Anxiety, Stress, and Trauma Symptoms in African Americans: Negative Affectivity Does Not Explain the Relationship between Microaggressions and Psychopathology

Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities

Volumn 5, Issue 5, 2018, Pages 919-927

  Williams, Monnica T ^a   Kanter, Jonathan W ^b   Ching, Terence H W ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CONNECTICUT   (United States)

^b UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON   (United States)

Author keywords

Affectivity; Ethnic identity; Microaggressions; Negative affect; Racism

Indexed keywords

ADOLESCENT; ADULT; AFFECT; AFRICAN AMERICAN; ANXIETY; CAUCASIAN; FEMALE; HUMAN; MALE; MENTAL STRESS; NEUROSIS; PSYCHOLOGY; PSYCHOTRAUMA; RACISM; STUDENT; YOUNG ADULT;

ADOLESCENT; ADULT; AFFECT; AFRICAN AMERICANS; ANXIETY; EUROPEAN CONTINENTAL ANCESTRY GROUP; FEMALE; HUMANS; MALE; NEUROTICISM; PSYCHOLOGICAL TRAUMA; RACISM; STRESS, PSYCHOLOGICAL; STUDENTS; YOUNG ADULT;

EID: 85032973688     PISSN: 21973792     EISSN: 21968837     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1007/s40615-017-0440-3     Document Type: Article

References (57)

