.

OBJECTIVE: Racial inequities in sleep health are well documented and may be partially attributable to discrimination experiences. However, the effects of acute discrimination experiences on same-night sleep health are understudied. We quantified naturalistic discrimination experiences captured using ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and examined whether reporting discrimination on a given day predicted sleep health that night. METHOD: Participants completed baseline assessments and a 17-day EMA protocol, with text prompts delivered four times daily to collect discrimination experiences. Seven different daily sleep characteristics were ascertained each morning. Discrimination reasons (e.g., because of my racial identity) were reported by participants and categorized into any, racial, or nonracial discrimination. Outcomes included the seven sleep diary characteristics. We fit generalized linear mixed effects models for each sleep outcome and discrimination category, controlling for key covariates. RESULTS: The analytic sample included 116 self-identified Black and White individuals (48% Black, 71% assigned female at birth, average age = 24.5 years). Among Black participants, race-based discrimination was associated with a 0.5-hr reduction in total sleep time (TST). Among White individuals, nonracial discrimination was associated with a 0.6-hr reduction in TST, an earlier sleep offset, and reduced sleep efficiency (partly attributable to more nighttime awakenings). CONCLUSIONS: Young adults may sleep worse on nights after experiencing discrimination, and different types of discrimination affect different sleep outcomes for Black and White individuals. Future studies may consider developing treatments that account for different sleep vulnerabilities for people experiencing discrimination on a given day. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Racial Differences in Discrimination, Coping Strategies, and Mental Health Among US Latinx Adolescents During COVID-19.

OBJECTIVES: We explored racial differences in discrimination, perceived inequality, coping strategies, and mental health among 869 Latinx adolescents (Mage = 15.08) in the US. We then examined the moderating effects of race and perceived inequality in the associations between discrimination and coping strategies, and between discrimination and mental health. METHOD: ANOVAs assessed group differences in the study variables based on race. Moderated regression analyses examined whether there was a 2 or 3-way interaction between race, perceived inequality, and discrimination on coping strategies and mental health as separate outcomes. RESULTS: Black Latinx adolescents reported significantly higher rates of discrimination and perceived inequality than White and Other Race Latinx adolescents. Biracial Latinx adolescents reported higher rates of discrimination and poorer mental health than White Latinx adolescents. There was a significant 2-way interaction between discrimination and perceived inequality for engaged and disengaged coping. Discrimination was positively associated with engaged coping for low levels but not medium and high levels of perceived inequality. Discrimination was positively related to disengaged coping at medium and high levels of perceived inequality but not at low levels of perceived inequality. There was a significant 2-way interaction between discrimination and race for engaged and disengaged coping. Discrimination was negatively related to engaged coping for Black Latinx but not White Latinx adolescents. Discrimination was positively correlated to disengaged coping for Black Latinx but not Other Race Latinx adolescents. CONCLUSIONS: This research provides preliminary evidence of racial group differences among Latinx adolescents regarding various indicators of mental health, which may help inform mental health interventions and federal policy.

Rumination mediates associations between microaggressions and sleep quality in Black Americans: the toll of racial microstressors.

Disparities in health outcomes between Black and White Americans are well-documented, including sleep quality, and disparities in sleep may lead to disparities in health over the life course. A meta-model indicates that cognitive processes may underly the connection between race and poor sleep quality, and ultimately, health disparities. That is, there are race-specific stressors that disproportionately affect Black Americans, which are associated with poor health through biological, cognitive, and behavioral mechanisms (e.g., sleep). Among these race-specific stressors is discrimination, which has been linked to poor sleep quality, and there is a body of literature connecting perseverative cognition (e.g., rumination and worry or vigilance) to poor sleep. Microaggressions, a more subtle but pervasive form of discrimination, are another race-specific stressor. Although less research has considered the connection of microaggressions to perseverative cognition, there are some studies linking microaggressions to health outcomes and sleep. Therefore, using a cross-sectional survey, we tested the following hypotheses: racism-related vigilance and rumination would mediate the relationship between discrimination and poor sleep as well as between microaggressions and poor sleep among Black Americans (N = 223; mean age = 35.77 years, 53.8% men, 86% employed, 66.8% with college degree or higher education). Results of seven parallel mediation models showed that neither rumination nor racism-related vigilance mediated a relationship between discrimination and poor sleep quality. However, rumination partially mediated relationships between the six microaggression sub-scales and poor sleep quality: there were significant indirect effects for Foreigner/Not Belonging (ß = .13, SE = 0.03, 95% CI 0.08, 0.20), Criminality (ß = .11, SE = 0.03, 95% CI 0.05, 0.17), Sexualization (ß = .10, SE = 0.03, 95% CI 0.05, 0.17), Low-Achieving/Undesirable (ß = .10, SE = 0.03, 95% CI 0.05, 0.15), Invisibility (ß = .15, SE = 0.04, 95% CI 0.08, 0.23), and Environmental Invalidations (ß = .15, SE = 0.04, 95% CI 0.08, 0.23). Overall, these findings indicate support for the meta-model, demonstrating a specific pathway from racial microstressors to poor sleep quality. Furthermore, these results suggest the importance of developing clinical and community approaches to address the impact of microaggressions on Black Americans' sleep quality.

