Racial Discrimination and Stress Response

Racial Discrimination and Dysregulated Stress Response: Risk/Protective Factors

The goal of this study is to learn about whether ethnic minority adolescents' racial discrimination experience is related to dysregulated biological responses to subtle racism, and how the relationship may be attenuated or exacerbated by a set of social and cognitive factors. The main questions it aims to answer are:

• to reveal the relationship between racial discrimination experiences and ethnic minority adolescents' stress response to subtle racism
• to test parental ethnic-racial socialization, children's attribution to subtle racism and their racial identity as potential risk and protective factors.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Stress Reaction; Acute
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: peer rejection task, conversation about peer rejection, and impossible puzzle task

Detailed Description

Racial discrimination experiences constitute significant risks for ethnic minority youth's physical and mental health problems. One explanation poses that chronic stress can lead to altered, dysregulated stress responses, which can make individuals susceptible to health problems. Currently, there is no experimental study that comprehensively measure ethnic minority youth's stress response to subtle racism, or investigate the contributing roles of racial discrimination experience and possible risk and protective factors.

A community sample of 9-14-year-old ethnic minority adolescents (40 Latino American, 40 Black/African American) will be recruited. The study employs an adapted peer rejection task which has been widely used with youth, and carefully designed to elicit the experience of subtle racial discrimination from White peers. Adolescents' cardiovascular activity and saliva samples will be taken at multiple time points before, during, and after the peer rejection task, tapping on response involving hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, autonomic nervous system (ANS), and inflammatory mediator (IM). Adolescents will report their racial discrimination experience, make attribution about the peer rejection experience, report emotional experience, and rate their racial identity. Adolescents will complete an impossible puzzle task to elicit cognitive stress, during which they will be asked to fit all puzzle pieces into a wooden frame with a wrong piece provided. Their cardiovascular activity, attribution, and emotional experience in response to the impossible puzzle task will be measured. Parents will complete a questionnaire to report their ethnic-racial socialization practices. Adolescents will rate on their ethnic-racial identity via a questionnaire.

The goals of this proposal are: 1) Reveal the relationship between racial discrimination experiences and ethnic minority adolescents' stress response to subtle racism as well as to cognitive stress; and 2) Test parental ethnic-racial socialization, children's attribution to subtle racism and their racial identity as potential risk and protective factors.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 178
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Kentucky
    • Bowling Green, Kentucky, United States, 42101
      • Western Kentucky University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 9-14 years old
• identified as Latino American or Black/African American
• Living in Warren county of Kentucky
• with parent consent
• parents of adolescent participants

Exclusion Criteria:

Adolescents will not participate in the peer rejection task when they report to have:

• frequent experiences of peer victimization
• frequent experiences of racial discrimination
• severe depression
• severe social anxiety disorder
• severe generalized anxiety disorder
• limited English reading competence to understand the task instruction

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Basic Science
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Experimental: stress inducing task; Adolescents will complete an adapted peer rejection task on the computer to elicit the experience of subtle racial discrimination from White peers, then discuss the peer rejection task with parents, as well as an impossible puzzle task to elicit cognitive stress.

