Psychometric Validation and Health Correlates of the Discrimination Reactivity Questionnaire

Discrimination stress has been linked with adverse mental and physical health, though individual variability in the associated health consequences exists. Established discrimination measures typically focus on the frequency of discriminatory events. However, the current study validates a measure to assess the reactivity component of discrimination stress by developing and validating the Discrimination Reactivity Questionnaire (DRQ) in 2,083 students across four samples. Ten items and three factors were retained from an exploratory factor analysis of the DRQ, while confirmatory factor analysis of the subsequent samples revealed that items of the DRQ loaded well on each factor. Further, the DRQ predicted depressive, ΔR² = 0.06, ΔF(1, 424) = 29.09, p < .001, and physical health symptoms, ΔR² = 0.03, ΔF(1, 421) = 12.12, p < .001, over and above frequency of discrimination alone, suggesting the DRQ is a valid, useful tool to assess discrimination reactivity and statistically predict physical and depressive symptoms.