Objective
The race-based traumatic stress theory (Carter, 2007) suggests that some racial and ethnic minority individuals may experience racial discrimination as a psychological trauma, as it may elicit a response comparable to posttraumatic stress. The present study examined this further by determining the relation between racial discrimination and dissociation, a common response to trauma exposure. Further, we examined whether active coping strategies specifically employed to cope with racial discrimination related to less dissociative symptomatology.
Methods
The predominant racial and ethnic minority sample (N=743) of emerging adults (i.e., ages 18-29) recruited from a public university in Northeastern U.S. completed a battery of self-report measures on racial discrimination, responses to racial discrimination, traumatic life events and dissociative symptoms.
Results
Frequency of racial discrimination was positively associated with dissociative symptoms in regression analyses adjusted for demographics and other traumatic life events. Additionally, more active coping strategies in response to racial discrimination were negatively associated with dissociative symptoms.
Conclusion
Racial and ethnic minority emerging adults who experience racial discrimination, possibly as traumatic, may be more vulnerable to dissociative symptoms. However, different strategies of coping with racial discrimination may differentially impact risk for dissociation.
Perceived discrimination has been found to increase risk for depression
in emerging adulthood, but explanatory cognitive mechanisms have not been well
studied. We examined whether the brooding and reflective subtypes of rumination
would mediate the relation between perceived discrimination and depressive
symptoms among racial/ethnic minority, versus White, emerging adults, and
whether a strong ethnic identity would buffer against this effect. Emerging
adults (N = 709; 70% female; 68% racial/ethnic
minority), ages 18–25, completed measures of perceived discrimination,
rumination, depressive symptoms, and ethnic identity. Perceived discrimination
was positively associated with depressive symptoms among racial/ethnic minority
and White participants. Brooding – but not reflection – mediated
this relation only among racial/ethnic minorities. Ethnic identity, though
negatively associated with depressive symptoms, did not buffer against the
mediating effect of brooding on the discrimination-depression relation.
Interventions for depression among racial/ethnic minority emerging adults should
address maladaptive cognitive responses, such as brooding, associated with
perceived discrimination.
Improving mental health treatment seeking among racial/ethnic minority college students should involve decreasing treatment barriers, improving access to affordable options, providing flexible scheduling or time-limited options, and decreasing stigma.
Drawing from Race-Based Traumatic Stress theory, the present study examined whether traumatic stress and depressive symptoms differentially help explain the relation between racial/ethnic discrimination and suicidal ideation across gender and racial/ethnic groups. A racially/ethnically diverse group of emerging adults (N = 1344; M age = 19.88, SD = 2.25; 72% female; 46% Hispanic) completed a battery of self-report measures. A cross-sectional design was employed with a series of hierarchical linear regression models and bootstrapping procedures to examine the direct and indirect relation between racial/ethnic discrimination and suicidal ideation through traumatic stress and depressive symptoms across gender and race/ethnicity. The findings suggest an indirect relation through depressive symptoms, but not traumatic stress, and a serial indirect relation through traumatic stress to depressive symptoms in young women and young men, the latter of which was stronger in young women. The indirect relations did not vary by racial/ethnic group. Cumulative experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination may impact suicide-related risk via increases in psychiatric symptomology (i.e., traumatic stress and depressive symptoms), particularly in young women. Racial/ethnic discrimination experiences should be accounted for as a potential source of psychological distress in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of suicidal thoughts and behavior, especially among young women endorsing traumatic stress and depressive
Among emerging adults and college students, racial and ethnic minorities
experience greater risk for suicidal ideation and behavior than their White
counterparts. Research has identified numerous cognitive risk factors for
suicidal ideation. However, they have not been well studied among racial and
ethnic minorities. The present study examined the association between these
factors (brooding rumination, reflective rumination, hopelessness, and
depressive symptoms) and suicidal ideation, among 690 Black, Latino, and
biracial college students. Among all groups, hopelessness was positively
associated with suicidal ideation. Brooding was negatively associated with
suicidal ideation, after adjusting for reflection and hopelessness, although
only at low levels of depressive symptoms. Black race/ethnicity and Latino
race/ethnicity, compared with biracial race/ethnicity, each separately
interacted with reflection to predict lower levels of suicidal ideation at
moderate to high levels of reflection. Furthermore, Latino race/ethnicity,
compared with biracial race/ethnicity, interacted with both reflection and
depressive symptoms, such that reflection was negatively associated with
suicidal ideation among Latino individuals reporting depressive symptoms above
the 39th percentile. Biracial race/ethnicity, compared with monoracial
race/ethnicity, also interacted with reflection and depressive symptoms, with
reflection associated with greater amounts of suicidal ideation at depressive
symptom levels above the 39th percentile. Our findings suggest reflective
rumination differentially affects racial and ethnic groups and should be
considered in conjunction with depressive symptoms among Latino and biracial
individuals in suicide risk assessment and treatment.
Objectives
The present study examined the relation between cognitive response styles (i.e., brooding, reflection, distraction) and cognitive inflexibility in differentially predicting history of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) only, suicide attempt (SA) only, or both (NSSI+SA).
Methods
College students (N = 352) completed self-report measures of rumination, distraction, and self-harm history, a diagnostic interview, and a computerized task measuring cognitive flexibility.
Results
Brooding uniquely predicted SA-only history, while reflection uniquely predicted history of NSSI-only and NSSI+SA. Distraction was associated with lower odds of NSSI-only and NSSI+SA. Cognitive inflexibility was not significantly associated with self-harm history.
Conclusion
Cognitive vulnerabilities may help identify individuals who are at risk for self-harm and may differentiate between NSSI and SA.
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