1 Introduction

In recent years, increased awareness of injurious racial bias has brought the inquiry of the quality of mental health and life satisfaction of Black Americans and other racial minorities to the forefront. While prior research has firmly demonstrated how racially disparate mental health outcomes of macro-level stressors are influenced by racism (Brown et al., 2018), others—including the American Medical Association—continue to discuss the compounding nature of these stressors and have provided calls to action for reducing racialized harm among Black Americans (Dreyer, 2020; Svetaz et al., 2020; Sewell, 2020). In 2020, the Movement for Black Lives elicited unprecedented levels of participation in arguably the largest movement in United States history as racist systemic policies and practices (i.e., police violence) were challenged by individuals from various walks of life around the world despite an ongoing global health pandemic.

People’s heightened awareness of social injustices has largely been attributed to the rise of technology and how it has enhanced the ability to instantly share incidents of racial discrimination, forcing a new level of transparency among citizens and the nation’s leaders. But, perhaps as an inadvertent consequence, racial and ethnic minorities have been forced to grapple with the mental health sequelae of vicarious exposure to blatant acts of discrimination, seemingly more regularly than personal experiences of racism in their own lives. A wealth of empirical evidence has shown significant associations between racism-related social stressors (i.e., perceived discrimination) and negative mental health outcomes among Black Americans (Banks et al., 2006; Brondolo et al., 2009; Chae et al., 2011; Driscoll et al., 2015; Hudson et al., 2016; Kessler et al., 1999; Klonoff et al., 1999; Lewis et al., 2015; Miller et al., 2013; Paradies et al., 2015; Pascoe & Richman, 2009; Piertese et al., 2012; Williams & Mohammed, 2009). Few studies, however, have considered how vicarious experiences of racism—an often overlooked component of the racism-related stress framework (Gee et al., 2012; Harrell, 2000)—may influence the subjective well-being and mental health of Black Americans beyond childhood and adolescence (Heard-Garris et al., 2018).

The term “vicarious racism” is defined as the distressing experiences of racial bias that occur among an individual’s loved ones, as well as strangers who are members of that individual’s racial group (Harrell, 2000). The life course framework asserts that the adversity that one endures throughout the stages of life are likely to affect those who share social ties with that individual (Elder, 1994; Pearlin, 2010); for example, prior findings have shown that stress from partners is associated with poorer health among Black Americans later in life (Moody et al., 2019). Other research suggests that Black Americans endure the consequences of “linked fate”—the internalized notion that what happens to one’s group may irrevocably shape one’s own life chances—which is associated with an elevated risk for poor mental health among this racial group (Monk, 2020). Thus, witnessing, or simply becoming aware of, the racism-related adversity that others endure may subject Black people to stress and lower subjective well-being. Less than 20% of studies on racism and health between 1983 and 2013, however, had considered the effects of vicarious racism on health (Paradies et al., 2015). Even fewer studies have considered how vicarious experiences of discrimination may impact the mental health and life satisfaction of Black adults, despite a strong growing body of literature on the effects of vicarious racism on child health (Heard-Garris et al., 2018). Moreover, despite the longstanding trend in research showing that Black Americans generally tend to report lower levels of life satisfaction relative to White Americans (Barger et al., 2009; Cummings, 2020; Crowe & Kim, 2020; Erving & Thomas, 2018; Hughes & Thomas, 1998; Thomas & Holmes, 1992; Thomas & Hughes, 1986), vicarious experiences of discrimination were not considered in these investigations.

Given the aforementioned limitations of previous work, the present study examines how vicarious discrimination influences the life satisfaction of Black adults compared to non-Hispanic White adults from a community sample. Additionally, this study provides a comparison of multiple vicarious exposures to discrimination between Black and White adults in an attempt to further clarify the racial differences in life satisfaction among both groups.

