Background: Neighborhood characteristics refer to adverse and protective factors that can impact its residents in negative and beneficial ways, respectively. Although adverse neighborhood characteristics are largely a product of racist institutional practices such as redlining and housing discrimination, few studies have investigated neighborhood characteristics in Black Americans in relation to race-related stress. Method: The sample consisted of 226 Black Americans (mean age= 35.78) recruited from Prolific. Measures were: Index of Race-Related Stress (IRRS) and neighborhood characteristics (%Black Residents, Neighborhood Stability, Unemployment, Poverty); calculated from zip codes using the American Community Survey. Results: Those in neighborhoods with greater stability over the last 3 years endorsed lower total rs(224)=-.331, cultural rs(224)=-.296, and institutional race-related stress rs(224)=-.326. Those in neighborhoods with more Black individuals endorsed lower levels of total rs(224)=-.167, cultural rs(224) = -.159, and institutional race-related stress rs(224)=-.216. Discussion: These findings demonstrate the potential protective impact that neighborhoods with more Black and residentially stable residents have on race-related stress for Black Americans and subsequently, the importance of considering community-level factors when understanding Black Americans’ experiences of race-related stress.

Adolescence is a formative period of increased life stress. For youth of color, stressors are amplified due to racial discrimination. Family communication may greatly influence the physiological stress response in childhood development. This study examined how interpersonal and institutional discrimination impact the physiological stress response and how supportive family communication may influence the stress response in adolescents from various ethnic/racial groups. A sample of 379 ethnically diverse adolescents participated in this study and completed self-report questionnaires. Cortisol samples were collected in conjunction with the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST). Three way moderation analyses were conducted to explore the moderating effects of family communication and race/ethnicity on the relationship between racial discrimination on the HPA axis through the comparison of cortisol indicators. Findings showed that Asian youth reported significantly higher total average cortisol levels than their Black, Latinx, and Other identified peers. Results also indicated that youth who reported more interpersonal, but not institutional discrimination, experienced more cortisol reactivity. Further, supportive family communication enhanced the impact of interpersonal discrimination on cortisol reactivity for Black youth only. Findings indicate the ongoing importance to examine the physiological effects of racial discrimination and the role of supportive family communication in youth of color.

Background: Racism plays a deleterious role in Black Americans’ mental health, yet little is known about mechanisms of this effect. One hypothesized yet untested mechanism through which racism may lead to negative mental health is increased attention bias to threat. Method: To address this literature gap, 227 Black adults were recruited online for an experimental study. Participants were randomly assigned to 1(of2) stress conditions: experimental, where they reflected on a racism experience (n=105) or control, where they reflected on a non-racism stressor (n=122). Attention bias to threat was assessed using a dot-probe task, which compares reaction time to threat (i.e., angry) vs. neutral faces. This index was calculated for all, Black, and White faces with greater values indicating greater attention bias. Results: Although there was no effect of racism exposure on general or Black-specific attention bias, there was a significant effect of racism on attention bias toward White angry faces such that those in the racism condition demonstrated lower bias than those in the control stress condition (t=-2.06, p=.04). Discussion: These unexpected results suggest that exposure to racism may lead to an avoidant attentional bias away from White threatening faces.