Physiologic Responses to Racial Rejection Images Among Young Adults From African-American Backgrounds

• NCJ Number: 226021
• Journal: Journal of Youth and Adolescence Volume: 38 Issue: 2 Dated: February 2009 Pages: 164-174
• Author(s): Lisa Kiang; Terry D. Blumenthal; Erika N. Carlson; Yolanda N. Lawson; J. Clark Shell
• Date Published: February 2009
• Length: 11 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study assessed physiological reactions (eye blink responses) by 35 young-adult African-Americans (10 men and 25 women) to startling bursts of noise while viewing 16 images depicting racial rejection, racial acceptance, nonracial negative, and nonracial positive themes.

Abstract

The study found that young adults who felt more positively about their racial group were apparently less affected by racial rejection, since their magnitude of startle at the burst of noise was similar across racial-rejection and racial-acceptance conditions. This conclusion is based on research that has shown the startle reflex to be not only an index of individuals’ defensive motivational and attention systems, but also an indication of how youth may develop patterns of physical and emotional reactions to racially rejecting scenarios. Feeling positively about one’s racial identity thus appears to decrease the attention one gives to the processing of race-related rejection. For participants low in racial regard, however, the weaker reactivity found in both the racial rejection and nonracial positive image conditions provides evidence of an attention modulation due to startle; i.e., slides in these two categories apparently commanded participants’ cognitive processing resources to such an extent that the noise stimuli were not as effective in producing startle responses as was the case in the other two slide categories. The findings suggest that feeling positively about one’s racial identity protects against an intense attention to discrimination because of one’s race/ethnicity, which might lead to anxiety or anger that disrupts psychological well-being and attention to other productive pursuits. The Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire-Race was used to measure anxiety about and expectations of race-based rejection. The private regard subscale from the Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity measured racial regard. 2 tables, 1 figure, and 41 references