Feasibility and acceptability of intensive, real‐time biobehavioral data collection using ecological momentary assessment, salivary biomarkers, and accelerometers among middle‐aged African Americans (original) (raw)
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JMIR Formative Research
Background A growing number of studies indicate that exposure to social stress, such as perceived racial discrimination, may contribute to poor health, health behaviors, and health disparities. Increased physical activity (PA) may buffer the impact of social stress resulting from racial discrimination. However, to date, data on the relationship between racial discrimination and PA have been mixed. Part of the reason is that the effect of perceived racial discrimination on PA has primarily been examined in cross-sectional studies that captured retrospective measures of perceived racial discrimination associated with individuals’ current PA outcomes. The association between real-time perceived racial discrimination and PA among African Americans remains unclear. Objective The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship among demographic, anthropometric and clinical, and psychological factors with lifetime racial discrimination and examine the within- and between-person associ...
Self-identified race, socially assigned skin tone, and adult physiological dysregulation: Assessing multiple dimensions of " race " in health disparities research
Despite a general acceptance of " race " as a social, rather than biological construct in the social sciences, racial health disparities research has given less consideration to the dimensions of race that may be most important for shaping persistent disparities in adult physical health status. In this study, we incorporate the social constructionist view that race is multidimensional to evaluate the health significance of two measures of race, racial self-identification and the socially perceived skin tone of black Americans, in a sample of black and white adults in the Nashville Stress and Health Study (N ¼1186). First, we use the approach most common in disparities research—comparing group differences in an outcome—to consider self-identified racial differences in allostatic load (AL), a cumulative biological indicator of physical dysregulation. Second, we examine intragroup variations in AL among blacks by skin tone (i.e. light, brown, or dark skin). Third, we assess whether the magnitude of black-white disparities are equal across black skin tone subgroups. Consistent with prior research, we find significantly higher rates of dysre-gulation among blacks. However, our results also show that racial differences in AL vary by blacks' skin tone; AL disparities are largest between whites and dark-skinned blacks and smallest between whites and light-skinned blacks. This study highlights the importance of blacks' skin tone as a marker of socially assigned race for shaping intragroup and intergroup variations in adult physiological dysregula-tion. These results demonstrate the importance of assessing multiple dimensions of race in disparities research, as this approach may better capture the various mechanisms by which " race " continues to shape health.
Impact of race-related stress in a sample of African Americans
2011
by Crystal Harris Blount For most racial and ethnic minorities, experiences of racial discrimination are pervasive. Specifically, about sixty percent of African Americans report incidents of both subtle and blatant forms of racial discrimination (Kessler, Mickelson & Williams, 1999). Research on the stress associated with perceived racism in African Americans is important because of differences in health outcomes (Anderson, McNeilly, & Myers, 1991; James, 1993). The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of perceived racial discrimination and the stress from significant negative life events on mental and physical health in a sample of African Americans. In this study, two hundred adults completed an electronic survey. Sixty-six percent of the sample was female; most worked fulltime, completed a college degree and reported that they were “middle class.” The average age was 41.72 (SD = 14.58). Two key hypotheses were tested; first, participants would endorse experiences of per...
The Journal of nervous and mental disease, 2014
Although stress is linked to mental and physical health, self-reports of stress may be operationalized using measures that emphasize cognitive appraisals of stressors or that simply record stressor exposure. Theory and research suggest that appraisal-based measures may be superior in measuring self-reports of stress. However, use of exposure-based measures persists, especially in ethnic disparities research. This study examined the utility of appraisal-based versus exposure-based stress measures in linking stress to mental and physical health in low-income black women. Measures emphasizing cognitive appraisals were superior in predicting mental and physical health because global stress rating best predicted physical health whereas mental health was best predicted by perceived stress. A checklist of exposure to stressful events was not substantially predictive of either mental or physical health, suggesting that cognitive appraisals of stressors are important in linking stress to hea...
Sociological Perspectives, 2013
In recent decades, sociologists have increasingly adopted an intersectionality framework to explore and explain the complex and interconnected nature of inequalities in the areas of race, class, and gender. Using an inclusion-centered approach and a sample of 204 lowsocioeconomic-status (SES) African American women, the authors theorize and explore the role of racial and gender discrimination in the stress process. Analyses examine relationships between social stressors (racial and gender discrimination) and individual stressors occurring in each of six distinct social contexts. Furthermore, the authors evaluate the effects of racial and gender discrimination as compared to individual stressors on three indicators of mental health and well-being. Findings suggest that racial and gender discrimination increases risk for poor health and low well-being, working both directly and indirectly through increased vulnerability to individual stressors. This research demonstrates the value of a more comprehensive study of stressors that influence the health of low- SES African American women and other multiply disadvantaged groups.
Journal of Adolescent Health, 2018
Purpose: Racial discrimination has long-term consequences for cardiovascular health, potentially by dysregulating acute physiological responses. However, the role of psychological factors that may be protective or increase vulnerability for dysregulated responses, such as racial identity, remains unclear. This study examines the association between racial discrimination and acute parasympathetic responses, and the role of racial centrality, private regard, public regard in this association. Methods: Black young adults (N = 119, M age = 19.45) recruited from a predominantly White institution in the southeastern United States completed an online survey (in which racial discrimination, racial identity, and control variables were reported) and a laboratory visit, during which they were exposed to a vignette of racial discrimination while their parasympathetic activity (indexed by respiratory sinus arrhythmia) was recorded.
The Impact of Stress on the Health of African-American Men
2009
African-American men have the highest mortality rates and the lowest life expectancy compared to other racial or ethnic groups in the United States. This policy brief adopts a "social determinants of stress" framework, illustrating how stress arising from social factors—such as racial discrimination, low socioeconomic status, and incarceration—adversely impacts the health of African-American men. Additionally, the paper proposes strategies to tackle this pressing public health concern.
Development and Validation of the Prolonged Activation and Anticipatory Race-Related Stress Scale
Journal of Black Psychology, 2013
This article describes two separate studies that were conducted to develop and validate a measure of the prolonged stress activation and anticipatory race-related stress response in African American adults (Prolonged Activation and Anticipatory Race-Related Stress Scale [PARS]). In Study 1, an exploratory factor analytic procedure (N = 292) resulted in a 17-item measure with four underlying factors: (a) Perseverative Cognition, (b) Secondary Appraisal, (c) Anticipatory Race-Related Stress Scale-Psychological, and (d) Anticipatory Race-Related Stress Scale-Physiological. In Study 2 (N = 227), a confirmatory factor analytic procedure was conducted to evaluate and compare the underlying factor structure for several competing models of the PARS. This procedure supported a fourfactor oblique solution as having the best fit to the data. Study 2 also provided evidence for the convergent validity of the PARS in that its factor scores correlated, in the anticipated direction, with scores on measures of related constructs.