Differential effects of perceived discrimination on the diurnal cortisol rhythm of African Americans and Whites

doi:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2011.05.011

Psychoneuroendocrinology

Volume 37, Issue 1, January 2012, Pages 107-118

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2011.05.011 Get rights and content

Summary

The current study considered the influence of perceived discrimination on the diurnal cortisol rhythm of 50 African American older adults and a matched comparison groups of 100 Whites (M_age = 56.6; 58% female). The role of socioeconomic status (SES) as a moderator of the effects of discrimination on the diurnal decline was also considered for each group. In support of the idea that perceptions of unfair treatment take on a unique meaning for stigmatized minority groups, results suggest that perceived discrimination is associated with a flatter (less healthy) diurnal slope among Whites but a steeper (more healthy) diurnal slope among African Americans. Perceived discrimination was also found to be more strongly associated with a steepening of the diurnal slope among lower SES African Americans than higher SES African Americans.

Section snippets

Differential effects of perceived discrimination on the diurnal cortisol rhythm of African Americans and Whites

In recent years, the role of discrimination as a potential mechanism for explaining mental and physical health outcomes in racial health disparities has received increased attention. While discrimination has been consistently linked to negative mental health outcomes, results for associations between discrimination and physical health have been much less consistent (Paradies, 2006, Williams et al., 2003). Furthermore, few studies have considered the possibility of a unique association between

Data

The current study draws on data from the second wave of the National Survey of Midlife in the United States (MIDUS II) and the National Study of Daily Experiences (NSDE II) (Almeida et al., 2009a, Almeida et al., 2009b). Phone interviews and self-administered questionnaires for MIDUS II were conducted in 2004–2006. A random sub-sample of MIDUS II respondents were then recruited into the NSDE II. These individuals were asked to complete nightly telephone interviews as well as provide four

Results

Means and standard deviations for study variables are shown in Table 1 for African Americans and Whites. Independent samples t-tests were conducted to test for differences on continuous variables between groups. As expected, perceived discrimination was higher among African Americans than Whites, t(148) = 6.58, p < .001. Additionally, in line with previous research (Cohen et al., 2006), cortisol levels were lower at waking, t(148) = −2.36, p = .019, and higher at bedtime, t(148) = 4.36, p < .001, for

Discussion

To the best of our knowledge this study is the first to demonstrate an association between perceived discrimination and the diurnal cortisol rhythm, as well as the first to demonstrate that this association may be different for African Americans than for Whites. In particular, the results suggest that higher levels of perceived discrimination are associated with a flatter (less healthy) diurnal slope for Whites, but a steeper (more healthy) diurnal slope for African Americans. These findings

Role of the funding source

Support for this research was provided by the National Institute on Aging Grants RC2 AG036780-01. The MIDUS (Midlife in the United States) study data collection was supported by the National Institute on Aging Grants P01 AG020166 and R01 AG019239.

Conflicts of interest

All authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. Anthony Ong and Dr. Anthony Burrow for helpful comments on earlier versions of this analysis, and Ms. Adrienne Meltzer, who assisted with preparation and proof-reading of the manuscript.

References (69)

E.K. Adam et al.
Assessing salivary cortisol in large-scale epidemiological research
Psychoneuroendocrinology
(2009)
S. Birch et al.
Heterogeneity in the determinants of health and illness: the example of socioeconomic status and smoking
Soc. Sci. Med.
(2000)
A. DeSantis et al.
Racial/ethnic differences in cortisol diurnal rhythms in a community sample of adolescents
J. Adolesc. Health
(2007)
L.D. Doane et al.
Loneliness and cortisol: Momentary, day-to-day, and trait associations
Psychoneuroendocrinology
(2010)
D.A. Granger et al.
Medication effects on salivary cortisol: tactics and strategy to minimize impact in behavioral and developmental science
Psychoneuroendocrinology
(2009)
N. Krieger
Racial and gender discrimination: risk factors for high blood pressure?
Soc. Sci. Med.
(1990)
B. Major et al.
Antecedents and consequences of attributions to discrimination: theoretical and empirical advances
B. Major et al.
Attributions to discrimination and self-esteem: impact of group identification and situational ambiguity
J. Exp. Soc. Psychol.
(2003)
A. Steptoe et al.
Smoking, cortisol and nicotine
Int. J. Psychophysiol.
(2006)
I. Wilhelm et al.
Is the cortisol awakening rise a response to awakening?
Psychoneuroendocrinology
(2007)

E.K. Adam et al.

Day-to-day dynamics of experience-cortisol associations in a population-based sample of older adults

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

(2006)

D.M. Almeida et al.

Assessing daily stress processes in social surveys by combining stressor exposure and salivary cortisol

Biodemogr. Soc. Biol.

(2009)

D.M. Almeida et al.

Interindividual differences in intra individual variability in the cortisol awakening response: an examination of age and gender

Psychol. Aging

(2009)

E. Badrick et al.

The relationship between smoking status and cortisol secretion

J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab.

