Department of Psychology, Cornell University.
Center for Integrative Developmental Science, Cornell University.
Psychol Sci. 2022 Aug;33(8):1187-1198. doi: 10.1177/09567976221077041. Epub 2022 Jun 30.
The wear and tear of adapting to chronic stressors such as racism and discrimination can have detrimental effects on mental and physical health. Here, we investigated the wider implications of everyday racism for relationship quality in an adult sample of 98 heterosexual African American couples. Participants reported on their experiences of racial discrimination and positive and negative affect for 21 consecutive evenings. Using dyadic analyses, we found that independently of age, gender, marital status, income, racial-discrimination frequency, neuroticism, and mean levels of affect, participants' relationship quality was inversely associated with their partner's negative affective reactivity to racial discrimination. Associations did not vary by gender, suggesting that the effects of affective reactivity were similar for men and women. These findings highlight the importance of a dyadic approach and call for further research examining the role of everyday racism as a key source of stress in the lives of African American couples.
适应慢性压力源（如种族主义和歧视）的磨损会对身心健康产生不利影响。在这里，我们研究了日常种族主义对 98 对成年非裔美国异性恋夫妇关系质量的更广泛影响。参与者在 21 个连续的晚上报告了他们的种族歧视经历以及积极和消极的情绪。通过对偶分析，我们发现，无论年龄、性别、婚姻状况、收入、种族歧视频率、神经质和平均情绪水平如何，参与者的关系质量与伴侣对种族歧视的负面情绪反应呈负相关。相关性不因性别而异，这表明情绪反应的影响对男性和女性是相似的。这些发现强调了对偶方法的重要性，并呼吁进一步研究，以探讨日常种族主义作为非裔美国夫妇生活中压力的主要来源的作用。
