Enrique W. Neblett

African American Adolescents' Discrimination Experiences and Academic Achievement: Racial Socialization as a Cultural Compensatory and Protective Factor.

This study examines the interrelationships among racial discrimination experiences, parent race socialization practices, and academic achievement outcomes in a sample of 548 African American adolescents. Adolescents’ racial discrimination experiences were associated with a decrease in academic curiosity, persistence, and student self-reported grades. Racial pride, self-worth, egalitarian, and negative messages and racial socialization behaviors emerged as unique predictors of various academic outcomes, but did not appear to modulate the impact of racial discrimination experiences on academic outcomes. The present findings provide preliminary evidence that parents’ messages to their children about race may compensate for or counteract racial discrimination, as opposed to moderating its influence on academic achievement outcomes. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of motivation and other key developmental factors that may influence academic achievement outcomes in African American adolescents.

Racial socialization and racial identity: African American parents' messages about race as precursors to identity.

This study uses two waves of data to examine the relationships among patterns of racial socialization experiences and racial identity in a sample of 358 African American adolescents (60% female and 40% male). Using latent class analyses, we identified three patterns of adolescent-reported racial socialization experiences: High Positive, Moderate Positive, and Low Frequency. Adolescent-reported racial socialization experiences at Wave 1 were associated with Wave 2 adolescent racial identity approximately one year later. Specifically, High Positive and Low Frequency racial socialization were associated with racial centrality, assimilationist ideology, and nationalist ideology. These findings suggest that various patterns of racial socialization practices play an important role in the developing significance and meaning that African American adolescents ascribe to race.

The Moderating Capacity of Racial Identity Between Perceived Discrimination and Psychological Well-Being Over Time Among African American Youth

This study examined the influence of racial identity in the longitudinal relation between perceptions of racial discrimination and psychological well-being for approximately 560 African American youth. Latent curve modeling (LCM) and parallel process multiple-indicator LCMs with latent moderators were used to assess whether perceptions of racial discrimination predicted the intercept (initial levels) and the slope (rate of change) of psychological well-being over time, and whether racial identity moderates these relations. The results indicated that African American adolescents who reported higher psychological responses to discrimination frequency levels at the first time point had lower initial levels of well-being. Regressing the slope factor for psychological well-being on the frequency of discrimination also revealed a nonsignificant result for subsequent well-being levels.

Racial identity mediates the association between ethnic-racial socialization and depressive symptoms.

Ethnic-racial socialization has been positively linked with psychological adjustment; however, the mechanisms underlying this association remain unclear. In this study, the authors examined the mediating role of racial identity in the association between racial socialization and depressive symptoms. Participants were 211 African American young adults (62% female; mean age = 20.73, SD = 1.90) recruited from a predominately White southeastern university. Multivariate mediation analyses revealed an indirect effect of racial pride messages on depressive symptoms through private regard such that individuals who reported receiving more frequent racial pride messages were more likely to feel positively about their race, and, in turn, less likely to report depressive symptoms. Individuals who reported that their parents engaged in more socialization activities (e.g., attending cultural events) were also more likely to feel positively about their race and, in turn, report fewer depressive symptoms. These results suggest that positive feelings about ones race are important considerations in our understanding of the relation between ethnic-racial socialization and youth psychological adjustment.

Emotional Response Profiles to Racial Discrimination Does Racial Identity Predict Affective Patterns

The present study examined the association between racial identity and patterns of emotional responses to blatant and subtle racial discrimination vignettes in a sample of 129 African American college students. Using latent profile analyses, we identified eight patterns of emotional responses to the scenarios. Multinomial logistic regression analyses revealed that racial identity was associated with these response patterns. Specifically, private and public regard were related to profiles in the blatant condition, while private regard, centrality, and nationalist ideology were related to profiles in the subtle condition. These findings suggest that there are varied ways in which African American youth respond emotionally to discrimination and that the significance and meaning that one places on race may affect these responses.

The Role of Optimism and Religious Involvement in the Association Between Race-Related Stress and Anxiety Symptomatology

This study examined the associations between individual, institutional, and cultural race-related stress and somatic and cognitive anxiety. We adopted a risk and resilience framework to investigate the protective role of optimism and religious involvement in the race-related stress-anxiety link. A total of 171 African American young adults completed measures of race-related stress, optimism, religious involvement, and anxiety symptomatology. Institutional race-related stress was positively associated with cognitive and somatic anxiety. Optimism moderated the association between individual race-related stress and cognitive anxiety. Religious involvement enhanced the protective function of optimism in the association between individual and cultural race-related stress and cognitive anxiety. These results illustrate the utility of a multidimensional framework for understanding the impact of race-related stress on anxiety symptomatology. Moreover, the pattern of findings suggests that high religious involvement and high optimism may produce the most advantageous outcomes with respect to the association between race-related stress and anxiety in African American young adults.

