Associations Between Stress Exposure and Emotional Health: The Moderating Role of Discrimination

The Weathering Hypothesis states BIPOC face more stressors, by which over a lifetime they are subjected to the negative consequences of stress (e.g., poorer emotional health). Using ecological momentary assessments, we examined whether subtle discrimination moderated the within-person stressor slope on positive and negative affect. We predicted emotional wellbeing would be worse at stressor moments, and those with greater discrimination experience would be more impacted by stressors. Participants were 334 diverse adults (25-65 years, Mage = 47, 63% Female) from Bronx, New York. Positive affect decreased and negative affect increased significantly at stressor moments (p<.0001). Unexpectedly, subtle discrimination was not a significant moderator for the within-person stressor slope on positive affect and negative affect. Unlike the predictions of the Weathering Hypothesis, these results show that prior discrimination experiences may not exacerbate responses to stressors and entail additional risk in daily life.

“No, Where are You Really From?”

Being perceived as a foreigner regardless of one’s generational status, citizenship, or self-identification is called foreigner objectification. This is a form of identity denial and is linked to psychological distress. To test how foreigner objectification could be measured in Europe, we assessed whether the Foreigner Objectification Scale demonstrated reliability and validity with German adolescents. The sample included 806 9th graders from 17 high schools. The results showed that the scale demonstrates good reliability, scalar measurement invariance across gender and citizenship status, and partial scalar measurement invariance across family heritage, generational status, and cultural self-identification. Adolescents who scored higher on the scale also reported greater school behavioral disengagement, lower life satisfaction, and stronger ethnic identity. Our findings suggest that the scale is psychometrically sound and is linked in theoretically consistent ways to adjustment and ethnic identity. We conclude that this scale offers another way to capture subtle discrimination experiences that add to a more comprehensive understanding of discrimination and the related implications in Europe.

Subtle discrimination: do stereotypes among teachers trigger bias in their expectations and widen ethnic achievement gaps?

Ethnic and racial disparities in educational outcomes, such as test scores, are a core issue of educational research. While the role of student and family factors in the formation of such disparities is well established, existing studies fail to draw a similarly clear picture of how teachers contribute to ethnic and racial achievement gaps. In contrast to previous studies, which focussed on the consequences of rather blatant forms of discrimination, such as in teachers’ grading practices, this study investigates rather subtle processes that might result in discrimination of ethnic and racial minority students. In particular, I address stereotypes among teachers and analyse if they induce bias in their achievement expectations for ethnic minority school beginners. Additionally, I analyse if such bias results in a self-fulfilling prophecy and contributes to ethnic achievement gaps at the end of first grade. Multilevel regressions applied to a sample of 1007 children and 64 teachers in German primary schools reveal that different teachers internalize distinct stereotypes regarding ethnic achievement gaps and the achievement-related attributes of ethnic minority students. I also find that teachers with more negative stereotypes expect lower mathematics and reading achievements for ethnic minority students at the beginning of first grade. However, although I replicate the finding that inaccurate teacher expectations result in a self-fulfilling prophecy, I find no statistically significant effects of teacher stereotypes on ethnic differences in the development of students’ reading and mathematical skills throughout first grade.

Perpetuated HIV Microaggressions: A Novel Scale to Measure Subtle Discrimination Against People Living With HIV

HIV discrimination has served as a barrier to addressing the HIV epidemic and providing effective HIV treatment and care. Measuring HIV discrimination, particularly covert HIV discrimination, has proven to be complex. Adapted from a previous scale, we developed a perpetuated HIV micro-aggressions scale to assess covert forms of discriminatory beliefs among HIV-negative/unknown HIV status individuals. Factor analysis resulted in three subscales, explaining 73.58% of the scale's variance. The new scale demonstrated both convergent validity (HIV prejudice, HIV stereotypes) and discriminant validity (alcohol use, depressive symptomology). Perpetuated HIV microaggressions were significantly associated with HIV conspiracy beliefs, HIV prejudice, and HIV stereotypes. This new scale can serve as an important tool in evaluating perpetuated HIV microaggressions among HIV-negative individuals.

Discrimination and Exclusion on Grounds of Sexual and Gender Identity: Are LGBT People’s Voices Heard at the Workplace?