1. Cokley K, Hall-Clark B, Hicks D. Ethnic minority-majority status and mental health: the mediating role of perceived discrimination. J Ment Health Couns. 2011;33:243–63
2. Pieterse AL, Todd NR, Neville HA, Carter RT. Perceived racism and mental health among Black American adults: a meta-analytic review. J Couns Psychol. 2012;59:1–9
3. Banks K, Kohn-Wood LP. The influence of racial identity profiles on the relationship between racial discrimination and depressive symptoms. J Black Psychol. 2007;33:331–54
4. Anglin OM, Lighty Q, Greenspoon M, Ellman LM. Racial discrimination is associated with distressing subthreshold positive psychotic symptoms among US urban ethnic minority young adults. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol. 2014;49:1545–55
5. Janssen I, Hanssen M, Bak M, Bijl RV, De Graaf R, Vollehergh W, et al. Discrimination and delusional ideation. Br J Psychiatry. 2003;H12:7J–6
6. Pierce CM. Offensive mechanisms. In: Barbour F, editor. The Black seventies. Boston: Porter Sargent; 1970. p. 265–82
7. Sue DW, Capodilupo CM, Torino GC, Bucceri JM, Holder A, Nadal KL, et al. Racial microaggressions in everyday life: implications for clinical practice. Am Psychol. 2007;62:271–86
8. Essed P. Everyday racism: reports from women of two cultures. Alameda: Hunter House Publishers; 1990
9. Chae DH, Lincoln KD, Jackson JS. Discrimination, attribution, and racial group identification: implications for psychological distress among Black Americans in the National Survey of American Life (2001–2003). Am J Orthop. 2011;81:498–506
10. Ayalon L, Gum AM. The relationships between major lifetime discrimination, everyday discrimination, and mental health in three racial and ethnic groups of older adults. Aging Ment Health. 2011;15:587–94
11. Clark TT, Salas-Wright CP, Vaughn MG, Whitfield KE. Everyday discrimination and mood and substance use disorders: a latent profile analysis with African Americans and Caribbean Blacks. Addict Behav. 2015;40:119–25
12. Landrine H, Klonoff EA, Corral I, Fernandez S, Roesch S. Conceptualizing and measuring ethnic discrimination in health research. J Behav Med. 2006;29:79–94
13. Ong AD, Burrow AL, Fuller-Rowell TE, Ja NM, Sue DW. Racial microaggressions and daily well-being among Asian Americans. J Couns Psychol. 2013;60:188–99
14. Liao KY, Weng CY, West LM. Social connectedness and intolerance of uncertainty as moderators between racial microaggressions and anxiety among Black individuals. J Couns Psychol. 2016;63:240–6
15. Williams MT, Taylor RJ, Mouzon DM, Oshin L, Himle JA, Chatters LM. Discrimination and symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder among African Americans. Am J Orthopsychiatry. 2017. 10.1037/ort0000285
16. O'Keefe VM, Wingate LR, Cole AB, Hollingsworth DW, Tucker RP. Seemingly harmless racial communications are not so harmless: racial microaggressions lead to suicidal ideation by way of depression symptoms. Suicide Life Threat Behav. 2015;45:567–76
17. Chou T, Asnaani A, Hofmann SG. Perception of racial discrimination and psychopathology across three U.S. ethnic minority groups. Cult Divers Ethn Minor Psychol. 2012;18:74–81
18. Torres L, Driscoll MW, Burrow AL. Racial microaggressions and psychological functioning among highly achieving African-Americans: a mixed-methods approach. J Soc Clin Psychol. 2010;29:1074–99
19. Wei M, T-Y K, Liao KY-H. Minority stress and college persistence attitudes among African American, Asian American, and Latino students: perception of university environment as a mediator. Cult Divers Ethn Minor Psychol. 2011;17:195–203
20. Wong G, Derthick AO, David EJR, Saw A, Okazaki S. The what, the why, and the how: a review of racial microaggressions research in psychology. Race Soc Probl. 2014;6:181–200
21. Lilienfeld SO. Microaggressions: strong claims, inadequate evidence. Perspect Psychol Sci. 2017;12:138–69
22. Rothbart MK, Ahadi SA, Evans DE. Temperament and personality: origins and outcomes. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2000;78:122–35
23. Watson D, Clark LA. Negative affectivity—the disposition to experience aversive emotional states. Psychol Bull. 1984;96:465–90
24. Shankman SA, Klein DN. The relation between depression and anxiety: an evaluation of the tripartite, approach-withdrawal and valence-arousal models. Clin Psychol Rev. 2003;23:605–37
25. Taylor J, Eastwick C, Wilson R, Lawrence C. The influence of negative oriented personality traits on the effects of wind turbine noise. Personal Individ Differ. 2013;54:338–43
26. Chang EC. Positive and negative affectivity for academic and interpersonal domains: relations to general affectivity, extraversion, and neuroticism. Personal Individ Differ. 1997;22:929–32
27. Mercer SH, Zeigler-Hill V, Wallace M, Hayes DM. Development and initial validation of the Inventory of Microaggressions Against Black Individuals. J Couns Psychol. 2011;58:457–69
28. Kodellas S, Fisher BS, Wilcox P. Situational and dispositional determinants of workplace victimization: the effects of routine activities, negative affectivity, and low self-control. Int Rev Victimology. 2015;21:321–42
29. Lahey BB. Public health significance of neuroticism. Am Psychol. 2009;64:241–56