2 Background

2.1 Subjective Well-Being and Life Satisfaction among Black and White Adults

Life satisfaction (Diener et al., 1985) refers to individuals’ overall evaluation of their life and state of affairs, and it is a key indicator of subjective well-being and understanding what makes people most happy. An abundance of empirical evidence from meta-analyses also suggests that measures of subjective well-being (i.e., life satisfaction and positive moods) are predictive of health, risk for mortality, and longevity (Chida & Steptoe, 2008; Diener & Chan, 2011; Howell et al., 2007; Lyubomirsky et al., 2005). Prior research has also established a “fundamental association” between mental health and life satisfaction (Lombardo et al., 2018) such that poor life satisfaction is strongly associated with poor mental health and vice versa. Stress theory (Pearlin, 1989) has always maintained that social stressors largely shape people’s mental health and well-being outcomes, and that these outcomes are often patterned by race given how Black Americans and other minorities are disproportionately exposed to stressors relative to Whites (Thoits, 2010; Turner & Avison, 2003; Williams, 2018).

Racial differences in life satisfaction are glaringly persistent. Across several decades, Black Americans have generally reported lower levels of life satisfaction relative to non-Hispanic Whites in the United States (Barger et al., 2009; Crowe & Kim, 2020; Cummings, 2020; Erving & Thomas, 2018; Hughes & Thomas, 1998; Thomas & Holmes, 1982; Thomas & Hughes, 1986). Moreover, this body of research asserts that these racial differences are not fully explained by sociodemographic variables such as age, marital status, and socioeconomic status indicators. Instead, researchers posit that poorer well-being outcomes among Black Americans largely stem from stress-inducing issues such as heightened financial strain (Krause, 1993), work-family conflict (Henderson, 2014), and having higher levels of emotional reliance (Erving & Thomas, 2018). Some have even found that skin tone may have indirect effects on life satisfaction for Black Americans such that lower levels are predicted among individuals with darker skin tones who have higher levels of stigma consciousness (McCleary-Gaddy & James, 2020). Conversely, other studies have considered psychosocial resources that may be potentially positive factors for the life satisfaction of Black Americans. For example, some findings suggest that older Black Americans who are more engaged in their religion tend to have higher levels of life satisfaction (Krause, 1993; Skarupski et al., 2013). Additionally, greater subjective family closeness and frequent support from extended family have been linked with higher levels of life satisfaction among Black folks in the United States (Nguyen et al., 2016; Taylor et al., 2001). Although these factors have been linked with better life satisfaction outcomes for Black Americans, researchers maintain their assertions based on systematic review that the racial disparities in reported levels of satisfaction may be partially explained by distressing racism-related adversity, namely discrimination (e.g., Paradies et al., 2015; Williams et al., 2019). However, despite the significant strides that have been made to understand mental health and subjective well-being among Black Americans, additional work is necessary to clarify the relationship between perceived discrimination and life satisfaction.

2.2 Racism-Related Stress and the Secondhand Effects of Discrimination

Harrell (2000) defines racism-related stress as “the race-related transactions between individuals or groups and their environment that emerge from the dynamics of racism and that are perceived to tax or exceed existing individual and collective resources or threaten well-being” (p. 44). Racism-related stress provides a unique stress burden for racial and ethnic minorities relative to non-Hispanic Whites (Bor et al., 2018; Goosby et al., 2017; Thoits, 2010). The racism-related stress framework (Clark et al., 1999; Goosby et al., 2018; Harrell, 2000), grounded in stress theory (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984; Pearlin et al., 1981), acknowledges the several life contexts (i.e., interpersonal collective, cultural-symbolic, and sociopolitical contexts) in which racial and ethnic minorities are typically exposed to racism, and considers how these experiences lead to the racism-related vigilance (Hicken, Lee, & King, 2018) and mental health consequences that they tend to endure throughout the various stages of life (Gee et al., 2019; Jones et al., 2020; Thomas Tobin, & Moody, 2021; Williams & Mohammed, 2009). Indeed, decades of robust literature demonstrate the disproportionate prevalence of exposure to discrimination—unfair treatment based on an individual’s group membership—among Black Americans relative to Whites (Kessler et al., 1999; Turner & Avison, 2003; Williams et al., 1997), as well as how it negatively influences their mental health and well-being in ways that Whites are not impacted (Paradies et al., 2015; Pascoe & Richman, 2009; Williams, 2018). Prior findings have shown that racism-related stress is significantly associated with worse mental health and lower levels of life satisfaction among Black Americans (Driscoll et al., 2015; Seaton et al., 2010). However, little research has been dedicated to examining how the processes differ among various populations (Crowe & Kim, 2020), and these studies generally have not accounted for stress and coping factors. Nonetheless, previous iterations of the racism-related stress framework (Clark et al., 1999; Harrell, 2000; Jones et al., 2020) suggest that several psychosocial resources (i.e., mastery, self-esteem, and social support) may guide the stress appraisal process, as well as attenuate the potentially negative effects of perceived racism. Furthermore, until recent years, previous research on perceived discrimination and subjective well-being has largely focused on personal experiences of discrimination and typically does not consider how secondhand exposures to discrimination may shape mental health and life satisfaction (Gee et al., 2012; Heard-Garris et al., 2018; Paradies et al., 2015).