Behavioral: peer rejection task, conversation about peer rejection, and impossible puzzle task; Peer rejection task: Adolescents will be informed that two peers will take turns to choose who they will chat with for different topics. Participants will not be chosen by virtual White peers 75% of the time. In reality, White peers are computerized avatars and whether or not adolescents are chosen by those peers is programmed with PsychoPy software. Conversation about peer rejection: parents and adolescents will discuss the peer rejection task guided with suggested question prompts. Impossible puzzle task: Adolescents will be asked to fit all puzzle pieces into a wooden frame with a wrong piece provided.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in Mean Arterial Pressure for Peer Rejection	adolescents' diastolic and systolic blood pressure will be continuously monitored.	baseline (5 minute before to right before the task), during (start to the end of the task), and post-task (right after to 45 minutes after the peer rejection task)
Change in Stress Hormones for Peer Rejection	adolescents' salivary samples will be collected, frozen, and assayed for cortisol.	five time points (right before, 5 minutes after, 15 minutes after, 30 minutes after, and 45 minutes after the peer rejection task)
Change in Inflammatory Biomarker of Interleukin 6 for Peer Rejection	adolescents' salivary samples will be collected, frozen, and assayed for inflammatory biomarker of Interleukin-6	five time points (right before, 5 minutes after, 15 minutes after, 30 minutes after, and 45 minutes after the peer rejection task)
Change in Inflammatory Biomarker of C-reactive Protein for Peer Rejection	adolescents' salivary samples will be collected, frozen, and assayed for inflammatory biomarker of C-reactive protein	adolescents' salivary samples will be collected at five time points (right before, 5 minutes after, 15 minutes after, 30 minutes after, and 45 minutes after the peer rejection task)
Attribution About the Peer Rejection for Peer Rejection	participants will complete the questionnaire, Attribution About The Peer Rejection (AATPR) to rate the likelihood of various reasons for the experience of peer rejection using a 7-point scale. The higher total score for the 4 racial reasons (possible range: 4-28) indicates the higher tendency of making racial attribution about the peer rejection.	immediately after the 5-minute peer rejection task ends
Emotional Experience for Peer Rejection	adolescents will complete the questionnaire, Emotions In The Peer Rejection (EITPR) to rate the emotional experiences in the peer rejection task using a 7-point scale. The higher total score for 5 sets of emotion terms (possible range: 5-35) indicates the higher levels of negative emotions in the peer rejection task.	immediately after the 5-minute peer rejection task ends
Change in Skin Conductance Activity for Peer Rejection	adolescents' skin conductance will be continuously monitored for the peer rejection task.	baseline (5 minutes before to right before the task), during (start to end of the task), first post-task (right after to 15 minutes after) and second post-task (15 to 45 minutes after) the peer rejection task
Change in Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia for Peer Rejection	adolescents' electrocardiogram data that can be used to extract respiratory sinus arrhythmia, heart rate variability in synchrony with respiration, will be continuously monitored for the peer rejection task.	baseline (5 minutes before to right before the task), during (start to the end of the task), first post-task (right after to 15 minutes after the task) and second post-task (15 to 45 minutes after the task)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Change in Mean Arterial Pressure for Impossible Puzzle	adolescents' systolic and diastolic blood pressure will be continuously monitored for the impossible puzzle task	baseline (5 minutes before to right before the task), during (start to end of the task), and post-task (right after to 15 minutes after the task)
Emotional Experience for Impossible Puzzle	adolescents will complete the questionnaire, Emotions In The Impossible Puzzle (EITIP) to rate the emotional experiences in the impossible puzzle task using a 7-point scale. The higher total score for 5 sets of emotion terms (possible range: 5-35) indicates the higher levels of negative emotions in the impossible puzzle task	immediately after the 5-minute impossible puzzle task ends
Attribution for Impossible Puzzle	adolescents will complete the questionnaire, Attribution About The Impossible Puzzle (AATIP) to rate the likelihood of various reasons for the experience of not being able to complete the puzzle using a 7-point scale. The higher total score for the 3 intrinsic reasons (possible range: 3-21) indicates the higher tendency of making intrinsic attribution about performance in the impossible puzzle task.	immediately after the 5-minute impossible puzzle task ends
Change in Skin Conductance for Impossible Puzzle	adolescents' skin conductance will be continuously monitored for the impossible puzzle task	baseline (5 minutes before to right before the task), during (start to end of the task), and post (right after to 15 minutes after the task)
Change in Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia for Impossible Puzzle	adolescents' electrocardiogram data that can be used to extract respiratory sinus arrhythmia, heart rate variability in synchrony with respiration, will be continuously monitored for the impossible puzzle task	baseline (5 minutes before to right before the task), during (start to end of the task), and post-task (right after to 15 minutes after the task)
Change in Mean Arterial Pressure for Conversation About Peer Rejection	adolescents' diastolic and systolic blood pressure will be continuously monitored.	baseline (2.5 minute of discussion about last night's dinner before the conversation about peer rejection), during (5 minutes about the peer rejection task)
Change in Skin Conductance Activity in Conversation About Peer Rejection	adolescents' skin conductance level will be continuously monitored before and during the conversation about peer rejection.	baseline (2.5 minutes about last night's dinner before the conversation about peer rejection), during (5 minutes discussion about peer rejection)
Change in Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia for Conversation About Peer Rejection	adolescents' electrocardiogram data that can be used to extract respiratory sinus arrhythmia, heart rate variability in synchrony with respiration, will be continuously monitored for the conversation about peer rejection	Baseline (2.5 minutes of discussion on last night's dinner before the conversation about peer rejection), during the task (5 minutes of discussion on peer rejection task)

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Western Kentucky University
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Qingfang Song, Ph.D, Western Kentucky University

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Lucas T, Wegner R, Pierce J, Lumley MA, Laurent HK, Granger DA. Perceived Discrimination, Racial Identity, and Multisystem Stress Response to Social Evaluative Threat Among African American Men and Women. Psychosom Med. 2017 Apr;79(3):293-305. doi: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000000406.
• Silk JS, Stroud LR, Siegle GJ, Dahl RE, Lee KH, Nelson EE. Peer acceptance and rejection through the eyes of youth: pupillary, eyetracking and ecological data from the Chatroom Interact task. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2012 Jan;7(1):93-105. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsr044. Epub 2011 Jul 20.
• Sladek MR, Castro SA, Doane LD. Ethnic-Racial discrimination experiences predict Latinx adolescents' physiological stress processes across college transition. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2021 Jun;128:105212. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2021.105212. Epub 2021 Apr 1.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): June 29, 2023
• Primary Completion (Actual): November 17, 2024
• Study Completion (Actual): November 17, 2024

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 29, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 17, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): April 20, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): August 17, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 12, 2026
• Last Verified: August 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: cardiovascular reactivity; hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis; inflammatory mediator; subtle racism
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Trauma and Stressor Related Disorders; Mental Disorders; Stress Disorders, Traumatic; Stress Disorders, Traumatic, Acute
• Other Study ID Numbers: U5GMACGETKJ1

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: YES
• IPD Plan Description: The research resources from the project will include the study protocol and associated data, which will be provided upon request.
• IPD Sharing Time Frame: The protocol and deidentified data will become available six months after the first publication.
• IPD Sharing Access Criteria: Data will be shared upon individual request.
• IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type: STUDY_PROTOCOL; SAP; ICF; ANALYTIC_CODE; CSR

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No