30. Consedine NS, Magai C, Cohen CI, Gillspie M. Ethnic variation in the impact of negative affect and emotion inhibition on the health of older adults. J Gerontol Psychol Sci. 2002;57B:396–408
31. Haidt J. The unwisest idea on campus: commentary on Lilienfeld. Perspect Psychol Sci. 2017;12:176–7
32. Williams MT, Chapman LK, Wong J, Turkheimer E. The role of ethnic identity in symptoms of anxiety and depression in African Americans. Psychiatry Res. 2012;199:31–6
33. Beck AT, Epstein N, Brown G, Steer RA. An inventory for measuring clinical anxiety: psychometric properties. J Consult Clin Psychol. 1988;56:893–7
34. Chapman LK, Woodruff-Borden J. The impact of family functioning on anxiety symptoms in African American and European young adults. Personal Individ Differ. 2009;47:583–9
35. Chapman LK, Williams SR, Mast BT, Woodruff-Borden JA. Confirmatory factor analysis of the Beck anxiety inventory in African American and European American young adults. J Anxiety Disord. 2009;23:387–92
36. Williams MT, Printz D, De Lapp RCT Assessing racial trauma in African Americans with the Trauma Symptoms of Discrimination Scale. Presented at the annual convention of the Association of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, San Diego, CA. 2017
37. Torres-Harding SR, Andrade AJ, Romero Diaz CE. The racial microaggressions scale (RMAS): a new scale to measure experiences of racial microaggressions in people of color. Cult Divers Ethn Minor Psychol. 2012;18:153–64
38. Watson D, Clark LA, Tellegen A. Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: the PANAS scales. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1988;54:1063–70
39. Phinney J. The multigroup ethnic identity measure: a new scale for use with adolescents and young adults from diverse groups. J Adolesc Res. 1992;7:156–76
40. Roberts RE, Phinney JS, Masse LC, Chen YR, Roberts CR, Romero A. The structure of ethnic identity of young adults from diverse ethnocultural groups. J Early Adolesc. 1999;19:301–22
41. Williams MT, Duque G, Chapman LK, Wetterneck CT, De Lapp RCT. Ethnic identity and regional differences in mental health in a national sample of African American young adults. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. In press
42. McLean CP, Asnaani A, Litz BT, Hofmann SG. Gender differences in anxiety disorders: prevalence, course of illness, comorbidity and burden of illness. J Psychiatr Res. 2011;45:1027–35
43. Assari S, Moazen-Zadeh E, Caldwell CH, Zimmerman MA. Racial discrimination during adolescence predicts mental health deterioration in adulthood: gender differences among Blacks. Front Public Health. 2017;5:104
44. Sue DW. Microaggressions and “evidence”: empirical or experiential reality? Perspect Psychol Sci. 2017;12:170–2
45. Breslau J, Aguilar-Gaxiola S, Kendler KS, Su M, Williams D, Kessler RC. Specifying race-ethnic differences in risk for psychiatric disorder in a USA national sample. Psychol Med. 2006;36:57–68
46. McGilloway A, Hall RE, Lee T, Bhui KSA. Systematic review of personality disorder, race and ethnicity: prevalence, aetiology and treatment. BMC Psychiatry. 2010;10
47. Assari S, Lankarani MM. Stressful life events and risk of depression 25 years later: race and gender differences. Front Public Health. 2016;4:49
48. Ifatunji MA, Harnois CE. An explanation for the gender gap in perceptions of discrimination among African Americans: considering the role of gender bias in measurement. Sociol Race Ethn. 2015;2:263–88
49. Carter RT. Racism and psychological and emotional injury: recognizing and assessing race-based traumatic stress. Couns Psychol. 2007;35:13–105
50. Barnes LL, Lewis TT, Begeny CT, Yu L, Bennett DA, Wilson RS. Perceived discrimination and cognition in older African Americans. J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2012;18:856–65
51. Williams MT, Peña A, Mier-Chairez J. Assessing and treating racism-related stress and trauma among Latinos. In: Benuto LT, editor. Toolkit for counseling Spanish-speaking clients. Springer; 2017 (in press)
52. Carter RT, Mazzula S, Victoria R, Vazquez R, Hall S, Smith S, et al. Initial development of the race-based traumatic stress symptom scale: assessing the emotional impact of racism. Psychol Trauma: Theory Res Pract Policy. 2013;5:1–9
53. Rivas-Drake D, Hughes D, Way N. A preliminary analysis of associations among ethnic racial socialization, ethnic discrimination, and ethnic identity among urban sixth graders. J Res Adolesc. 2009;19:558–84
54. Assari S. Neuroticism predicts subsequent risk of major depression for Whites but not Blacks. Behav Sci. 2017;7:64
55. Woo B. Racial discrimination and mental health in the USA: testing the reverse racism hypothesis. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities In press. 10.1007/s40615-017-0421-6
56. Hudson DL, Bullard KM, Neighbors HW, Geronimus AT, Yang J, Jackson JS. Are benefits conferred with greater socioeconomic position undermined by racial discrimination among African American men? J Men's Health. 2012;9:127–36
57. Comas-Díaz L. Racial trauma recovery: a race-informed therapeutic approach to racial wounds. In: Alvarez AN, Liang CTH, Neville HA, editors. The cost of racism for people of color: contextualizing experiences of discrimination. Cultural, racial, and ethnic psychology book series. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association; 2016. p. 249–72