The racism-related stress framework argues that racism can impact individuals directly, as well as indirectly, through the observations and accounts of others (Essed, 1991; Harrell, 2000). Similar to the life course concept of “linked lives,” which refers to the interconnectedness of individuals through their social ties with others (Elder, 1994), vicarious discrimination emphasizes the notion that the racism-related adversity that individuals experience will likely impact those who share ties with them. Burgeoning research continues to offer empirical support for these assertions. For example, earlier literature on vicarious racism and health primarily focused on how children are impacted by their parents’ experiences of racism (Anderson et al., 2015; Daniels et al., 2020; Goosby & Heidbrink, 2013; Heard-Garris et al., 2018). However, recent findings from longitudinal data have shown that children’s experiences of discrimination are significantly associated with a higher risk of steep decline in self-rated health among their mothers at the midlife stage, underscoring the bidirectional and transgenerational health costs of racism (Colen et al., 2019). Likewise, findings from similar studies have linked vicarious racism with worse outcomes among Black adults such as shorter telomeres (McFarland et al., 2018), mood disorders (Quinlan et al., 2016), higher blood pressure (Boulter et al., 2015), and greater disease activity (Martz et al., 2019). While these studies provide key insights for understanding how the indirect effects of racism may be harmful to Black Americans, little research has examined how vicarious racism shapes the Black-White differences in mental health and well-being among adults. Findings from nationally-representative data document the racial disparities in the “spillover effects” on the mental health of Black and White Americans when Black people are killed by police (Bor et al., 2018). However, this work is limited to examining unfair treatment from law enforcement and does not consider other contexts in which racism may occur (i.e., job market, housing, educational settings, etc.). Furthermore, while previous research has examined transgenerational consequences of racism, less focus has been given to understanding the racial disparities that we observe in well-being might be partially driven by discrimination experienced by others in their social network (i.e., friends and other loved ones).

2.3 The Present Study

The goal of this study is to examine vicarious experiences of discrimination (i.e., discrimination experienced by one’s spouse, child, other relative, and friends) among Black and White adults, and how these experiences may affect their overall life satisfaction. This work addresses two main research aims: First, this study aims to investigate the prevalence of vicarious exposure to discrimination among Black and White adults. Prior research indicates that Black Americans generally report more exposure to discrimination (Colen et al., 2018; Kessler et al., 1999), and some findings even document the various dimensions of discrimination that Black and White adults tend to experience (Barnes et al., 2004; Kessler et al., 1999). However, these studies were limited to examining personal experiences of discrimination and did not investigate how these groups differ in their vicarious experiences of discrimination. Second, this study aims to assess the association between vicarious experiences of discrimination and overall life satisfaction among Black and White adults. Proponents of the racism-related stress framework argue that secondhand exposure to discrimination can be particularly distressing for Black Americans (Gee et al., 2012; Harrell, 2000; Heard-Garris et al., 2018), which is consistent with stress theory and the life course framework (Pearlin, 2010). Yet, few studies have actually tested these theories, and even less attention has been given to understanding how vicarious exposure to discrimination may influence overall life satisfaction. Moreover, while research has established that Black Americans experience lower levels of life satisfaction, partially as a result of discrimination (Paradies et al., 2015), prior studies generally have not accounted for vicarious exposure to discrimination within the context of other discriminatory events in their analyses. The present study seeks to extend current research on the effects of vicarious experiences of discrimination on well-being by addressing the aforementioned gaps in previous studies.