Discriminatory Experiences Among Black Youth: How Encounters and Expectations Explain Emotional Well-Being.

Research suggests that encounters with racism are related to depression in Black youth. However, less is known about how experienced racial discrimination can influence other aspects of well-being among Black youth including their socio-emotional development and behavior. In addition, emerging literature highlights the critical ways anticipated racial discrimination may impact the emotional well-being of Black youth. To address these gaps, the current study assessed whether experienced discrimination was associated with higher levels of internalizing problems (anxiety/depression, suicidal thoughts) and lower levels of socio-emotional development (emotion regulation, prosocial behavior). We then tested whether expected discrimination contributed to similar patterns. Lastly, this study examined how age and gender moderated this relationship. Across eight schools in three communities, 1435 Black youth (56.57% female; 56.40% 10th grade) in 10th and 12th grades responded to the Youth Experience Survey. Using a series of hierarchical linear and hierarchical binary logistic regressions, results found that those who experienced racial discrimination and expected discrimination demonstrated higher internalizing problems and lower socio-emotional development; however, expected discrimination often accounted for more variance than experienced. These findings suggest the multifaceted influence both experienced and expected racial discrimination have on the well-being of Black youth and can provide important insights to community prevention systems.

Racial bias in perceptions of children's pain.

Across eight experiments, we investigated whether adult perceivers (both lay perceivers and elementary school teachers) evaluate children's pain differently depending on the child's race. We found evidence that adults varying in racial and ethnic identities (but primarily White) believed 4- to 6-year-old Black children felt less pain than 4- to 6-year-old White children (Experiments 1-7), and this effect was not moderated by child sex (Experiments 6-7). We also examined perceptions of life hardship as a mediator of this race-to-pain effect, finding that adults evaluated Black children as having lived harder lives and thus as feeling less pain than White children (Experiments 1-3). Finally, we examined downstream consequences for hypothetical treatment recommendations among samples of both lay perceivers and elementary school teachers. We found that adults' perceptions of pain sensitivity were linked with hypothetical pain treatment decisions (Experiments 5a-7). Thus, we consistently observed that adults' race-based pain stereotypes biased evaluations of 4- to 6-year-old children's pain and may influence pain care. This racial bias in evaluations of young children's pain has implications for psychological theory and equitable treatment of children's pain. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

To maintain or conceal one's cultural identity? Chinese American parents' ethnic-racial socialization during COVID-19.

Ethno-racially minoritized parents' ethnic-racial socialization may center on encouraging their children to maintain or conceal their ethnic-racial identity, particularly during the period of heightened racism of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the underlying mechanisms that could explain Chinese American parents' specific ethnic-racial socialization practices and the role of children's developmental stage are not well understood. The present study examined: (a) the association between Chinese American parents' racial discrimination experiences and their engagement in maintenance of heritage culture and concealing Chinese heritage and connection ethnic-racial socialization; (b) the mediating and moderating roles of psychological well-being and family support; and (c) variations in these associations among parents with children of different developmental stages. The participants comprised 470 Chinese American parents (Mage = 43.7 years, SD = 6.4; 79% mothers) of 4- to 18-year-old children in the United States. Findings revealed that Chinese American parents' racial discrimination experiences were associated with greater engagement in both maintenance of heritage culture and concealing Chinese heritage and connection ethnic-racial socialization practices. Furthermore, parents' racial discrimination experiences were negatively associated with their psychological well-being, which in turn, was associated with lower levels of maintenance of heritage culture and higher levels of concealing Chinese heritage and connection ethnic-racial socialization practices. Greater family support buffered against the negative impact of racial discrimination on parents' psychological well-being and subsequent associations with their ethnic-racial socialization. The underlying moderated mediation mechanism was similar across parents of children, and younger and older adolescents. Our findings can guide future efforts to expand theoretical frameworks of ethnic-racial socialization among ethnic minority families. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Coping among Black college women: A transformative study of gendered racism.

