Associations between experiences of discrimination, anxiety, and mood symptoms in Black women: Investigating the mediating role of attentional control

Abstract

A recent study found that attentional control is a key mechanism that accounts for the association between discriminatory experiences and health outcomes in Black women. We replicate and extend this finding by testing the mediating role of attentional control in the association between discrimination and symptoms of anxiety and depression symptoms. A total of 128 Black women completed an online survey that assessed experiences of discrimination, anxiety, depression and attentional control. Three models were conducted to examine associations between experiences of discrimination and three outcomes (worry, anxious arousal, and anhedonic depression), and whether attentional control mediated these effects. Our findings revealed that more frequent discrimination predicted less attentional control and heightened anxiety symptoms. In support of our hypotheses, we found that attentional control mediated the association between discrimination and anxious arousal and anhedonic depression. Attentional control did not mediate the association between experiences of discrimination and worry, however. Our findings dovetail with previous research suggesting that experiences of discrimination tax prefrontal regions associated with attentional control and could be a pathway that leads to somatic anxiety and depression. Our findings also amplify the need to assess experiences of discrimination in therapeutic assessment and intervention with Black women.

Keywords

• Black/African American women
• Discrimination
• Attentional control
• Anxiety
• Depression