3 Methods

3.1 Sample

Data for this study are derived from the Nashville Stress and Health Study (NSAHS), which is specifically aimed toward elucidating Black-White and socioeconomic status disparities in health. The NSAHS is a random sample (N = 1252) of 627 Black men and women, and 625 White men and women residing within Davidson County, Tennessee, which includes and extends beyond the greater Nashville, Tennessee area. A sampling weight was constructed to account for the complex survey design and data collection process, and to increase confidence in generalizability for the Black and White population who resided in Davidson County during the time of the study. After 2400 potential respondents were randomly sampled—one individual from each household—1252 participants successfully completed computer-assisted interviews with interviewers who were race-matched with respondents and trained by study investigators. Success across screening and interviewing phases (Response Rate 1 = 30.2, Cooperation Rate 1 = 74.2, Refusal Rate 1 = 30.2, and Contact Rate 1 = 40.7) were assessed by American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) rates. Data were collected between April 2011 and January 2014 as respondents were interviewed regarding their personal and family backgrounds, health behaviors, health histories, and stress and coping experiences. Informed consent was provided by all study participants. All study procedures were approved by the Vanderbilt University Institutional Review Board and have been described in more detail elsewhere (Brown et al., 2016; Turner, 2013; Turner et al., 2016). The present study includes the full sample (N = 1252) and subsamples of Black (n = 627) and White adults (n = 625), and characteristics for these groups are provided in Table 1.

Table 1 Sample characteristics by race, Nashville Stress and Health Study (2011–2014)
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3.2 Measures

3.2.1 Overall Life Satisfaction

Subjective well-being was assessed based on a measure of the respondents’ overall life satisfaction. Life satisfaction (αAll = 0.79; αWhite = 0.85; αBlack = 0.70) was measured using the sum of a 5-item scale (Diener et al., 1985) that included “in most ways my life is close to my ideal,” “the conditions of my life are excellent,” “I am satisfied with my life,” “so far I have gotten the important things I want in life,” and “if I could live my life over, I would change almost nothing.” Responses were based on how much the respondents agreed with each statement: (0) not at all, (1) a little, (2) somewhat, and (3) a lot.

3.2.2 Vicarious Experiences of Discrimination

Vicarious experiences of major discrimination were evaluated using the Major Experiences of Discrimination scale (Williams et al., 2008), which is a 7-item measure based on a count of lifetime exposure to major incidents of unfair treatment. Respondents were asked if they had experienced unfair treatment such as “been unfairly fired or denied a promotion,” “been unfairly treated by the police,” and “been unfairly discouraged by teacher from pursuing a job/career.” If they answered “Yes,” respondents were then asked to whom the discrimination occurred: (1) self, (2) spouse, (3) child, (4) other relative, or (5) close friend. Unfair events faced by loved ones were coded as 1, while non-events and events experienced directly by the respondent were coded as 0. The responses were summed such that higher scores indicated higher levels of vicarious exposure to discrimination.

3.2.3 Personally Experienced Discrimination

Two types of personally experienced discrimination were examined. Major discrimination, also based on the Major Experiences of Discrimination scale (Williams et al., 2008), evaluated individuals’ own lifetime exposure to major unfair treatment. As noted above, this measure captured the personal experiences of major discrimination of the respondents who answered “Yes” to items regarding unfair treatment, and “(1) self” to the question regarding who experienced the discrimination. The total count of “Yes” items were used to create a major discrimination score for each respondent. Higher values indicated greater levels of exposure to personally experienced major discrimination. Everyday discrimination captures day-to-day experiences of unfair treatment and was measured using the Everyday Discrimination Scale (Williams et al., 1997). The Everyday Discrimination Scale (αall = 0.85; αWhite = 0.83; αBlack = 0.86) was comprised of nine items such as “You are treated with less courtesy than other people” and “You receive worse service than other people at restaurants or Stores.” Respondents were asked to report the frequency with which these events occur: (0) never, (1) rarely, (2) sometimes, (3) often, and (4) almost always. Responses were summed such that higher scores indicated greater levels of personal exposure to everyday discrimination experiences.

