Vigilance and Well-Being in Daily Life: An Examination of Race Differences

The anticipation of discrimination, referred to as vigilance, may be an important driver of racial health inequities in cardiovascular disease and mortality. The current study examined how vigilance is experienced in daily life and its implications for daily cardiovascular health and emotional well-being. Participants included 80 Black and 89 White adults ages 33 to 91, from the Detroit tri-county metropolitan area, who completed ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) via mobile devices regarding experiences of vigilance and emotional well-being every 3 hs, and wore a heart monitor for 4 consecutive days. Data were collected from 2018 to 2020. Multilevel models revealed that Black individuals reported more frequent experiences of vigilance than White individuals, and that vigilance was associated with poorer emotional well-being (higher negative affect; lower positive affect) and higher heart rate in the 3-h periods in which respondents reported vigilance. Race-stratified models demonstrated that vigilance was associated with greater negative affect among Black and White individuals, and lower positive affect among the White individuals only. Vigilance was associated with higher heart rate variability for Black individuals only, indicating greater physiological coping. This adaptation among Black individuals may arise from more frequent experiences of vigilance in daily life and may serve to buffer physiological and emotional effects of daily vigilance. This study demonstrates how vigilance may "get under the skin", among Black and White individuals, which could pose effects on cardiovascular functioning over the long term.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12552-026-09510-3.