Black women in the United States are placed at higher risk for mental health challenges, including distress and depression, due to structural inequities. Black college women enrolled in predominantly White institutions may be particularly exposed to stressors related to gendered racism, but there is limited knowledge about this population's coping strategies. A cross-sectional survey and focus group were utilized to understand and disrupt participants' experiences of gendered racism. In phase one, a survey assessing coping strategies and mental health outcomes was conducted with 168 Black women enrolled at a predominantly White institution in the southeastern United States. Logistic regression results indicated that several coping strategies including behavioral disengagement, self-blame, self-distraction, denial, and positive reframing were significantly associated with depression and psychological distress, all p < 0.05. Phase two included a single focus group with a subset of the sample from phase one. The focus group findings supplemented the survey results, suggesting education (more accurately consciousness-raising) as a foundational theme that seemed to create space for humor and social support as coping subthemes and created a transformative space where participants spoke openly about gendered racism. Findings from this study highlight the societal underpinnings that shape Black college women's experiences of gendered racism. College settings should endeavor to provide formal and informal support for Black women to minimize the harms related to gendered racism.

A qualitative analysis of black mother preparation for bias messages following incidents of racism-related violence.

Preparation for bias messages (PFB), represent a specific form of racial socialization, used to inform youth about racism and how to cope with racism-related adversity. Although research commonly examines how frequently PFB are delivered to children, few studies have qualitatively explored the heterogeneity in the content of such messages, making it difficult to ascertain how caregivers prepare and coach their children to negotiate incidents of racism-related violence. To address this gap in the literature, the present study qualitatively examined the content of PFB given to Black children from their mothers following high-profile incidents of anti-Black violence. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 12 mothers (Mage = 41.91) of Black children to explore how parental concerns regarding their children's safety inform the content of their PFB. Using thematic analysis, two primary themes emerged. The first theme related to psychosocial factors among caregivers that precipitated PFB (i.e., awareness of anti-Black violence, worry about the child being a victim). The second theme pertained to the different types of PFB that caregivers provided to their children (i.e., awareness of racial biases, strategies to navigate discriminatory encounters). Overall findings support and extend extant racial socialization research and have important implications for how Black youth come to understand the significance of race and racism in the aftermath of racism-related violence. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Greater Discrimination Frequency and Lower Distress Tolerance Are Associated with Mental Health Problems Among Racially Privileged and Minoritized Adults Accessing an Urban Day Shelter.

INTRODUCTION: Discrimination experiences may be a contributing factor to the elevated prevalence of mental health problems among adults experiencing homelessness. METHODS: Using survey data (N = 552) collected from adults seeking services at an urban day shelter, the relationships between everyday and major discrimination experiences, distress tolerance, and mental health problems (depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, poor mental health days) were characterized. Distress tolerance was examined as a moderator of the relationship between discrimination and mental health problems. RESULTS: Participants were predominantly from racially minoritized groups (59.6%), non-Hispanic (88.7%), and male (70.9%), with an average age of 45.7 years old (SD = 11.7). Descriptive analyses indicated that the main reason for discrimination differed between racially privileged (i.e., White participants) and racially minoritized participants (i.e., participants who identified as Black, American Indian/Alaska Native, Asian, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander, or multi-race), such that homelessness was most commonly endorsed among racially privileged participants while racial discrimination was most commonly reported among racially minoritized participants. Multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed associations between everyday discrimination, major discrimination, and distress tolerance with mental health problems. Distress tolerance did not moderate the relations between discrimination and mental health problems in most analyses. Notably, major discrimination was no longer associated with all mental health variables when both everyday and major discrimination were included in all models. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest that reducing everyday discrimination and addressing the adverse impact of everyday discrimination experiences may have a beneficial impact on mental health.