3.2.4 Sociodemographic Characteristics

All analyses accounted for gender, age, socioeconomic position, marital status, and parental status. Gender was coded based on how each respondent self-identified (0 = women, 1 = men), and age was employed as a continuous measure in years. Respondents’ socioeconomic position (SEP) was measured using a standardized index of years of completed education, self-reported annual household income, and level of occupational prestige based on the Nam–Powers–Boyd occupational scores (Nam & Boyd, 2004). Additional information on the NSAHS coding procedure for occupational prestige can be found elsewhere (see Turner et al., 2016). For the present study, socioeconomic position scores were calculated by first standardizing and summing the three dimensions; scores were then divided by the number of dimensions on which data were available (Brown, 2014; Gayman et al., 2011). These calculations resulted in a socioeconomic position score that represents the number of standard deviations above or below the sample’s mean socioeconomic position, with greater values indicating higher socioeconomic position. By equally weighting education, income, and occupational prestige, this approach captures individuals’ placement within a social hierarchy and offers a comprehensive assessment of socioeconomic position while reducing data loss on individual indicators (Brown, 2014). Marital status was reported by respondents based on whether they were married (0 = unmarried, 1 = married), and parental status was reported by respondents based on whether they had children (0 = no children, 1 = have children).

3.3 Analytic Strategy

Estimations of the weighted means and proportions were conducted for each of the study variables among the full sample and separately by race. T-tests and chi-square tests of significance were employed to assess the differences between non-Hispanic White and Black adults (Table 1). Additionally, the differences in vicarious experiences of discrimination for the full sample and separately among Black and White adults were examined (Table 2). Race-stratified linear regression models were used to assess the association between vicarious discrimination and overall life satisfaction. Associations between life satisfaction and gender, age, SEP, marital status, and parental status were considered in Model 1 among White (Table 3) and Black (Table 4) adults. Vicarious experiences of discrimination were added in Model 2. Model 3 added major and everyday discrimination experiences to assess whether the effects of vicariously experienced discrimination are discrete relative to personal experiences of discrimination.

Table 2 Vicarious experiences of discrimination among all adults, Nashville Stress and Health Study (2011–2014)
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Table 3 Association between life satisfaction and discrimination among White adults (n = 625), Nashville Stress and Health Study (2011–2014)
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Table 4 Association between life satisfaction and discrimination among Black adults (n = 627), Nashville Stress and Health Study (2011–2014)
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4 Results

Table 1 presents the weighted means and proportions of sample characteristics by race. Results show that non-Hispanic White adults (m = 11.48, SD = 5.03) reported significantly (P < 0.001) higher levels of life satisfaction relative to Black adults (m = 9.16, SD = 4.20). Conversely, Black adults reported significantly (P < 0.001) higher levels of vicarious experiences of discrimination, personally experienced major discrimination, and everyday experiences of discrimination relative to White adults. Overall, the average age of all of the adults in the full sample was 44.32 years, and the full sample of adults was comprised of a relatively even split between women (51.63%) and men (48.37%). White adults had a significantly (P < 0.001) higher socioeconomic position relative to Black adults, and had a significantly (P < 0.001) higher rate of marriage (66%) compared to Black adults (35%). However, Black adults had a significantly (P < 0.01) higher rate of having children compared to White adults (66%).

Table 2 shows the percentage of all non-Hispanic White and Black adult respondents reporting vicarious discrimination events. Among the full sample of adults, the most common events that individuals said their loved ones endured were being “unfairly fired or denied a promotion” (25.05%), “unfairly treated by the police” (13.54%), and “for unfair reasons, not been hired for a job” (11.20%). But some of these patterns varied by the race of the respondent. For example, while 22.67% of White adults indicated that their loved ones had “for unfair reasons, not been hired for a job,” almost a third (31.10%) of Black adults reported this discriminatory event happening among their family and friends compared to White respondents (P < 0.01). Even more strikingly, while less than a tenth (8.22%) of White adults reported their loved ones’ experiences with unfair treatment from law enforcement, significantly more (P < 0.001) Black adults (27.07%) reported that their family and friends experienced discrimination from police. However, 5.76% of White adults reported that their loved ones experienced being “unfairly discouraged by a teacher or advisor from a pursuing job/career” in comparison (P < 0.001) to 1.40% of Black adults who reported that their loved ones experienced this form of discrimination.

