Ethnic discrimination experienced in an interpersonal context has been identified as a stressor contributing to racial disparities in health. Exposure to racism may influence the way people view their ongoing experiences, making it more likely that individuals will appraise new situations as threatening and harmful, adding to their overall stress burden. A multiethnic sample of 113 adults completed a diary page every 30 min for one day. The diary inquired about moods and perceptions of social interactions. When controlling for personality characteristics, mixed models regression analyses indicated that baseline measures of ethnic discrimination (assessed with the Perceived Ethnic Discrimination Scale-Community Version) were positively associated with daily levels of anger and the intensity of participants’ rating of routine social interactions as harassing, exclusionary, and unfair. These findings have implications for models of the contribution of psychosocial factors to racial disparities in health.
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There is little consensus on the best terms to use to distinguish among groups based on phenotypic or cultural characteristics, and both scientific and political factors influence the debate. Some groups (i.e., Blacks) have been considered ‘racial’ groups despite the lack of biological evidence for distinct races; whereas others (i.e., Latinos) are considered ethnic groups, but have also had their ethnicity referred to as a “race.” In this paper, we have chosen to use the terms “race” and “ethnicity” and “racism” and “ethnic discrimination” interchangeably. In addition, we used the term “African descent” because the Black sample included both US- and foreign-born participants.
As the initial analyses indicated that the primary differences in mood distinguished Whites from Blacks or Latinos, ethnicity was dummy coded as one variable (White) with two levels (yes or no).
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study was funded by Grant #5R01HL068590-02 from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to E. Brondolo. Portions of this paper were presented at the 9th Annual Society for Behavioral Medicine Meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah in 2003.
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Broudy, R., Brondolo, E., Coakley, V. et al. Perceived Ethnic Discrimination in Relation to Daily Moods and Negative Social Interactions. J Behav Med 30, 31–43 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-006-9081-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-006-9081-4