Trends in Racial Discrimination Experiences for Asian Americans During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Asian Americans (AAs) are experiencing increased rates of anti-Asian racism during COVID-19. Experiences of racism, whether personal or collective, constitute stress and psychosocial trauma that negatively impact mental and physical health. OBJECTIVES: Examine subgroup differences in rates of personal experience of discrimination and COVID-related collective racism and how each is associated with mental and physical health for AAs. METHODS: Nationally representative data from the 2021 Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander COVID-19 Needs Assessment Project were used to estimate prevalence rates of discrimination and average COVID-related collective racism scores for AAs (unweighted N = 3478). We conducted logistic and linear regression models to examine subgroup differences by sociodemographic factors. We also conducted hierarchical logistic regression models to examine associations between racism and psychological distress and health decline. RESULTS: Twenty-four percent of AAs (95% CI: 21.6, 25.6) reported experiencing discrimination during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. Subgroup analyses revealed that Chinese, younger adults, and AAs who completed the survey in an Asian language were significantly more likely to experience discrimination compared to their counterparts. For COVID-related collective racism, subgroup analyses revealed that Chinese, women, and adults ages 25-44 were more likely to report experiences of collective racism compared to their counterparts. Both discrimination and collective racism were independently associated with negative mental and physical health. CONCLUSION: Discrimination and COVID-related collective racism are associated with negative mental and physical health outcomes for AAs. Results point to vulnerable AA subgroups and the need for targeted public health efforts to address racism in the context of COVID-19.

Discrimination and psychological distress among Asian Americans during COVID-19: Gender differences in the moderating role of social support.

Our study aimed to assess the role of social support on the impact of discrimination on psychological distress for Asian American women and men. Using the Asian American sample from the Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander COVID-19 Needs Assessment Study (n = 3,508), we used logistic regression to examine the moderating role of different types of social support on the relationship between discrimination and psychological distress by gender. Among Asian Americans, facing discrimination was associated with higher odds of psychological distress, and receiving emotional support was associated with lower odds of psychological distress. When examining interactions between discrimination, social support, and gender, we found that facing discrimination led to the highest odds of psychological distress for Asian American women who provided emotional support. Our findings highlight different mechanisms by which social support buffers and exacerbates the psychological burden of discrimination for Asian Americans. These findings have overall and gender-informed implications for community policies to promote mental health resilience by actively alleviating the effects of racism among Asian Americans. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Discrimination Predicts Suboptimal Adherence to CPAP Treatment and Mediates Black-White Differences in Use.

BACKGROUND: Although racial and ethnic differences in CPAP adherence for OSA are widely established, no studies have examined the influence of perceived racial discrimination on CPAP usage, to our knowledge. RESEARCH QUESTION: (1) Do Black adults with OSA report experiencing greater amounts of discrimination than non-Hispanic White adults? (2) Is discrimination associated with poorer CPAP adherence over time, independent of self-identified race? (3) Does discrimination mediate the relationship between self-identified Black race and CPAP usage? STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS: In this prospective study, Black and non-Hispanic White adults with OSA initiating CPAP were enrolled from two sleep centers and completed questionnaires including sociodemographics, perceived discrimination, daytime sleepiness, insomnia symptoms, and depressive symptoms. Perceived discrimination was measured using the Everyday Discrimination Scale (EDS). Black and White group comparisons for baseline sociodemographic variables, sleep symptoms, and perceived discrimination were performed with Student t test or χ2/Fisher exact test, as appropriate. A linear regression model was completed with self-identified Black race and EDS total score as the primary independent variables of interest and mean daily CPAP usage at 30 and 90 days serving as the dependent outcomes. This regression modeling was repeated after adjusting for psychosocial variables known to be associated with CPAP usage. EDS total score was explored as a potential mediator of the association between self-identified Black race and mean daily CPAP adherence at 30 and 90 days. RESULTS: The sample for this analysis consisted of 78 participants (31% female, 38% Black) with a mean age of 57 ± 14 years. Sixty percent of the Black adults reported they experienced racial discrimination at least a few times each year. Relative to White adults, Black adults were also more likely to indicate more than one reason for discrimination (27% vs 4%, P = .003). Adjusting for discrimination, self-identified Black race was associated with 1.4 (95% CI, -2.3 to -0.4 h; P = .006) and 1.6 (95% CI, -2.6 to -0.6 h; P = .003) fewer hours of mean daily CPAP usage at 30 and 90 days, respectively. In the fully adjusted model, a 1-unit change in the total discrimination score (more discrimination) was associated with a 0.08-h (95% CI, 0.01-0.15 h; P = .029) and 0.08-h (95% CI, 0.01-0.16 h; P = .045) change in mean daily CPAP usage at 30 and 90 days, respectively. INTERPRETATION: Adults with OSA who encountered racial discrimination experienced greater decrement in CPAP usage than those who did not experience racial discrimination.