4.1 Life Satisfaction among non-Hispanic White Adults

In Table 3, the relationship between discrimination and life satisfaction was examined among White adults. Model 1 shows that being a man (b = − 1.08, SE = 0.41, P < 0.01) and younger age (b = − 0.05, SE = 0.02, P < 0.001) were both associated with lower levels of life satisfaction. Conversely, greater SEP (b = 2.31, SE = 0.25, P < 0.001) and being married (b = 2.37, SE = 0.41, P < 0.001) were both associated with higher levels of life satisfaction. Parental status was not associated with life satisfaction. These patterns largely persisted in Model 2. However, vicarious experiences of discrimination were not associated with life satisfaction after being added to the model. In Model 3, with each discrimination measure added, and results showed that personal experiences of major discrimination (b = − 0.49, SE = 0.20, P < 0.05) and everyday discrimination (b = − 0.10, SE = 0.04, P < 0.05) were both associated with lower levels of life satisfaction. Vicarious experiences of discrimination, however, were not associated with life satisfaction. Collectively, these factors accounted for about 25% of the variation in life satisfaction among non-Hispanic White adults (R2 = 0.25), and findings indicate that sociodemographic factors and personal experiences of discrimination are more influential than vicarious experiences of discrimination for life satisfaction among this group.

4.2 Life Satisfaction among Black Adults

In Table 4, the relationship between discrimination and life satisfaction was examined among Black adults. Model 1 shows greater SEP (b = 0.71, SE = 0.33, P < 0.05), being married (b = 1.02, SE = 0.31, P < 0.01), and being a parent (b = 0.82, SE = 0.36, P < 0.05) were all associated with higher levels of life satisfaction. Gender and age were not significantly associated with life satisfaction. These patterns largely persisted in Model 2. Additionally, vicarious experiences of discrimination were associated with lower levels of life satisfaction (b = − 0.22, SE = 0.01, P < 0.05) after being added to this model. With each discrimination measure added in Model 3, these associations were mostly maintained, and results showed that vicarious experiences of discrimination (b = − 0.24, SE = 0.11, P < 0.05) and personal experiences of major discrimination (b = − 0.46, SE = 0.11, P < 0.001) were both associated with lower levels of life satisfaction. By comparison, the association between vicarious discrimination and life satisfaction was greater for Black adults relative to their White counterparts, although the relationship was not statistically significant among White adults. Personal experiences of everyday discrimination were not associated with life satisfaction, however. Collectively, these factors accounted for about 8% of the variation in life satisfaction among Black adults (R2 = 0.08), and findings indicate that vicarious experiences of discrimination were influential for life satisfaction outcomes among this group.

5 Discussion

The present study addresses gaps in prior research and extends our current understanding of how discrimination-related adversity shapes health along racial lines by examining vicarious experiences of discrimination among Black and White adults, and offering evidence for how vicarious discrimination is linked to their subjective well-being. Specifically, the overall goal of this study was to investigate whether vicarious experiences of discrimination (i.e., discrimination experienced by one’s spouse, child, other relative, and friends) is associated with overall life satisfaction among Black and non-Hispanic White adults. Results from this study highlight racial differences in the ways that Black and White adults are indirectly exposed to unfair treatment at disparate rates. Furthermore, this study provides evidence that links vicarious experiences of discrimination to lower levels of life satisfaction among Black adults, while demonstrating no significant effects on the life satisfaction among White adults. Findings from this study offer new and noteworthy insights that will inform future research on racial disparities in health.

