An examination of the role of social constraint in the relationship of perceived racism to depression and anxiety

Self-reported racism has been linked reliably to poor mental health, negative mood, and depressive symptoms in every ethnic/racial group in which it has been studied. Rumination is a common response to stressors, such as experiences of race-related maltreatment, and has been linked reliably to the etiology of clinically diagnosed depression and to the development of symptoms of depression in studies utilizing samples from both clinical and non-clinical populations. Social constraint (i.e., the real or perceived alienation and lack of support experienced in response to disclosure of a stressful or traumatic event) has been correlated with depressive and anxious symptoms as well. This study tested the hypothesis that the relationship of perceived racism to depression is partially mediated by rumination about race-related stressors and by social constraint, (i.e., the perception that the targeted individual will not receive social support from others concerning episodes of maltreatment). Participants included 247 self-identified Black and Latino(a) adults (178 women; 131 Black; M age = 29.6 years) who were recruited from colleges and community centers in the New York City area. After completing questionnaires assessing demographics, depressive and anxious symptoms, and total lifetime perceived racism (PEDQ-CV). The participants then wrote stories which described three different personal experiences of episodes of racism classified under the following categories: explicit racism (i.e., race/ethnicity bias overtly stated), implicit (i.e., race/ethnicity bias implied but not specifically stated) racism, and ambiguous racism (i.e., race/ethnicity bias was a possible source of motivation). Following each story, participants completed modified versions of the Behavioral Anger Response Questionnaire and the Social Constraint Scale, which were designed to assess the degree of rumination and social constraint in response to the episode they recounted. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that PEDQ-CV scores were significantly and positively associated with depressive symptoms (partial R² = 0.11, p < 0.001). Using the SAS-macro developed by Preacher and Hayes (2008), bootstrapping analyses were employed to test mediation. Only rumination was a significant mediator. Repeated measures analyses using the PROC MIXED (SAS Institute) procedure revealed that variations in social constraint from individuals assumed to be of a different racial background from the participant predicted variations in rumination. When social constraint is high, individuals ruminate about ambiguous episodes of racism as much as they do about explicit and implicit episodes of race-related maltreatment. This research improves upon existing biopsychosocial models of racism and health. In addition, these findings have significant implications for guiding the development of interventions to reduce race-related maltreatment and its health consequences.