Impostor phenomenon and mental health: The influence of racial discrimination and gender.

The impostor phenomenon (IP), or feelings of intellectual incompetence, reflects a maladaptive set of cognitions, which pose a significant psychological risk for African American emerging adults. In light of recent evidence suggesting that personal and sociocultural factors may influence the association between IP and psychological adjustment, this study used 2 waves of data to examine the extent to which gender and racial discrimination moderated the association between IP and indices of mental health among 157 African American college students (69% women; mean age = 18.30) attending a predominantly White institution. Analyses revealed that young African American women reporting higher frequencies of racial discrimination and women reporting lower levels of distress resulting from racial discrimination were most vulnerable to negative mental health outcomes, particularly at higher levels of IP. These findings suggest that IP may interact with gender and racial discrimination experiences to influence mental health outcomes. We discuss how these findings can be utilized to inform treatment of African American emerging adults experiencing IP and the importance of considering how gender and discrimination may intersect to exacerbate feelings of intellectual incompetence.

Racial Identity, Perpetrator Race, Racial Composition of Primary Community, and Mood Responses to Discrimination

Studies suggest that racial identity, race of the perpetrator, and prior race-related experiences influence responses to racial discrimination. This study employed a visual imagery paradigm to examine how racial centrality (or the significance of one’s race), perpetrator race, and the racial composition of one’s primary community were associated with mood responses to racial discrimination vignettes. Participants were 129 self-identified African American young adults (55% female) recruited from a southeastern university in the United States. Participants completed measures of sociodemographic characteristics and racial centrality and rated their mood following exposure to vignettes consisting of blatant and subtle discrimination with Black and White actors. Individuals with higher racial centrality endorsed greater anger and disgust and had stronger overall mood ratings following the subtle discrimination condition. Also, participants reported significantly higher levels of distress and disgust when the perpetrator was White. These results suggest that individual and situational factors help shape affective responses to discrimination. We discuss implications of the findings and highlight being connected to one’s racial identity as a healthy psychological response to racism.

Future Directions in Research on Racism-Related Stress and Racial-Ethnic Protective Factors for Black Youth.

Research on racism-related stress and racial-ethnic protective factors represents an important enterprise for optimizing the mental health of African American and other racial and ethnic minority youth. However, there has been a relative dearth of work on these factors in the clinical psychology research literature, and more work is needed in outlets such as these. To this end, the current article adopts a developmental psychopathology framework and uses recent empirical findings to outline our current understanding of racism-related stress and racial-ethnic protective factors (i.e., racial identity, racial socialization, Africentric worldview) for African American youth. We then provide nine recommendations—across basic, applied, and broader/cross-cutting research lines—that we prioritize as essential to advancing the future scientific investigation of this crucial research agenda. Within and across these recommendations, we issue a charge to researchers and clinicians alike, with the ultimate goal of alleviating the negative mental health impact that racism-related stress can have on the well-being and mental health of African American and other racial and ethnic minority youth.

The link between discrimination and telomere length in African American adults.

Objective: Prior work shows that discrimination is associated with a wide array of negative health outcomes. However, the biological mechanisms through which this link occurs require more study. We evaluated the association between discrimination and leukocyte telomere length (LTL; a biological marker of systemic aging). Method: Cross-sectional data were from the Health and Retirement study, a study of people aged 51+ in the United States, and included 595 African American males and females. Multiple regression analyses were used to evaluate whether discrimination was independently associated with LTL. We also considered the role of potential confounders including sociodemographic factors, health factors, depressive symptoms, and stress. Results: High discrimination was associated with shorter LTL after controlling for sociodemographic factors (b = −.034, SE = 0.14, p = .017). This association persisted in analyses that further adjusted for health factors, depressive symptoms, and stress. Conclusion: Results suggest that discrimination experiences accelerate biological aging in older African American males and females, alike. This finding helps advance our understanding of how discrimination generates greater disease vulnerability and premature death in African Americans.