Ethnic-Racial discrimination experiences predict Latinx adolescents’ physiological stress processes across college transition
Introduction
Experiencing unfair treatment based on one’s ethnicity or race (i.e., ethnic-racial1 discrimination; ERD) is a robust risk factor related to significant adverse health consequences (Paradies et al., 2015). ERD during adolescence may have especially detrimental and lasting effects on later health (Adam et al., 2015, Cuevas et al., 2019). In national epidemiological studies in the United States (U.S.), approximately 65–98% of Latinx2 adults reported experiencing ERD in their lifetime (Arellano-Morales et al., 2015). Prevalence estimates from multiple school- and community-based studies of Latinx adolescents in the U.S. Southwest, a region with significant Latinx population growth, indicate that approximately 58–69% of Latinx youth aged 16–21 experience ERD, with prevalence rates significantly higher for certain groups (e.g., 86–94% of Latino boys aged 19–21; Zeiders et al., 2020). Given the overall prevalence and variability of ERD experiences in the lives of Latinx youth, further research is needed to better address the physiological mechanisms by which ERD negatively affects health and contributes to the persistence of ethnic-racial disparities (Neblett, 2019). Studies that have examined ERD in relation to physiological stress processes among Latinx youth are relatively scarce (Cuevas et al., 2019, Lewis et al., 2015). This underrepresentation is important to address because 1 in 4 U.S. public school students is currently Latinx, and Latinx individuals will comprise 30% of the U.S. population by 2060 (Colby and Ortman, 2015). In the current study, we extended prior research to test whether Latinx adolescents’ ERD experiences reported in the final year of high school predicted cardiovascular and neuroendocrine stress responses later during their first college semester, controlling for concurrent ERD measures.
According to conceptual frameworks of ethnic-race-based stress, the ongoing nature of many ERD experiences can produce a chronic state of psychological stress, which in turn places burden on stress response systems involved in maintaining physiological homeostasis (Brondolo et al., 2009). Changes in cardiovascular and neuroendocrine responses have been proposed as mechanisms through which ethnic-race-based stress impacts health over time (Busse et al., 2017a, Panza et al., 2019). Both hyperresponsive and hyporesponsive physiological reactivity to laboratory-based stress tasks predict adverse health outcomes, such as cardiovascular disease risk and depression (Phillips et al., 2013). Extant studies testing ERD as a predictor of physiological stress processes have been limited by cross-sectional designs, almost exclusive focus on adult samples, consideration of a single biomarker, and limited attention to variability among ethnic-racial groups (Busse et al., 2017a, Gee et al., 2012, Lewis et al., 2015, Ong et al., 2018). The current study addressed these limitations by measuring Latinx adolescents’ ERD experiences on two occasions across their transition to college as predictors of psychosocial stress reactivity of cardiovascular and neuroendocrine processes.
The autonomic nervous system (ANS) responds to stressors rapidly in the face of physical and psychosocial threats, most commonly indexed by acute increases in blood pressure at stressor onset (Goyal et al., 2008). Mounting evidence points to ERD as a contributor to ethnic-racial disparities in cardiovascular disease risk via both higher and lower stress response output (e.g., Lockwood et al., 2018). Prior studies involving experimental manipulations of ethnic-race-based stress with Latinx college students have resulted in mixed findings. For example, being exposed to a White individual with racially prejudiced attitudes increased Latinx students’ blood pressure (Sawyer et al., 2012), whereas overhearing racist comments did not increase Latinx students’ blood pressure (Huynh et al., 2017). General discrimination (not specific to ethnicity-race) was positively associated with resting systolic and diastolic blood pressure in a sample of African American adolescents (Goosby et al., 2015), and ERD has been positively associated with ambulatory blood pressure in studies of Latinx adults (Beatty Moody et al., 2016, McClure et al., 2010). Consistent with a lifecourse perspective on the health effects of discrimination (Gee et al., 2012), there is a need to investigate the stress-health pathways of ERD on adolescents’ cardiovascular stress responses over time.
