Stress Reaction; Acute
Conditions
Keywords
cardiovascular reactivity, hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, inflammatory mediator, subtle racism
Brief summary
The goal of this study is to learn about whether ethnic minority adolescents' racial discrimination experience is related to dysregulated biological responses to subtle racism, and how the relationship may be attenuated or exacerbated by a set of social and cognitive factors. The main questions it aims to answer are: * to reveal the relationship between racial discrimination experiences and ethnic minority adolescents' stress response to subtle racism * to test parental ethnic-racial socialization, children's attribution to subtle racism and their racial identity as potential risk and protective factors.
Detailed description
Racial discrimination experiences constitute significant risks for ethnic minority youth's physical and mental health problems. One explanation poses that chronic stress can lead to altered, dysregulated stress responses, which can make individuals susceptible to health problems. Currently, there is no experimental study that comprehensively measure ethnic minority youth's stress response to subtle racism, or investigate the contributing roles of racial discrimination experience and possible risk and protective factors. A community sample of 9-14-year-old ethnic minority adolescents (40 Latino American, 40 Black/African American) will be recruited. The study employs an adapted peer rejection task which has been widely used with youth, and carefully designed to elicit the experience of subtle racial discrimination from White peers. Adolescents' cardiovascular activity and saliva samples will be taken at multiple time points before, during, and after the peer rejection task, tapping on response involving hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, autonomic nervous system (ANS), and inflammatory mediator (IM). Adolescents will report their racial discrimination experience, make attribution about the peer rejection experience, report emotional experience, and rate their racial identity. Adolescents will complete an impossible puzzle task to elicit cognitive stress, during which they will be asked to fit all puzzle pieces into a wooden frame with a wrong piece provided. Their cardiovascular activity, attribution, and emotional experience in response to the impossible puzzle task will be measured. Parents will complete a questionnaire to report their ethnic-racial socialization practices. Adolescents will rate on their ethnic-racial identity via a questionnaire. The goals of this proposal are: 1) Reveal the relationship between racial discrimination experiences and ethnic minority adolescents' stress response to subtle racism as well as to cognitive stress; and 2) Test parental ethnic-racial socialization, children's attribution to subtle racism and their racial identity as potential risk and protective factors.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALpeer rejection task, conversation about peer rejection, and impossible puzzle task
Peer rejection task: Adolescents will be informed that two peers will take turns to choose who they will chat with for different topics. Participants will not be chosen by virtual White peers 75% of the time. In reality, White peers are computerized avatars and whether or not adolescents are chosen by those peers is programmed with PsychoPy software. Conversation about peer rejection: parents and adolescents will discuss the peer rejection task guided with suggested question prompts. Impossible puzzle task: Adolescents will be asked to fit all puzzle pieces into a wooden frame with a wrong piece provided.
Sponsors
Western Kentucky University
Study design
Allocation
NA
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
BASIC_SCIENCE
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
9 Years to 99 Years
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* 9-14 years old * identified as Latino American or Black/African American * Living in Warren county of Kentucky * with parent consent * parents of adolescent participants
Exclusion criteria
Adolescents will not participate in the peer rejection task when they report to have: * frequent experiences of peer victimization * frequent experiences of racial discrimination * severe depression * severe social anxiety disorder * severe generalized anxiety disorder * limited English reading competence to understand the task instruction
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in Mean Arterial Pressure for Peer Rejection | baseline (5 minute before to right before the task), during (start to the end of the task), and post-task (right after to 45 minutes after the peer rejection task) | adolescents' diastolic and systolic blood pressure will be continuously monitored. |
| Change in Stress Hormones for Peer Rejection | five time points (right before, 5 minutes after, 15 minutes after, 30 minutes after, and 45 minutes after the peer rejection task) | adolescents' salivary samples will be collected, frozen, and assayed for cortisol. |
| Change in Inflammatory Biomarker of Interleukin 6 for Peer Rejection | five time points (right before, 5 minutes after, 15 minutes after, 30 minutes after, and 45 minutes after the peer rejection task) | adolescents' salivary samples will be collected, frozen, and assayed for inflammatory biomarker of Interleukin-6 |
| Change in Inflammatory Biomarker of C-reactive Protein for Peer Rejection | adolescents' salivary samples will be collected at five time points (right before, 5 minutes after, 15 minutes after, 30 minutes after, and 45 minutes after the peer rejection task) | adolescents' salivary samples will be collected, frozen, and assayed for inflammatory biomarker of C-reactive protein |
| Attribution About the Peer Rejection for Peer Rejection | immediately after the 5-minute peer rejection task ends | participants will complete the questionnaire, Attribution About The Peer Rejection (AATPR) to rate the likelihood of various reasons for the experience of peer rejection using a 7-point scale. The higher total score for the 4 racial reasons (possible range: 4-28) indicates the higher tendency of making racial attribution about the peer rejection. |