The first aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of multiple vicarious exposures to major discrimination among Black and White adults. When evaluating the racial differences in vicarious experiences of discrimination, results showed notable differences of secondhand exposures to discrimination at the structural level. Most notably, Black adults reported significantly greater levels of vicarious exposure to unfair treatment from law enforcement and job-related discrimination, respectively. Findings from this study are consistent with findings from previous research showing that Black adults generally report significantly higher levels of vicarious exposure to discrimination within these two social contexts relative to White adults. McFarland and colleagues (2018), for example, found that Black men report more personal, and vicarious, exposure to unfair treatment from police compared to White men. Also, these findings offer empirical support for studies that demonstrate a longstanding history of job discrimination among Black Americans. For example, Quillian et al., (2017) conducted a meta-analysis of hiring discrimination field experiments spanning back from 1989 to 2015, and—after accounting for applicants’ education, gender, study method, occupational groups, and local labor market conditions—they found that White Americans were significantly more likely to receive callbacks relative to Black and Latino Americans. Results from this study provide evidence that Black Americans may be at higher risk for being denied opportunities for upward mobility as well. Given the prevalence of discriminatory experiences in labor markets and unfair treatment from police among Black Americans, it stands to reason that Black people in the United States are also in close proximity to those who have personally experienced these forms of discrimination. It should be noted that White adults only reported slightly higher levels of vicarious exposure to being unfairly discouraged from continuing education. While this may initially seem striking, less than six percent of White adults reported this form of vicarious discrimination indicating a relatively low prevalence of this phenomenon. Nonetheless, findings from the present study suggest future research should consider additional contexts from which vicarious discrimination may stem (i.e., job market, education, housing, etc.) when assessing how groups may differ in their exposures to racism-related adversity.

The second aim of this study was to examine the association between vicarious discrimination and overall life satisfaction among Black and White adults. Results from this study’s analyses showed vicarious exposure to discrimination was associated with lower levels of overall life satisfaction for Black adults, but not among White adults. This finding offers empirical support for scholars (Gee et al., 2012; Harrell, 2000; Heard-Garris et al., 2018) who have conceptualized perceived discrimination as a social stressor that directly, as well as indirectly, threatens the well-being of racial and ethnic minorities. Furthermore, these results are consistent with the wealth of empirical evidence that shows how personal (Kessler et al., 1999) and vicarious (Bor et al., 2018; Colen et al., 2019; McFarland et al., 2018) experiences of racism significantly impact Black Americans in ways White Americans are not affected. Likewise, findings from this study align with stress theory and the life course framework, which suggest people may be impacted by the adverse experiences of those with whom they share close ties (Elder, 1994; Moody et al., 2019; Pearlin, 2010).

Ultimately, this research shows, in addition to being disproportionately exposed to the discrimination-related adversity their loved ones endure, Black individuals may be more vulnerable to unfair treatment their loved ones experience relative to White Americans. These findings have several implications for quality of life research, while also aligning with some of the ways that Critical Race Theory informs the Sociology of mental health (Brown, 2003). First, racism-related adversity may be pervasive such that Black folks are at an increased risk for being exposed to it indirectly, even if they do not experience it directly. Specifically, as Black Americans interact with institutions (i.e., labor markets and law enforcement), their loved ones are more likely to be affected by unfair treatment that they experience compared to White Americans. Second, we now have evidence to show that these effects of secondhand exposure to discrimination are significant enough to negatively influence life satisfaction among Black Americans, but not White Americans. Essentially, these findings suggest that Black adults would likely be happier overall if they were not vicariously subjected to discrimination. Third, while this study provides new evidence to show that vicarious discrimination may contribute to the Black-White differences in overall life satisfaction, the results suggest that the factors that were considered in this study only partially explain the variation in life satisfaction and happiness among Black adults. Thus, further research is needed to clarify the relationship between discrimination-related stressors and life satisfaction among this group. It is plausible that appraisal-related factors such as racial centrality—a dimension of racial identity that refers to the importance of race to one’s self-concept—may influence how vicarious discrimination is perceived and internalized (Operario & Fiske, 2001; Sellers et al., 2003; Shelton & Sellers, 2000). Using a life course approach (Gee et al., 2012) may also help to strengthen our understanding of how vicarious discrimination is associated with well-being as individuals age and move through various life stages, social roles, and social networks (Jackson & Erving, 2020). For example, prior findings suggest that the age and life stage that Black people experience racial discrimination may help shape their mental health outcomes in adulthood (Thomas Tobin & Moody, 2021), but more work is needed to understand how indirect exposure to racism may affect various age cohorts over time. Additionally, future research should consider employing more measures that capture racialized social phenomena that current survey instruments are unable to measure. Overall, these findings underscore the significance of the weight of discrimination and its implications for the well-being of Black Americans. Furthermore, consistent with overall trends in racism and health literature, findings from this study emphasize the harm that racism poses to racial minorities and how it drives disparities in health and well-being outcomes among Americans.