Psychological stressors that involve social evaluation and lack of control (i.e., ERD) consistently activate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis stress response in adolescents and adults, commonly measured with salivary cortisol (Dickerson and Kemeny, 2004). Salivary cortisol levels typically peak approximately 20–40 min after stressor onset (i.e., reactivity) and return to baseline up to an hour later (i.e., recovery). Studies of youth and adults have identified links between both elevated and “blunted” (i.e., lower than average) cortisol stress reactivity with indicators of poor mental and physical health (see Phillips et al. (2013), for review). Differing physiological patterns may be attributable to chronicity and type of discriminatory stress (Korous et al., 2017). For example, laboratory studies have revealed that discrete ERD experiences, such as interacting with a racially prejudiced interviewer (Townsend et al., 2014) and overhearing racist comments (Huynh et al., 2017) increased cortisol reactivity for Latinx college students. Survey measures of general discrimination (not specific to ethnicity-race) have also been positively associated with cortisol reactivity in Latinx young adults (Busse et al., 2017b). However, a less stress-responsive, relatively lower pattern of cortisol reactivity has emerged in relation to more frequent everyday exposure to discrimination in studies of Mexican American adolescents (Kim et al., 2018) and African American adults (e.g., Richman and Jonassaint, 2008). In order to understand mixed findings, a recent review by Busse et al. (2017a) identified that studies that induced relatively acute discrimination found more pronounced cortisol reactivity (e.g., Townsend et al., 2014), whereas participants who reported a more robust history of past discrimination experiences over time were more likely to demonstrate reduced responses to standardized lab stressors when compared to individuals who experienced less discrimination (e.g., Richman and Jonassaint, 2008). These relatively lower response levels may reflect a pattern of attenuation due to chronic or toxic stress (Joos et al., 2019, Susman, 2006, Trickett et al., 2010), whereby individuals who have experienced chronic stress (i.e., greater discrimination over time) adapt to prolonged activation of the HPA axis through subsequent downregulation, resulting in a period of hyposecretion and reduced cortisol reactivity to decrease potential allostatic load (Miller et al., 2007).
An examination of ERD and stress processes during adolescence is critical for several reasons. First, adolescence is considered a sensitive developmental period during which ethnic-racial disparities in health take root and persist across the lifespan (Sanders-Phillips et al., 2009). By late adolescence, youth have developed cognitive awareness of unfair treatment and begin to navigate identity processes that set the foundation for subsequent anticipation and experiences of ERD (Quintana and McKown, 2007). Moreover, as adolescents transition into college they encounter a novel social context characterized by changes to familial and peer relationships that are often accompanied by elevated stress (Kerr et al., 2004). Studies of Black youth have shown that ERD in adolescence was associated with altered stress processes later in adulthood (Adam et al., 2015, Brody et al., 2014). However, ERD-related changes in stress processes have not been examined among Latinx adolescents transitioning from high school to college contexts.
A recent meta-analysis on the effects of ERD during adolescence showed that most studies (78%) used a general or overall measure of discrimination (Benner et al., 2018). Researchers have begun to emphasize the value of examining multiple sources of ERD and their differential associations with health and adjustment outcomes (Hughes et al., 2016). For example, longitudinal evidence indicates that discrimination from adults is more consequential for youth’s academic outcomes, and discrimination from peers is more strongly related to aspects of well-being like depression and physical health symptoms (Del Toro and Hughes, 2019, Huynh and Fuligni, 2012). It is likely that these differential patterns reflect the importance of adults for determining students’ coursework and grades, whereas peers provide social support, feedback, and identity affirmation that are important for adolescent well-being (Benner and Graham, 2013). Nonetheless, only a few college transition studies have included measurement of both ERD from peers in school and adults to unpack contextual variability in the effects of ERD on outcomes (e.g., Del Toro and Hughes, 2019; Huynh and Fuligni, 2012; Witkow et al., 2015), and none to date have examined whether distinct sources of ERD are differentially related to markers of physiological stress.
In the current study, Latinx adolescents reported on their ERD experiences from adults and peers in school prior to college, which we examined as predictors of physiological responses to psychosocial stress several months later during their first college semester. This study expands upon extant research in several novel ways to advance a developmental and contextual approach for investigating the physiological underpinnings of ethnic-race-based stress. First, few lab-based physiological stress studies have attended to the developmental period of adolescence and the transition to adulthood, which is a sensitive period during which youth of color perceive ERD experiences with increasing frequency as they grow in cognitive maturity to recognize unfair treatment and navigate shifts in social settings that heighten the frequency of encountering ERD from others (Benner, 2017, Umaña-Taylor, 2016). Second, as recent reviews of the literature have indicated (Busse et al., 2017a; Korous et al., 2017; Ong et al., 2018; Panza et al., 2019), Latinx youth remain substantially underrepresented in physiological stress research relative to Black and White adults, particularly with respect to within-group study designs that allow for examination of variability within diverse groups of Latinx adolescents (exceptions included in the literature review, above). Third, following recent calls in the literature (Ong et al., 2018), our design was particularly novel because we recruited participants prior to the college transition to assess ERD with temporal precedence before a standardized lab-based stressor and with attention to developmental and contextual changes in ERD with two measurement occasions (i.e., pre-college and first college semester). Furthermore, in line with conceptual and empirical advances in ERD research from developmental and culturally informed perspectives (Benner, 2017, Benner et al., 2018), we assessed ERD from both peer and adult sources, an important innovation not yet investigated in physiological stress studies that have tended to rely on overall summary measures of ERD or general perceived discrimination without specific attention to ethnicity and race (see Ong et al. (2018), for review). Finally, in the current study we also joined recent efforts to advance the consideration of multiple physiological stress markers (i.e., blood pressure, cortisol), which we measured repeatedly during an experimental lab-based stress design and modeled using longitudinal growth trajectories to account for baseline levels and stress reactivity and recovery.
