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Affective reactivity to daily racial discrimination as a prospective predictor of depressive symptoms in African American graduate and postgraduate students

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 September 2018

Anthony D. Ong*
Affiliation:
Cornell University
Anthony L. Burrow
Affiliation:
Cornell University
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Anthony D. Ong, Department of Human Development, G77 Martha Van Rensselaer Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853-4401; Email: anthony.ong@cornell.edu.

Abstract

This study examined whether individual differences in affective reactivity, defined as changes in positive or negative affect in response to daily racial discrimination, predicted subsequent depressive symptoms. Participants were African American graduate and postgraduate students (N = 174; M age = 30 years) recruited for a measurement-burst study. Data on depressive symptoms were gathered at two assessment points 1 year apart. Affective reactivity data was obtained from participants via a 14-day diary study of daily racial discrimination and affect. Participants who experienced pronounced increases in negative affect on days when racial discrimination occurred had elevated depressive symptoms 1 year later. Heightened positive affect reactivity was also associated with more depressive symptoms at follow-up. The results suggest that affective reactivity (either greater increases in negative affect or greater decreases in positive affect in the context of racial discrimination) may be an underlying psychological mechanism that confers vulnerability to future depressive symptoms.

Type
Special Issue Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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Footnotes

This document has benefited from helpful comments from Karl Pillemer and Gary Evans.

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