The review explores key issues associated with discrimination and hostility faced by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people at work and organizational responses to it. Starting from a description of the main challenges facing LGBT workers’ identity management, the review examines manifestations of negative attitudes towards gender and sexual minority groups, highlighting processes of subtle discrimination and exclusion. It presents and critiques dominant organizational responses to LGBT stigmatization, highlighting the need for holistic, intersectional approaches, and pointing out issues requiring further research.

Does Discrimination Attenuate Age-Benefits in Emotional Health?

Perceived discrimination has been found to negatively impact emotional health (e.g., depression, psychological distress). Few studies, however, have examined this association across adulthood. Strength and Vulnerability Integration Theory (SAVI) proposes that there may be age-benefits in emotion regulation, however these may be reduced when faced with stressors. We examined whether two forms of stress related to discrimination (i.e., subtle and major) moderated expected age-benefits in emotional outcomes. We predicted that individuals who experienced more discrimination would display worse emotional outcomes, and that this effect would be stronger with older age. Participants were 334 diverse adults (25-65 years, Mage = 47, 63% Female) from Bronx, New York. They reported major and subtle discrimination experiences, depressive symptoms, positive affect (PA), and negative affect (NA). Subtle discrimination was associated with greater NA and depressive symptoms and lower PA (ps <.0001), but the associations with depressive symptoms and PA did not vary by age. Age, however, moderated the relationship between subtle discrimination and NA (b = .022, t (22) = 2.04, p<.05). Specifically, the slope between subtle discrimination and NA was stronger with older age. Greater major discrimination was associated with greater NA and depressive symptoms (p<.05), but these effects were age invariant. These results demonstrate that subtle and major discrimination are associated with poorer emotional health across individuals. Partially consistent with SAVI, stressful experiences like subtle discrimination may serve as a boundary condition for age-benefits in emotional outcomes.

Subtle and Overt Behaviors Toward Ethnic Minority Leaders and the Moderating Role of Competence

This study extends research on stereotypes and leadership to consider the subtle and overt behavioral responses to leaders from multiple ethnic backgrounds. Specifically, the study focuses on overt and subtle discrimination toward African American, Asian American, Middle Eastern American, and White male leaders. Results from an experiment measuring authentic reactions to leaders reveal that Asian American leaders were treated more negatively in comparison to White and Middle Eastern American leaders. Furthermore, individuating information about the leader’s competence marginally improved performance expectations of Middle Eastern American leaders compared with White and Asian leaders. However, African American leaders were treated less positively when information about competence was provided compared with when it was not. The findings suggest that the unique stereotypes of each ethnic group can affect the utility of providing individuating information about competence.

Equal Outcomes, but Different Treatment – Subtle Discrimination in Email Responses From a Correspondence Test in Switzerland

Correspondence tests on discrimination usually report only whether an applicant was invited for a job interview or not. Yet, data from a field experiment in Switzerland demonstrate that candidates with the same outcome are not necessarily treated equally. The paper complements correspondence test results with information on the time elapsed until candidates were contacted, as well as qualitative differences in invitation or rejection emails.

Dental microwear texture reflects dietary tendencies in extant Lepidosauria despite their limited use of oral food processing

Lepidosauria show a large diversity in dietary adaptations, both among extant and extinct tetrapods. Unlike mammals, Lepidosauria do not engage in sophisticated mastication of their food and most species have continuous tooth replacement, further reducing the wear of individual teeth. However, dietary tendency estimation of extinct lepidosaurs usually rely on tooth shape and body size, which allows only for broad distinction between faunivores and herbivores. Microscopic wear features on teeth have long been successfully applied to reconstruct the diet of mammals and allow for subtle discrimination of feeding strategies and food abrasiveness. Here, we present, to our knowledge, the first detailed analysis of dental microwear texture on extant lepidosaurs using a combination of 46 surface texture parameters to establish a framework for dietary tendency estimation of fossil reptilian taxa. We measured dental surface textures of 77 specimens, belonging to herbivorous, algaevorous, frugivorous, carnivorous, ovivorous, insectivorous, molluscivorous, as well as omnivorous species. Carnivores show low density and shallow depth of furrows, whereas frugivores are characterized by the highest density of furrows. Molluscivores show the deepest wear features and highest roughness, herbivores have lower surface roughness and shallower furrows compared to insectivores and omnivores, which overlap in all parameters. Our study shows that despite short food–tooth interaction, dental surface texture parameters enable discrimination of several feeding strategies in lepidosaurs. This result opens new research avenues to assess diet in a broad variety of extant and extinct non-mammalian taxa including dinosaurs and early synapsids.