Perceived ethnic discrimination in relation to daily moods and negative social interactions

Ethnic discrimination experienced in an interpersonal context has been identified as a stressor contributing to racial disparities in health. Exposure to racism may influence the way people view their ongoing experiences, making it more likely that individuals will appraise new situations as threatening and harmful, adding to their overall stress burden. A multiethnic sample of 113 adults completed a diary page every 30 min for one day. The diary inquired about moods and perceptions of social interactions. When controlling for personality characteristics, mixed models regression analyses indicated that baseline measures of ethnic discrimination (assessed with the Perceived Ethnic Discrimination Scale-Community Version) were positively associated with daily levels of anger and the intensity of participants' rating of routine social interactions as harassing, exclusionary, and unfair. These findings have implications for models of the contribution of psychosocial factors to racial disparities in health.