Citation

Richman LS, Jonassaint C. Ann. Behav. Med. 2008; 35(1): 105-110.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708, USA. lrichman@duke.edu

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s12160-007-9013-8

PMID

18347910

PMCID

PMC2763623

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The experience of race-related stressors is associated with physiological stress responses. However, much is unknown still about the complex relationship between how race-related stressors are perceived and experienced and potential moderators such as strength of racial identity. PURPOSE: This research examines the impact of a real-life stressor and strength of race identity on physiological responses to a social evaluative threat induced in the laboratory. METHODS: Salivary cortisol measures were collected throughout a stressor protocol. African-American participants were also randomized to one of two conditions designed to promote either racial identification or student identification, before the experimental task. Unexpectedly, a highly publicized real-life racial stressor, the Duke Lacrosse (LaX) scandal, occurred during the course of the data collection. This allowed for pre-post LaX comparisons to be made on cortisol levels. RESULTS: These comparisons showed that across both priming conditions, participants post-LaX had highly elevated cortisol levels that were nonresponsive to the experimental stress task, while their pre-LaX counterparts had lower cortisol levels that exhibited a normal stress response pattern. Furthermore, this effect of LaX was significantly moderated by gender, with women having lower mean cortisol levels pre-LaX but significantly greater cortisol levels than all other groups post-LaX. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that recent exposure to race-related stress can have a sustained impact on physiological stress responses for African Americans.

Language: en