Perceived racism and cardiovascular reactivity and recovery to personally relevant stress.

Abstract

This study evaluated cardiovascular responses (CVR) to an active speech task with blatantly discriminatory (BRC) versus neutral (NRC) stimuli and an anger recall task in a sample of Black men (N = 73; age 18 to 47). Diastolic blood pressure scores were higher for NRC versus BRC stimuli during anger recall (p = .05). Moreover, persons in the NRC group who perceived high levels of racism (vs. no racism or BRC group) during active speech showed larger increases in blood pressure across postspeech rest, anger recall, and subsequent rest (p = .03). The notable elevation in CVR in response to an ambiguous event extends current models of racism suggesting that subtle racism is a psychosocial stressor that erodes health through chronically elevated CVR.

The autonomic phenotype of rumination

“…Personally-relevant recall tasks were found to be associated with more pronounced cardiovascular activation than other emotional tasks (Merritt et al, 2006), such as the viewing of film clips of higher emotional valence (Waldstein et al, 2000). Moreover, tasks evoking negative affect have been associated with the highest cardiovascular effects (Brosschot and Thayer, 2003).…”

Lifecourse Social Conditions and Racial and Ethnic Patterns of Cognitive Aging

“…Immediate physiologic responses to perceived racism have been demonstrated in laboratory settings (Clark et al 1999;Harrell et al 2003;Bennett et al 2004;Merritt et al 2006). Although the epidemiologic research on this topic is in its nascence, numerous studies now show that blacks who report experiencing higher levels of race-based discrimination also have higher levels of a range of indicators of psychological distress.…”

Applied Developmental Science, Social Justice, and Socio-Political Well-Being

“…Hughes et al, 2006;Juvonen, Nishina, & Graham, 2006;Martinez, DeGarmo, & Eddy, 2004;Pahl & Way, 2006;Phinney & Ong, 2007;Rosenbloom & Way, 2004;Seaton, Caldwell, Sellers, & Jackson, 2010;Spencer, 2006;Supple, Ghazarian, Frabutt, Plunkett, & Sands, 2006;Umañ a-Taylor & Guimond, 2010). A small body of empirical studies is also emerging on the cumulative effects of societal racism on older adult mental and physical health (Henry & Sears, 2009;Merritt, Bennett, Williams, Edwards, & Sollers, 2006;Moody-Ayers, Stewart, Covinsky, & Inouye, 2005;Utsey, Payne, Jackson, & Jones, 2002). In so doing, developmental researchers have moved away from a limited conception of race as phenotypic expressions of group genotypical characteristics to an understanding of race=ethnicity as social constructions that are continuously changing in dynamic interaction with social contexts (Dar-Nimrod & Heine, 2011;Duster, 2006;Fisher et al, 2002).…”