# A Physiological Approach to Examining the Role of Racial Coping on Mental Health Among Black Adolescents

> **NIH NIH F31** · VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY · 2024 · $46,878

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
 Racial discrimination has been identified as the primary social stressor for Black youth1 where
90% of Black youth (age 8-16) reportedly experienced at least one racial discriminatory encounter.2 As
a result of these encounters, Black adolescents experience racial stress, or race-related transactions
between individuals and their environment that are perceived as taxing or threaten well-being (e.g.,
racial microaggressions, threats of harm or injury, and witnessing harm to Black individuals).3,6 Racial
stress has been associated with an increase in depression, anxiety, and psychological distress.4 The
prevalence of racial stress among Black adolescents is alarming as it increases the likelihood of youth
engaging in risky sexual behavior and substance abuse.16To address the pervasive and ubiquitous
public health concern of the presence of racial stress in the lives of Black adolescents and their
subsequent adjustment, the overarching goal of this NRSA proposal is to utilize a multi-method
approach to (1) understand the nature of racial coping among Black adolescents, (2) identify cultural
parenting processes that predicts racial coping among Black adolescents, and (3) examine the
attenuating effects of racial coping on the association between racial discrimination and mental health
(i.e., symptoms of depression, anxiety, and stress) among Black adolescents. Present understanding of
racial coping among Black adolescents is limited due to (1) the lack of inclusion of physiological
processes in racial coping measurement, (2) the use of variable-centered approaches in investigations
of racial coping, and (3) the lack of inclusion of emotion socialization in parents’ racial coping
socialization. Anticipated findings can ultimately inform the enhancement and tailoring of current and
future racial coping and mental health interventions for Black adolescents. The current project
leverages data from an existing longitudinal study on Black adolescents’ emotion regulation processes
during middle school (grades 6-8) in Richmond, Virginia: Emotion Regulatory Flexibility among African
American Adolescents Study (ERFAA; PI: Lozada, NSF CAREER Award: 2046607). The ERFAA study
collects relevant data to test the specific aims of this proposal using the assessment of physiological
and self-reported arousal and regulation while watching a video vignette of racial discrimination and
self-reported measures of racial discrimination experiences depression, anxiety, and stress symptoms.
Utilizing a person-centered approach will advance the literature by enhancing understanding of: (1)
individual differences in racial coping and (2) how those individual differences contribute to the ways
racial discrimination is associated with Black adolescents’ mental health. Additionally, I will examine a
novel observational measure of parents’ socialization to examine how Black parents' messages about
behavioral and emotional coping with racism predict Black adolescent...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10910876
- **Project number:** 5F31MD018934-02
- **Recipient organization:** VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Rachel J Davis
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $46,878
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-08-25 → 2025-05-16

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10910876

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10910876, A Physiological Approach to Examining the Role of Racial Coping on Mental Health Among Black Adolescents (5F31MD018934-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10910876. Licensed CC0.

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