A growing body of research explores the impact of encounters with racism or discrimination on physiological activity. Investigators have collected these data in laboratories and in controlled clinical settings. Several but not all of the studies suggest that higher blood pressure levels are associated with the tendency not to recall or report occurrences identified as racist and discriminatory. Investigators have reported that physiological arousal is associated with laboratory analogues of ethnic discrimination and mistreatment. Evidence from survey and laboratory studies suggests that personality variables and cultural orientation moderate the impact of racial discrimination. The neural pathways that mediate these physiological reactions are not known. The evidence supports the notion that direct encounters with discriminatory events contribute to negative health outcomes.

Perceived discrimination may contribute to somatic disease. The association between perceived discrimination and breast cancer incidence was assessed in the Black Women's Health Study. In 1997, participants completed questions on perceived discrimination in two domains: "everyday" discrimination (e.g., being treated as dishonest) and major experiences of unfair treatment due to race (job, housing, and police). Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate incidence rate ratios, controlling for breast cancer risk factors. From 1997 to 2003, 593 incident cases of breast cancer were ascertained. In the total sample, there were weak positive associations between cancer incidence and everyday and major discrimination. These associations were stronger among the younger women. Among women aged less than 50 years, those who reported frequent everyday discrimination were at higher risk than were women who reported infrequent experiences. In addition, the incidence rate ratio was 1.32 (95% confidence interval: 1.03, 1.70) for those who reported discrimination on the job and 1.48 (95% confidence interval: 1.01, 2.16) for those who reported discrimination in all three situations - housing, job, and police - relative to those who reported none. These findings suggest that perceived experiences of racism are associated with increased incidence of breast cancer among US Black women, particularly younger women.

The purpose of this study was to extend the research body, which implicates the insidious effects of racism on health outcomes. Specifically, this study tested the assumption that perception of racist experiences would predict differently for self-report symptoms (Symptom Checklist-90-Revised) compared to an objective measure of health (cardiovascular [CV] reactivity to standard laboratory stressors). It was also hypothesized that the cultural variable spirituality would moderate this relation. A total of 155 undergraduate students of African descent from a historical Black university in the mid-Atlantic region were recruited to participate in the current study. Perceived racist experiences and racial stress were commonly associated with negative health symptoms and showed an inverse relation to the CV responses. In addition, spirituality served as a significant moderator between racial stress and negative psychological health symptoms. Several implications are discussed in light of these findings.

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The current study draws on a hierarchical linear regression procedure to address the problem of overinterpretation in research on racial identity attitudes and academic achievement. The Racial Identity Attitude Scale, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and a background questionnaire were administered to 128 African American students from a Historically Black College & University. Results show that the unique effect of racial identity on academic outcome is minimal. Moreover, over 50% of racial identity's effect on academic outcome is predicted by individual differences in self-esteem. A model examining the relationship between racial identity, self-esteem, and academic outcome is presented.Hierarchical linear regression (HLR) determines the extent to which two or more predictors are linked independently to systematic variations in a criterion variable. Developmental, social, and counseling psychologists consider the practicality of HLR when identifying the relative contributions that personal identities and self-concept make to academic achievement. Research assessing the impact of racial identity and self-esteem on academic Although the systematic manipulation of antecedent conditions in experimental settings affords many scientists with powerful statistical tools, social scientists in particular often struggle with less powerful research techniques when attempting to capture more elusive theoretical phenomena. As a consequence, there is a common tendency among researchers "to attribute more causal force to the results of statistical analyses than they actually deserve" (Lindenberger & Pötter, 1998, p. 218). Mackinnon, Lockwood, Hoffman, West, and Sheets (2002) also addressed this concern and concluded that existing statistical methods used to test independent, mediator, and dependent variables such as the Baron and Kenny (1986) approach suffer from low statistical power. Thus, causal inferences regarding variable effects remain complex and confusing.Lindenberger and Pötter (1998) demonstrated that significant findings from HLR procedures risk "over-interpretation" (p. 218). For instance, in a model in which the relationship of racial identity (RI), self-esteem (SE), and academic outcome (GPA) are assessed using hierarchical linear regression, researchers may find that 56% of RI-related variance in GPA is shared with SE. Conversely, 44% of the variance in GPA predicted by RI is unique to RI. The unique contribution of RI is defined as the proportion of variance in GPA attributed to RI when RI is entered last in the analysis (R 2 increment). Lindenberger and Pötter (1998) cautioned that the interpretations from such analyses remain imprecise. For example, one interpretation of the results could be that RI differences in GPA are predicted to 56% by RI differences in SE. A second, more general interpretation may conclude that RI-related changes in GPA are predicted by individual differences-not solely RIrelated differences-in SE.Lindenberger and Pötter (1998) addressed the problem of overinterpretation by attributing its...