Black Americans build skills to cope with discrimination early, Duke study finds
Young adult Black Americans may develop coping mechanisms to handle perceived discrimination, which may cushion the psychological effects of such experiences, a study by Duke University researchers found.
Published June 24, the report suggests that Black Americans develop “mental resilience” because they face discrimination more frequently, while their white male counterparts build fewer coping mechanisms and are therefore more affected by discrimination-induced stress.
The findings are based on researchers’ analysis of data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics Transitioning to Adulthood Supplement, a study by the University of Michigan that surveyed 3,894 Black and white young adults aged 18 to 28 regarding their experiences with discrimination.
The survey asked participants about how often they perceived mistreatment of various kinds or poor service in their daily lives.
In their study, the Duke researchers sought to answer questions about whether a link existed between discrimination and mental health, and, if it did, how it varied by race and gender and what it could be attributed to.
Increasingly, scholars are trying to figure out ways to examine how discrimination impacts people, said Jen’nan Read, professor and chair of sociology at Duke and one of the report’s co-authors. This study fills a gap in that area of scholarship.
While past studies examining the negative impacts of discrimination focused on cross-generational or older adult populations, the Duke researchers’ study looks at young adults, an oft-overlooked demographic, and also considers race and gender to assess the influence of perceived discrimination on mental health.
The study in the Social Science & Medicine journal found that perceived discrimination had negative associations for all race and gender groups surveyed. But white men experienced greater psychological distress, even though young Black adults reported being treated as dishonest or receiving poorer service at two to three times the rate as white men.
“When we think about the Black men and women in this sample, the reason why that association is a little less pronounced for them is because they’ve been exposed to so much discrimination over the life course, so far, by such an early age that they’ve already had to develop coping mechanisms,” said Imari Smith, a recent graduate of Duke’s joint doctoral program in sociology and public policy and co-author of the study.
This means that discrimination-related stress may potentially be newer to white men compared to Black men and women who may have been exposed to it earlier. This is key, the researchers said, because responses to stress can have physiological effects that are detrimental to health.
But, when people experience stress that may not be new to them, the mental health impact may be less consequential. By the time they are adults, Black Americans may have developed the skills to cope with perceived bias, strategies lacking in their white counterparts.
“You don’t get coping skills for things you don’t experience,” Read said. “You have to experience things and then learn how to cope with them.”
Although the researchers said they did not measure coping mechanisms, based on other studies, social support is one way people cope with discriminatory experiences. That is, having people who have been through similar experiences and who can assist in working through the emotions associated with experiencing discrimination.
A second coping mechanism is mastery, when people feel they have control over their lives and can continue moving forward despite experiencing discrimination, which is where resilience comes in.
Stressful situations do affect Black people, “and they experience more of them over the life course,” she added. “It’s just that in this young adult sample, we think we’re picking up on the fact that they also started building coping mechanisms that sort of buffer the effects. That doesn’t reduce the effects over time, but it just buffers them in terms of their mental wellbeing.”
By focusing on psychological distress in the study, the researchers were better able to capture the more immediate effects of perceived discrimination on health, which might also be observed in older adults in the case of the onset of physically noticeable diseases such as hypertension, Smith said.
Diane Beckman, a doctoral student in sociology at the University of Massachusetts Boston and a clinical research coordinator said she wasn’t surprised by the Duke researchers’ finding that Black people may develop a resilience to discrimination given their “deep” exposure to it. The study “proved the obvious” based on her experience as a social worker.
Beckman, who studies the sociology of race, religion and politics, said when looking at the study, it is key to distinguish between discrimination and racism.
“This research is just looking at perceived discrimination, and against Blacks and whites, right? But I think it’s super important to note for anyone who’s not a race scholar … or a member of a minority racial group, for anyone else, discrimination is not the same thing as racism,” she said. “They’re two different words because they’re two different things.”
She acknowledged that by examining a younger cohort, the study contributed meaningfully to the area of research, particularly because “younger folks have more exposure to discrimination,” she said. Compared to older adults, who are more “set in their life,” younger people engage in more social interactions in school, dating and work.
Read said the findings from the study were “concerning” because of the cumulative nature of health outcomes.
“The take home is we need to be more alert and aware that, among young adults experiencing discrimination, these could have long-term, lasting impacts, she said, “because we hear again a lot about mental health and mental wellbeing, and what we’re trying to say is linking these two things together has serious implications for our population’s health and well-being.”
