Mechanisms mediating ethnoracial discrimination and suspiciousness in Asian, Black, and Hispanic United States college students.

BACKGROUND

Despite the robust relationship between ethnoracial discrimination and positive psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) like subclinical suspiciousness in adulthood, the underlying mechanisms remain underexamined. Investigating the mechanisms previously implicated in trauma and positive PLEs - including negative-self schemas, negative-other schemas, perceived stress, dissociative experiences, and external locus of control - may inform whether ethnoracial discrimination has similar or distinct effects from other social stressors.

METHOD

We examined the indirect effects of experiences of discrimination (EOD) to suspicious PLEs and total positive PLEs through negative-self schemas, negative-other schemas, perceived stress, dissociative experiences, and external locus of control in Asian (n = 268), Black (n = 301), and Hispanic (n = 129) United States college students.

RESULTS

Among Asian participants, results indicated a significant indirect effect of EOD to suspicious PLEs and EOD to positive PLEs via perceived stress, and EOD to positive PLEs via negative-self schemas. Among Hispanic participants, results indicated a significant indirect effect of EOD to suspicious PLEs and EOD to positive PLEs via dissociative experiences. No mechanisms appeared significant in Black participants nor were any significant direct effects observed across models, despite them reporting significantly greater experiences of ethnoracial discrimination.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest some shared but potentially distinct mechanisms contribute to increased suspicious PLEs and positive PLEs in Asian, Black, and Hispanic college students, with results differing by group, compared to the mechanisms underlying trauma and positive PLEs, with implications for the treatment of PLEs in college students exposed to ethnoracial discrimination.