Revi Gabriela S, Francis Lori A
Department of Biobehavioral Health, The Pennsylvania State University, 219 Biobehavioral Health Bldg, University Park, PA, 16802, USA.
J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2025 Jan 3. doi: 10.1007/s40615-024-02278-5.
Racialized stress disproportionately impacts Black individuals and confers increased risk for psychological distress and executive dysfunction. However, there is little evidence on psychological distress' association with cognitive flexibility (CF), an executive function theorized to be a neurocognitive resilience factor, as it is shown to reflect the ability to adapt thoughts/behaviors to changing environmental stimuli. As such, we aimed to examine the relation between racialized stress and psychological distress and the potential buffering effects of CF. Data were drawn from The Family Life Project and included 372 Black mothers from rural households experiencing poverty. Mothers completed a battery of questionnaires to assess sociodemographics, experiences with racialized stress (RRSE), psychological distress (CES-D), and their cognitive flexibility (WCST-64). Results evidenced a significant association between psychological distress and racialized stress, such that mothers who reported higher racialized stress reported higher psychological distress; this relation remained significant after controlling for a host of sociodemographic risk factors. CF did not emerge as a significant moderator of the relation between psychological distress and racialized stress. Findings highlight the potential deleterious effects of racialized stress on psychological distress. There may be unique facets of racialized stress that differentially impact the risk for psychological distress, and CF potentially buffers this relation. Further investigations are needed to understand the underlying mechanisms that may confer resilience to psychological distress amongst Black mothers.
种族化应激对黑人个体的影响尤为严重，会增加心理困扰和执行功能障碍的风险。然而，关于心理困扰与认知灵活性（CF）之间的关联，证据却很少。认知灵活性是一种执行功能，理论上被认为是一种神经认知弹性因素，因为它反映了根据不断变化的环境刺激调整思想/行为的能力。因此，我们旨在研究种族化应激与心理困扰之间的关系以及CF的潜在缓冲作用。数据取自家庭生活项目，包括372名来自农村贫困家庭的黑人母亲。母亲们完成了一系列问卷调查，以评估社会人口统计学特征、种族化应激经历（RRSE）、心理困扰（CES-D）以及她们的认知灵活性（WCST-64）。结果表明，心理困扰与种族化应激之间存在显著关联，即报告种族化应激程度较高的母亲，其心理困扰程度也较高；在控制了一系列社会人口统计学风险因素后，这种关系仍然显著。CF并未成为心理困扰与种族化应激之间关系的显著调节因素。研究结果凸显了种族化应激对心理困扰的潜在有害影响。种族化应激可能存在独特的方面，对心理困扰风险产生不同影响，而CF可能缓冲这种关系。需要进一步研究以了解可能使黑人母亲对心理困扰具备弹性的潜在机制。
