Capturing the cardiac effects of racial discrimination: Do the effects "keep going"?

Racial discrimination negatively impacts cardiac functioning, but few studies examine the more distal cardiac effects of racial discrimination experiences. The present study examined the momentary and prolonged impact of lab-based intergroup and intragroup racial discrimination on heart rate variabi...

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Published inInternational journal of psychophysiology Vol. 97; no. 2; pp. 163 - 170
Main Authors Hoggard, Lori S, Hill, LaBarron K, Gray, DeLeon L, Sellers, Robert M
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Netherlands 01.08.2015
Subjects
Adolescent
African Americans
Cognition - physiology
Cross-Cultural Comparison
Electrocardiography
European Continental Ancestry Group
Female
Heart Rate - physiology
Humans
Racism - psychology
Regression Analysis
Time Factors
Young Adult
Heart rate
African Americans
Racial discrimination
Ecologically valid approaches
Heart rate variability
Perseverative cognition
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Summary:Racial discrimination negatively impacts cardiac functioning, but few studies examine the more distal cardiac effects of racial discrimination experiences. The present study examined the momentary and prolonged impact of lab-based intergroup and intragroup racial discrimination on heart rate variability (HRV) and heart rate (HR) in a sample (N = 42) of African American (AA) women across two days. On day one, the women were exposed to simulated racial discrimination from either a European American (EA) or AA confederate in the lab. On day two, the women returned to the lab for additional physiological recording and debriefing. Women insulted by the EA confederate exhibited lower HRV on day one and marginally lower HRV on day two. These women also exhibited marginally higher HR on day two. The HRV and HR effects on day two were not mediated by differences in perseveration about the stressor. The findings indicate that racial discrimination - particularly intergroup racial discrimination - may have both momentary and prolonged effects on cardiac activity in AAs.
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The present address for Lori S. Hoggard is now: at Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
ISSN:0167-8760
1872-7697
DOI:10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2015.04.015