While this study offers significant findings to the literature on discrimination and well-being, there were several limitations. First, this study used cross-sectional data, limiting the ability to determine causal relationships among the variables in the assortment of models. Also, the generalizability of the study findings may be constrained given that the data were derived from a community sample in the southeastern region of the United States. The sample was, however, randomly selected to increase generalizability within the targeted geographic region. Additionally, the NSAHS provides comprehensive measures of general and racism-related stressors (i.e., vicarious and personally experienced forms of discrimination), as well as a socioeconomically diverse sample of Black adults, significantly increasing the suitability of this dataset for the present study. Still, moving forward, future research should assess these associations with nationally-representative longitudinal data given how studying these social phenomena over time will clarify our understanding. Second, the current study only employs a measure of respondents’ vicarious exposure to major discrimination faced by loved ones. Despite the insights that this scale provides for understanding individuals’ indirect experiences with major discrimination, there are additional forms of discrimination, such as everyday discrimination and publicized racists acts towards minoritized groups, which individuals may also experience vicariously. Although the present study was able to adapt the Major Experiences of Discrimination (Williams et al., 2008) scale to assess vicarious exposures, the Everyday Discrimination (Williams et al., 1997) scale only considers direct encounters with day-to-day bias. As such, there is a need for more comprehensive measures of vicarious and other forms of discrimination-related stressors within community-based, as well as nationally-representative, surveys. Furthermore, respondents were not asked about what they might attribute their vicarious discriminatory experiences to, which limits researchers’ ability to evaluate these relationships as solely racism-related events. Race scholars, however, have maintained that racism cannot be fully captured by these measures alone and that the striking racial disparities in exposure to unfair treatment reflects a social phenomenon that is inherently racialized (Bonilla-Silva, 2015). Third, this study was not able to assess the effects of vicarious discrimination on life satisfaction across the individual items of the measure due to the limited sample size of the NSAHS. However, given the variability in the prevalence of different vicarious discrimination events, future research should investigate how vicarious exposure to specific events of unfair treatment may differentially impact minoritized populations. Finally, this study focuses on the relationship between vicarious discrimination and life satisfaction to better understand how indirect forms of racism-related stress distinctly shape the mental health and well-being of Black Americans relative to non-Hispanic White Americans. While these findings extend the burgeoning body of evidence demonstrating the health significance of these experiences, there is a need to evaluate the role of vicarious discrimination in shaping health outcomes based on within-group differences such as gender, socioeconomic position, and age-patterned exposures. For example, Black women may be more vulnerable to the negative effects of vicarious exposure to discrimination as a result of their caretaking roles and responsibilities for their loved ones relative to Black men. Thus, future research should include gender-stratified comparative analyses to clarify the within-group differences for these associations.

The current study offers a novel assessment of how vicarious exposures to discrimination influence mental health and well-being outcomes for Black and White Americans. As we continue to advance in improving the longevity of individuals in the United States, it is vital that we work to address longstanding racial disparities in life satisfaction and health. Overall, the findings of this study suggest vicarious experiences of discrimination uniquely shape the mental health and well-being of Black Americans, while firming up our knowledge of how racism-related stress drives inequities in health for racial minorities. Failure to consider vicarious exposures to discrimination may weaken estimations of the cumulative stress burden among this group. Thus, this relatively understudied area should be given more attention to provide better assessments of racism-related stressors. Based on the life course concept of “linked lives,” we know how important it is for us to consider the adverse experiences of those who are closely linked to individuals. Future research on stress and health must integrate “linked lives” perspectives to assess the full racism-related stress experience of individuals based on their social networks more accurately. This process must also include a widely-agreed upon conceptualization and operationalization of vicarious racism (Heard-Garris et al., 2018). Finally, researchers should consider what psychosocial resources might promote resilience within the social context of vicarious racism to help clinicians and other providers make valid recommendations for intervention. Eventually, we can designate ways to buffer the negative effects of racism-related stress by including vicarious experiences in our approach addressing this area of health and wellness.