| Emotional Experience for Peer Rejection | immediately after the 5-minute peer rejection task ends | adolescents will complete the questionnaire, Emotions In The Peer Rejection (EITPR) to rate the emotional experiences in the peer rejection task using a 7-point scale. The higher total score for 5 sets of emotion terms (possible range: 5-35) indicates the higher levels of negative emotions in the peer rejection task. |
| Change in Skin Conductance Activity for Peer Rejection | baseline (5 minutes before to right before the task), during (start to end of the task), first post-task (right after to 15 minutes after) and second post-task (15 to 45 minutes after) the peer rejection task | adolescents' skin conductance will be continuously monitored for the peer rejection task. |
| Change in Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia for Peer Rejection | baseline (5 minutes before to right before the task), during (start to the end of the task), first post-task (right after to 15 minutes after the task) and second post-task (15 to 45 minutes after the task) | adolescents' electrocardiogram data that can be used to extract respiratory sinus arrhythmia, heart rate variability in synchrony with respiration, will be continuously monitored for the peer rejection task. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Change in Mean Arterial Pressure for Impossible Puzzle | baseline (5 minutes before to right before the task), during (start to end of the task), and post-task (right after to 15 minutes after the task) | adolescents' systolic and diastolic blood pressure will be continuously monitored for the impossible puzzle task |
| Emotional Experience for Impossible Puzzle | immediately after the 5-minute impossible puzzle task ends | adolescents will complete the questionnaire, Emotions In The Impossible Puzzle (EITIP) to rate the emotional experiences in the impossible puzzle task using a 7-point scale. The higher total score for 5 sets of emotion terms (possible range: 5-35) indicates the higher levels of negative emotions in the impossible puzzle task |
| Attribution for Impossible Puzzle | immediately after the 5-minute impossible puzzle task ends | adolescents will complete the questionnaire, Attribution About The Impossible Puzzle (AATIP) to rate the likelihood of various reasons for the experience of not being able to complete the puzzle using a 7-point scale. The higher total score for the 3 intrinsic reasons (possible range: 3-21) indicates the higher tendency of making intrinsic attribution about performance in the impossible puzzle task. |
| Change in Skin Conductance for Impossible Puzzle | baseline (5 minutes before to right before the task), during (start to end of the task), and post (right after to 15 minutes after the task) | adolescents' skin conductance will be continuously monitored for the impossible puzzle task |
| Change in Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia for Impossible Puzzle | baseline (5 minutes before to right before the task), during (start to end of the task), and post-task (right after to 15 minutes after the task) | adolescents' electrocardiogram data that can be used to extract respiratory sinus arrhythmia, heart rate variability in synchrony with respiration, will be continuously monitored for the impossible puzzle task |
| Change in Mean Arterial Pressure for Conversation About Peer Rejection | baseline (2.5 minute of discussion about last night's dinner before the conversation about peer rejection), during (5 minutes about the peer rejection task) | adolescents' diastolic and systolic blood pressure will be continuously monitored. |
| Change in Skin Conductance Activity in Conversation About Peer Rejection | baseline (2.5 minutes about last night's dinner before the conversation about peer rejection), during (5 minutes discussion about peer rejection) | adolescents' skin conductance level will be continuously monitored before and during the conversation about peer rejection. |
| Change in Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia for Conversation About Peer Rejection | Baseline (2.5 minutes of discussion on last night's dinner before the conversation about peer rejection), during the task (5 minutes of discussion on peer rejection task) | adolescents' electrocardiogram data that can be used to extract respiratory sinus arrhythmia, heart rate variability in synchrony with respiration, will be continuously monitored for the conversation about peer rejection |
Countries
United States
Contacts
PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATORQingfang Song, Ph.D
Western Kentucky University
Baseline characteristics
| Characteristic | — |
|---|---|
| Age, Continuous Adolescents | 12.28 years STANDARD_DEVIATION 1.59 |
| Age, Continuous Parents | 39.79 years STANDARD_DEVIATION 6.82 |
| Body Mass Index (BMI) Adolescents | 21.50 kg/m^2 STANDARD_DEVIATION 5.87 |
| Ethnicity (NIH/OMB) Adolescents Hispanic or Latino | 41 Participants |
| Ethnicity (NIH/OMB) Adolescents Not Hispanic or Latino | 48 Participants |
| Ethnicity (NIH/OMB) Adolescents Unknown or Not Reported | 0 Participants |
| Ethnicity (NIH/OMB) Parents Hispanic or Latino | 41 Participants |
| Ethnicity (NIH/OMB) Parents Not Hispanic or Latino | 48 Participants |
| Ethnicity (NIH/OMB) Parents Unknown or Not Reported | 0 Participants |
| Region of Enrollment United States | 178 participants |
| Sex: Female, Male Adolescents Female | 48 Participants |
| Sex: Female, Male Adolescents Male | 41 Participants |
| Sex: Female, Male Parents Female | 82 Participants |
| Sex: Female, Male Parents Male | 7 Participants |
Adverse events
| Event type | EG000 affected / at risk |
|---|---|
| deaths Total, all-cause mortality | 0 / 178 |
| other Total, other adverse events | 0 / 178 |
| serious Total, serious adverse events | 0 / 178 |
Outcome results
None listed