Black adolescents' anticipatory stress responses to multilevel racism: The role of racial identity.

Black adolescents face the stressful experience of racism in their everyday lives, which has negative implications for their health and well-being. In the current study, we explored experiences of individual, institutional, and cultural racism in relation to anticipatory racism-related stress responses (e.g., prolonged negative thinking, arousal in expectation of future racism) among Black adolescents (N = 442). We also examined whether three dimensions of racial identity, centrality, private regard, and public regard, moderate those relationships. We found that more experiences of racism at each level were related to greater anticipatory racism-related stress responses, measured as more cognitive activation of racial stressors, appraisal of coping strategies, and anticipation of future racism. We also found that some relationships between experiences of racism and anticipatory stress varied by regard. The positive relation between individual racism and perseverative cognition was stronger for those with low public regard. Similarly, the positive association between cultural racism and psychological anticipation was stronger for those with low public regard. The positive association between institutional racism and physiological anticipation of future racism was stronger for those with higher private regard. These findings contribute to the growing literature on the pervasiveness of racism in the lives of Black youth and the utility of racial identity to reduce harm from racism. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Black Girl Blues: The Roles of Racial Socialization, Gendered Racial Socialization, and Racial Identity on Depressive Symptoms among Black Girls.

Racial socialization is an important predictor of wellbeing among Black youth. Scholars have theorized that Black girls could benefit from gendered racial socialization or messages about being Black girls. However, this has not been examined empirically. The current study investigates the role of general and gendered racial socialization and racial identity attitudes on depressive symptoms among 287 Black girls between the ages of 13-17 (Mage = 15.4) in the U.S. Path analysis results demonstrated that general and gendered racial socialization about pride were directly associated with positive feelings about being Black which were negatively associated with depressive symptoms. Oppressive messages about Black women were related to negative feelings about being Black and more depressive symptoms. The implications of general and gendered racial socialization on the psychological wellbeing of Black girls are discussed.