Vicarious Race-Based Stress

Widely publicized acts of racism put African Americans at risk for vicariously experiencing the consequences of these racially motivated acts of aggression and violence. Technological advances and increased access to media outlets create an atmosphere saturated with exposure to violence against Black people at the hands of non-Blacks. From murders of unarmed Black people at the hands of police streamed on Facebook timelines, hashtags on Twitter calling for justice after months of inaction, to turning on the evening news and seeing a picture of the latest victim, these indirect encounters with racism can seem inescapable. While the negative effects of perceived racial discrimination, an interpersonal experience of racism, are well documented, the consequences of this vicarious race-based stress are understudied. Racial discrimination has almost unanimously been described as a stressor resulting in negative mental health and interpersonal outcomes for those impacted. Given the much more pervasive nature of vicarious race-based stress when compared to racial discrimination, further investigation into its function in the lives of African Americans is imperative. Therefore, the current study aimed to develop and provide preliminary psychometric information for the first known measure of vicarious race-based stress (VSRB-ER). This novel measure was then used to explore the influence of vicarious race-based stress and racial discrimination on the mental health (i.e. depression) and interpersonal functioning (i.e. relationship quality) of African American adults. A growing body of literature suggests that racial trauma may also be a consequence of encounters with racial stressors. Thus, racial trauma was explored as a mediator for these associations. Despite the significant racial stressors and trauma African Americans encounter, they consistently demonstrate the ability to be resilient. To this point, racial identity and intimate partner support were explored for protective functions. A vicarious race-based stress specific measure of intimate partner support was also created to measure the influence of support when faced with racial stressors. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were employed to determine the reliability and validity of the novel measures. Structural equation models were estimated to explore the associations between vicarious race-based stress, racial discrimination, and mental health, and interpersonal outcomes along with the mediating influence of racial trauma. Latent moderated structural equations (LMS) were employed to determine the moderating influences of racial identity and intimate partner support. Findings demonstrated adequate reliability and validity of the measure of vicarious race-based stress (VSRB-ER). Evidence of the negative consequences of both vicarious race-based stress and perceived racial discrimination on depression was found. Racial trauma was also found to mediate these relationships. No associations between vicarious race-based stress or racial discrimination and relationship quality were found. However, racial identity and intimate partner support demonstrated positive influences on mental health and relationship outcomes. Neither racial identity nor intimate partner support moderated the associations between the racial stressors and outcomes. Finally, contrary to expectations, intimate partner support was associated with increased racial trauma symptoms as more racial discrimination was experienced. Implications of the findings for clinicians were discussed. Future directions for researchers in light of the limitations and strengths of the current study were also provided.