Elsevier

Hormones and Behavior

Volume 80, April 2016, Pages 76-81
Hormones and Behavior

Everyday discrimination and diurnal cortisol during adolescence

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2016.01.009Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Discrimination frequency was associated with multiple cortisol parameters.

  • Associations generally did not depend upon ethnicity or gender.

  • Attributions for discrimination were not as consequential as the actual frequency.

Abstract

Purpose

To examine the associations of the frequency and type of everyday discrimination with diurnal cortisol and whether those associations depend upon adolescents' ethnicity and gender.

Methods

Adolescents (N = 292, Mage = 16. 39 years, SD = 0.74; 58% female) reported the frequency of perceived everyday discrimination and whether they attributed that discrimination to race, gender, age, or height and weight. Five saliva samples were collected per day across 3 days and assayed for cortisol.

Results

Higher frequency of everyday discrimination was associated with greater total daily cortisol output (area under the curve; AUC), lower wake and bedtime levels of cortisol, and less of a decline in cortisol across the day. These associations generally did not depend upon ethnicity or gender and attributions for the discrimination were not as consequential as the actual frequency of any type of unfair treatment.

Conclusion

Everyday discrimination, regardless of its type, may contribute to heightened HPA activity among adolescents of different ethnic backgrounds and genders.

Section snippets

Sample

Participants were recruited though mailings and presentations made in 10th and 11th grade classrooms in four public high schools in the Los Angeles area. These schools were chosen because they were composed of a large population of students from either Asian, European or Latin American backgrounds. In the first two schools, there was a majority of Asian (43%, 57%) and Latino (50%, 40%) students. In the third and fourth schools, there was a majority of Latino (38%, 23%) and White (51%, 63%)

Descriptive statistics and correlations

As shown in the last row of Table 1, everyday discrimination was infrequent (42 participants reported “never” on all items) and adolescents were more likely to attribute discrimination to their age and race than to their gender or height/weight, ts(292) = 3.13–5.84, ps < 0.05 after Bonferroni correction. Discrimination frequency was associated with lower waking levels of cortisol, less of a daily decline, and greater bedtime levels. Attributions to gender were associated with greater AUC and

Discussion

Everyday discrimination occurred relatively infrequently, but adolescents who perceived higher rates of such unfair treatment evidenced elevated levels of cortisol across the day. This is consistent with three recent studies (Doane and Zeiders, 2014, Skinner et al., 2011, Zeiders et al., 2012), providing converging evidence that the discrimination-health risk link during adulthood may begin as early as adolescence. The heightened cortisol output was due largely to less of a decline in cortisol

Limitations

Daily reports of discrimination and cortisol would provide stronger evidence for this association than our measure of discrimination that assesses frequency over 12 months. However, one daily diary study found that ethnic discrimination occurred < 1% of days over a two-week period (Huynh and Fuligni, 2010). Given how infrequent everyday discrimination is, measuring daily discrimination may be resource intensive because it would require at least one month of daily reports and the corresponding

Conclusions

In conclusion, the current study adds to the small, emerging body of research on discrimination and HPA activity during adolescence by suggesting that perceiving unfair treatment due to one's membership in several social categories (e.g., race, gender, age, and weight) can elevate diurnal cortisol levels among adolescents from different ethnicities and genders. Continuing research should focus on potential psychological mediators of this dynamic, but our study joins other recent research to

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    Implications and contribution

    Adolescents who perceive discrimination in their daily lives—whether because of their race, gender, age, or physical size—experience elevated levels of HPA activity. Such perceptions of unfair treatment have potential implications for health.

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