Racial Discrimination and Stress Response

NCT05820659 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: U5GMACGETKJ1
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 144
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The goal of this study is to learn about whether ethnic minority adolescents' racial discrimination experience is related to dysregulated biological responses to subtle racism, and how the relationship may be attenuated or exacerbated by a set of social and cognitive factors. The main questions it aims to answer are:

• to reveal the relationship between racial discrimination experiences and ethnic minority adolescents' stress response to subtle racism
• to test parental ethnic-racial socialization, children's attribution to subtle racism and their racial identity as potential risk and protective factors.

Conditions

Stress Reaction; Acute

Keywords

cardiovascular reactivity; hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis; inflammatory mediator; subtle racism

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (8)

• change in blood pressure for peer rejection

  participants' diastolic and systolic blood pressure will be continuously monitored.

  participants' blood pressure will be continuously monitored 5 minute before, during, and 45 minutes after the peer rejection task.

• change in stress hormones for peer rejection

  participants' salivary samples will be collected, frozen, and assayed for cortisol.

  participants' salivary samples will be collected at five time points (right before, 5 minutes after, 15 minutes after, 30 minutes after, and 45 minutes after the peer rejection task)

• change in inflammatory biomarker of Interleukin 6 for peer rejection

  participants' salivary samples will be collected, frozen, and assayed for inflammatory biomarker of Interleukin-6

  participants' salivary samples will be collected at five time points (right before, 5 minutes after, 15 minutes after, 30 minutes after, and 45 minutes after the peer rejection task)

• change in inflammatory biomarker of C-reactive protein for peer rejection

  participants' salivary samples will be collected, frozen, and assayed for inflammatory biomarker of C-reactive protein

  participants' salivary samples will be collected at five time points (right before, 5 minutes after, 15 minutes after, 30 minutes after, and 45 minutes after the peer rejection task)

• attribution about the peer rejection for peer rejection

  participants will complete the questionnaire, Attribution About The Peer Rejection (AATPR) to rate the likelihood of various reasons for the experience of peer rejection using a 7-point scale. The higher total score for the 4 racial reasons (possible range: 4-28) indicates the higher tendency of making racial attribution about the peer rejection.

  right after the peer rejection task

• emotional experience for peer rejection

  participants will complete the questionnaire, Emotions In The Peer Rejection (EITPR) to rate the emotional experiences in the peer rejection task using a 7-point scale. The higher total score for 5 sets of emotion terms (possible range: 5-35) indicates the higher levels of negative emotions in the peer rejection task.

  right after the peer rejection task

• change in skin conductance activity for peer rejection

  participants' skin conductance will be continuously monitored for the peer rejection task.

  participants' skin conductance will be continuously monitored 5 minutes before, during, and 45 minutes after the peer rejection task

• change in respiratory sinus arrhythmia for peer rejection

  participants' electrocardiogram data that can be used to extract respiratory sinus arrhythmia, heart rate variability in synchrony with respiration, will be continuously monitored for the peer rejection task.

  participants' electrocardiogram data will be continuously monitored 5 minutes before, during, and 45 minutes after the peer rejection task

Secondary Outcomes (5)

• change in cardiovascular activity for impossible puzzle

  participants' systolic and diastolic blood pressure will be continuously monitored 5 minutes before, during, and 15 minutes after the impossible puzzle task

• attribution for impossible puzzle

  right after the impossible puzzle task

• emotional experience for impossible puzzle

  right after the impossible puzzle task

• change in skin conductance for impossible puzzle

  participants' skin conductance will be continuously monitored 6 minutes before, during, and 15 minutes after the impossible puzzle task

• change in respiratory sinus arrhythmia for impossible puzzle

  participants' electrocardiogram data will be continuously monitored 6 minutes before, during, and 15 minutes after the impossible puzzle task

Study Arms (1)

stress inducing task

EXPERIMENTAL

Adolescents will complete an adapted peer rejection task on the computer to elicit the experience of subtle racial discrimination from White peers, as well as an impossible puzzle task to elicit cognitive stress.

Behavioral: peer rejection task and impossible puzzle task

Interventions

peer rejection task and impossible puzzle task BEHAVIORAL

Peer rejection task: Adolescents will be informed that two peers will take turns to choose who they will chat with for different topics. Participants will not be chosen by virtual White peers 75% of the time. In reality, White peers are computerized avatars and whether or not adolescents are chosen by those peers is programmed with PsychoPy software. Impossible puzzle task: Adolescents will be asked to fit all puzzle pieces into a wooden frame with a wrong piece provided.

stress inducing task

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 9 Years - 69 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• years old
• identified as Latino American or Black/African American
• Living in Warren county of Kentucky
• Parents of eligible adolescents

You may not qualify if:

• Adolescents will not participate in the peer rejection task when they report to have:
• frequent experiences of peer victimization
• frequent experiences of racial discrimination
• severe depression
• severe social anxiety disorder
• severe generalized anxiety disorder

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Western Kentucky University: lead

Study Sites (1)

Western Kentucky University

Bowling Green, Kentucky, 42101, United States

Location

Related Publications (3)

• Lucas T, Wegner R, Pierce J, Lumley MA, Laurent HK, Granger DA. Perceived Discrimination, Racial Identity, and Multisystem Stress Response to Social Evaluative Threat Among African American Men and Women. Psychosom Med. 2017 Apr;79(3):293-305. doi: 10.1097/PSY.0000000000000406.

  PMID: 27806018 BACKGROUND

• Silk JS, Stroud LR, Siegle GJ, Dahl RE, Lee KH, Nelson EE. Peer acceptance and rejection through the eyes of youth: pupillary, eyetracking and ecological data from the Chatroom Interact task. Soc Cogn Affect Neurosci. 2012 Jan;7(1):93-105. doi: 10.1093/scan/nsr044. Epub 2011 Jul 20.

  PMID: 21775386 BACKGROUND

• Sladek MR, Castro SA, Doane LD. Ethnic-Racial discrimination experiences predict Latinx adolescents' physiological stress processes across college transition. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2021 Jun;128:105212. doi: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2021.105212. Epub 2021 Apr 1.

  PMID: 33933893 BACKGROUND

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Stress Disorders, Traumatic, Acute

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Stress Disorders, Traumatic; Trauma and Stressor Related Disorders; Mental Disorders

Study Officials

• Qingfang Song, Ph.D

  Western Kentucky University

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NA
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: BASIC SCIENCE
• Intervention Model: SINGLE GROUP
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: March 29, 2023
• First Posted: April 20, 2023
• Study Start: June 29, 2023
• Primary Completion: November 17, 2024
• Study Completion: November 17, 2024
• Last Updated: May 16, 2025

Record last verified: 2024-07

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will share
• Shared Documents: STUDY PROTOCOL, SAP, ICF, CSR, ANALYTIC CODE
• Time Frame: The protocol and deidentified data will become available six months after the first publication.
• Access Criteria: Data will be shared upon individual request.

Locations

US (1)