Department of Sociology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712;
Department of Sociology, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2020 Dec 8;117(49):31053-31062. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1922025117. Epub 2020 Nov 23.
Racism-related stress is thought to contribute to widespread race/ethnic health inequities via negative emotion and allostatic stress process up-regulation. Although prior studies document race-related stress and health correlations, due to methodological and technical limitations, they have been unable to directly test the stress-reactivity hypothesis in situ. Guided by theories of constructed emotion and allostasis, we developed a protocol using wearable sensors and daily surveys that allowed us to operationalize and time-couple self-reported racism-related experiences, negative emotions, and an independent biosignal of emotional arousal. We used data from 100 diverse young adults at a predominantly White college campus to assess racism-related stress reactivity using electrodermal activity (EDA), a biosignal of sympathetic nervous system activity. We find that racism-related experiences predict both increased negative emotion risk and heightened EDA, consistent with the proposed allostatic model of health and disease. Specific patterns varied across race/ethnic groups. For example, discrimination and rumination were associated with negative emotion for African American students, but only interpersonal discrimination predicted increased arousal via EDA. The pattern of results was more general for Latinx students, for whom interpersonal discrimination, vicarious racism exposure, and rumination significantly modulated arousal. As with Latinx students, African students were particularly responsive to vicarious racism while 1.5 generation Black students were generally not responsive to racism-related experiences. Overall, these findings provide support for allostasis-based theories of mental and physical health via a naturalistic assessment of the emotional and sympathetic nervous system responding to real-life social experiences.
种族主义相关压力被认为通过负性情绪和全身应激过程的上调导致广泛的种族/民族健康不平等。尽管先前的研究记录了种族相关压力与健康之间的相关性，但由于方法学和技术限制，它们无法直接在现场测试应激反应假说。受构建情绪和全身适应理论的指导，我们开发了一种使用可穿戴传感器和日常调查的方案，使我们能够对与种族相关的自我报告经历、负性情绪和情绪唤醒的独立生物信号进行操作和时间耦合。我们使用来自一个以白人为主的大学校园的 100 名不同种族的年轻人的数据，使用皮肤电活动（EDA）评估与种族相关的应激反应，这是交感神经系统活动的生物信号。我们发现，与种族相关的经历既预测了负性情绪风险的增加，也预测了 EDA 的升高，这与健康和疾病的全身适应模型一致。具体模式因种族/民族群体而异。例如，歧视和反刍与非裔美国学生的负性情绪有关，但只有人际歧视通过 EDA 预测了唤醒的增加。对于拉丁裔学生来说，结果模式更为普遍，人际歧视、间接种族歧视暴露和反刍显著调节了唤醒。与拉丁裔学生一样，非洲裔学生对间接种族主义特别敏感，而 1.5 代黑人学生通常对种族相关经历没有反应。总的来说，这些发现通过对现实生活中的社会经历的情绪和交感神经系统的自然评估，为基于全身适应的心理和身体健康理论提供了支持。
