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. Public Policy Relevance Statement Racism is pervasive in the lives of Black youth, and results in negative mental and physical health. This study suggests that racism across multiple levels (individual, institutional, cultural) is differentially important for the racism-related stress of Black adolescents. We find that adolescents who have positive feelings about being Black and believe others view Black people positively may experience less stress in anticipation of future instances of racism.