Based on ethnic-race-based models of stress (Brondolo et al., 2009) and the well-documented detrimental impact of ERD on developmental adjustment and health (Gee et al., 2012, Umaña-Taylor, 2016), we hypothesized that experiencing more frequent ERD reported in the final year of high school (compared to less frequent) would predict differences in physiological stress responses in the first college semester. Given prior mixed evidence and limited studies that have tested this question with Latinx adolescents (Busse et al., 2017a, Panza et al., 2019), we did not form a priori expectations for whether ERD would predict higher or lower stress reactivity patterns. Further, in line with research documenting differential associations between ERD and youth adjustment outcomes by discrimination source (Benner et al., 2018), we explored ERD from both peers in school and from adults.
Section snippets
Participants
Participants were recruited from a larger longitudinal study of Latinx adolescents from over 90 different high schools who were admitted to a large university in the southwestern U.S. (see Doane et al., 2018a). Sample size for the current study was determined based on prior studies (Busse et al., 2017a) and review of meta-analysis on comparable stress tasks (Dickerson and Kemeny, 2004). Of 85 recruited participants for this study, one opted out of stress measures and was not included in
Results
See Table 1 for descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations. At T1, the majority of participants reported experiencing at least one form of ERD from peers at their school (63.1%) and from adults (64.3%). Regarding the most frequently endorsed ERD, participants reported that adults treated them like they are not smart (51.2%) and not as good as them (51.2%) because of their race or ethnicity. On average, ERD from peers at school significantly decreased from T1 (M = 1.56; SD = 0.65) to T2 (M
Discussion
Many Latinx adolescents are routinely faced with ethnic-racial discrimination (ERD) from a variety of sources, including peers in school and adults, and the frequency with which youth experience ERD is a mounting public health concern (Neblett, 2019). Consistent with prior studies documenting the prevalence of ERD for Latinx adolescents in the U.S. Southwest (Zeiders et al., 2020), the majority of participants in this study of Latinx adolescents transitioning to college endorsed being treated
Conclusions
Over half of this sample of Latinx adolescents reported experiencing discrimination based on their ethnic-racial background from peers in school and from adults. Experiencing ERD prior to the college transition, particularly from adults, has implications for Latinx adolescents’ physiological stress processes as they adapt to novel demands in the college context. Findings from this study demonstrated evidence for both cardiovascular and neuroendocrine stress pathways, joining recent efforts to
Author note
The authors declare they have no conflicts of interest to report. This research was made possible by a Developmental Catalyst Research Grant from the Arizona State University Department of Psychology, a Dissertation Research Award from the American Psychological Association, the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship Program (DGE-1311230), and William T. Grant Foundation Scholar Award to LDD. Further support to MRS was provided by the NSF SBE Postdoctoral Research
Conflicts of interest
The authors do not have any conflicts of interest to declare.
References (68)
- et al.
Developmental histories of perceived racial discrimination and diurnal cortisol profiles in adulthood: a 20-year prospective study
Psychoneuroendocrinology
(2015) - et al.
Social context matters: ethnicity, discrimination and stress reactivity
Psychoneuroendocrinology
(2017) - et al.
Synthesis of a cortisol-biotin conjugate and evaluation as a tracer in an immunoassay for salivary cortisol measurement
J. Steroid Biochem. Mol. Biol.
(1992) - et al.
Human hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis responses to acute psychosocial stress in laboratory settings
Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev.
(2010) - et al.
Meta-analytical assessment of the effects of protocol variations on cortisol responses to the Trier Social Stress Test
Psychoneuroendocrinology
(2017) - et al.
Extending the toxic stress model into adolescence: profiles of cortisol reactivity
Psychoneuroendocrinology
(2019) - et al.
Racial discrimination and cortisol output: a meta-analysis
Soc. Sci. Med.
(2017) - et al.
How to disentangle psychobiological stress reactivity and recovery: a comparison of model-based and non-compartmental analyses of cortisol concentrations
Psychoneuroendocrinology
(2018) - et al.
The other side of the coin: blunted cardiovascular and cortisol reactivity are associated with negative health outcomes
Int. J. Psychophysiol.
(2013) - et al.
BDNF Val66Met polymorphism is associated with HPA axis reactivity to psychological stress characterized by genotype and gender interactions
Psychoneuroendocrinology
(2009)
Reducing cultural mismatch: Latino students’ neuroendocrine and affective stress responses following cultural diversity and inclusion reminder
Horm. Behav.
Psychobiology of persistent antisocial behavior: stress, early vulnerabilities and the attenuation hypothesis
Neurosci. Biobehav. Rev.
Psychological stress reactivity and future health and disease outcomes: a systematic review of prospective evidence
Psychoneuroendocrinology
Prevalence and correlates of perceived ethnic discrimination in the Hispanic Community Health Study/Study of Latinos Sociocultural Ancillary Study
J. Latnix Psychol.
Lifetime racial/ethnic discrimination and ambulatory blood pressure: the moderating effect of age
Health Psychol.
If the coping fits, use it: preadolescent recent stress exposure differentially predicts post‐TSST salivary cortisol recovery
Dev. Psychobiol.
The toll of racial/ethnic discrimination on adolescents’ adjustment
Child Dev. Perspect.
Racial/Ethnic discrimination and well-being during adolescence: a meta-analytic review
Am. Psychol.
The antecedents and consequences of racial/ethnic discrimination during adolescence: does the source of discrimination matter?
Dev. Psychol.
Perceived discrimination among African American adolescents and allostatic load: a longitudinal analysis with buffering effects
Child Dev.
Coping with racism: a selective review of the literature and a theoretical and methodological critique
J. Behav. Med.
Discrimination and the HPA axis: current evidence and future directions
J. Behav. Med.
Greater cardiovascular responses to laboratory mental stress are associated with poor subsequent cardiovascular risk status: a meta-analysis of prospective evidence
Hypertension
Stress and infectious disease in humans
Psychol. Bull.
Developmental timing of initial racial discrimination exposure is associated with cardiovascular health conditions in adulthood
Ethn. Health
Trajectories of discrimination across the college years: associations with academic, psychological, and physical adjustment outcomes
J. Youth Adolesc.
Acute stressors and cortisol responses: a theoretical integration and synthesis of laboratory research
Psychol. Bull.
An introduction to cultural neurobiology: Evidence from physiological stress systems
Cultural neurobiology and the family: evidence from the daily lives of Latino adolescents
Dev. Psychopathol.
A life course perspective on how racism may be related to health inequities
Am. J. Public Health
Perceived discrimination and markers of cardiovascular risk among low-income African American youth
Am. J. Hum. Biol.
Cardiovascular stress reactivity
Growth Modeling: Structural Equation and Multilevel Modeling Approaches
Cited by (7)
Psychobiological effects of chronic ethnic discrimination in Turkish immigrants: Stress responses to standardized face-to-face discrimination in the laboratory
2022, PsychoneuroendocrinologyCitation Excerpt :Similarly, in a sample of African Americans who watched a racially charged movie clip, Weinstein et al. (2013) found that low cortisol responders reported a higher amount of lifetime discrimination. Another study employed a standardized stressor and found a reduced cortisol response in American Latinx participants (Sladek et al., 2021). These findings suggest that the experience of chronic discrimination may be associated with a ceiling effect of the HPA axis’ activation in response to stressors.
Special Issue: Social Determinants of Health: What we still need to know
2022, PsychoneuroendocrinologyCitation Excerpt :This special issue highlights a growing literature in Psychoneuroendocrinology focused on the Latinx community, as health inequities are evident. In a study of 84 Latinx adolescents in the U.S., Sladek et al. (2021) showed that those who had experienced more discrimination from adults in high school reported more stress and lower stress-related blood pressure and salivary cortisol reactivity during the first semester of college, while those who had more discrimination from peers also reported more stress. Ethnic-racial discrimination during high school may influence the transition to college and the experience of stress for Latinx college students.
Racial/Ethnic Discrimination and Cardiometabolic Diseases: A Systematic Review
2024, Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health DisparitiesReciprocal Associations of Perceived Discrimination, Internalizing Symptoms, and Academic Achievement in Latino Students Across the College Transition
2024, Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority PsychologyEthnic-Racial Identity Developmental Trajectories Across the Transition to College
2023, Journal of Youth and Adolescence