(2007)

K.H. Banks et al.

An examination of the African American experience of everyday discrimination and symptoms of psychological distress

Community Ment. Health J.

(2006)

N. Bolger et al.

Diary methods: capturing life as it is lived

Annu. Rev. Psychol.

(2003)

J. Bowlby

Disruption of affectional bonds and its effects on behavior

Canada's Ment. Health Suppl.

(1969)

G.H. Brody et al.

Perceived discrimination and the adjustment of African American youths: a five-year longitudinal analysis with contextual moderation effects

Child Dev.

(2006)

E. Brondolo et al.

Perceived racism and blood pressure: a review of the literature and conceptual and methodolgical critique

Ann. Behav. Med.

(2003)

R. Clark et al.

Racism as a stressor for African Americans: a biopsychosocial model

Am. Psychol.

(1999)

S. Cohen et al.

Socioeconomic status, race, and diurnal cortisol decline in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study

Psychosom. Med.

(2006)

J. Collins et al.

Very low birth weight in African American infants: the role of maternal exposure to interpersonal racial discrimination

Am. J. Public Health

(2004)

J. Crocker et al.

Social stigma and self-esteem: The self-protective properties of stigma

Psychol. Rev.

(1989)

J. Crocker et al.

Social stigma: the affective consequences of attributional ambiguity

J. Pers. Soc. Psychol.

(1991)

W.E. Cross

Shades of Black

(1991)

M. Fix et al.

Clear and Convincing Evidence: Measurement of Discrimination in America

(1993)

G.C. Gee

A Multilevel analysis of the relationship between institutional and individual racial discrimination and health status

Am. J. Public Health

(2002)

F.X. Gibbons et al.

Perceived discrimination and substance use in African American parents and their children: a panel study

J. Pers. Soc. Psychol.

(2004)

P. Gurin et al.

Personal and ideological aspects of internal and external control

Soc. Psychol.

(1978)

J.E. Helms

An update on Helm's White and people of color racial identity model

G.T. Henry et al.

Performance data: three comparison methods

Eval. Rev.

(1993)

R.S. Jorgensen et al.

Defensive avoidance of disapproval: the relationship of a defensive style to physical and mental health

Harv. Rev. Psychiatry

(2007)

R.C. Kessler et al.

The prevalence, distribution, and mental health correlates of perceived discrimination in the United States

J. Health Social Behav.

(1999)

N. Krieger et al.

Racial discrimination and blood pressure: the CARDIA study of young black and white adults

Am. J. Public Health

(1996)

Cited by (113)

Lifetime discrimination, habitual and daily everyday discrimination, and diurnal cortisol among older African Americans adults
2023, Psychoneuroendocrinology
Experiences of discrimination can be major life events or daily chronic hassles that occur in various social contexts (e.g., housing, education, employment) and have been found to predict adverse health outcomes, including dysregulation of the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis. Previous work on daily cortisol dynamics has generally revealed an association between discrimination and flatter cortisol slopes, particularly among racial minorities. However, most of the existing studies have focused on youth and young adults, with little work among older adults. The current study aimed to investigate the relationship between three measures of discrimination (lifetime discrimination, habitual everyday discrimination, and daily everyday discrimination) and diurnal cortisol secretion in a sample of 203 older African Americans. Study results indicated that individuals reporting higher levels of lifetime discrimination experienced morning hypocortisolism and flatter diurnal cortisol slopes. Exploratory analyses also showed that prior daily everyday discrimination was significantly associated with blunted cortisol awakening response (CAR) the next day. Our findings underline the role of discrimination in modulating daily cortisol dynamics among older African American adults and advance knowledge on how social stressors influence healthy aging.
Diurnal cortisol variation during pregnancy in Turkish origin and non-migrant women in a German birth cohort study
2022, Journal of Psychosomatic Research
Immigrants from Turkey experience health disadvantages relative to non-immigrant populations in Germany that are manifest from the earliest stages of the lifespan onwards and are perpetuated across generations. Chronic stress and perturbations of stress-responsive physiological systems, including the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis, are believed to in part mediate this relationship. Cortisol plays an important role in the association between maternal stress during pregnancy and many pregnancy-, birth- and offspring-related outcomes. We therefore examined whether maternal migrant background is associated with diurnal cortisol variation during pregnancy.
109 pregnant women (incl. n = 32 Turkish origin women) that participated in a multi-site prospective cohort study in Germany collected saliva samples across the day on two consecutive days around 24 and 32 weeks gestation. Hierarchical linear models were applied to quantify associations between migrant background and diurnal cortisol variation across pregnancy.
Women of Turkish origin exhibited a significantly lower cortisol awakening response (CAR) and a flatter diurnal cortisol slope (DCS) compared to non-migrant women after adjusting for household income. These relationships between migrant status and diurnal cortisol variation were mainly driven by 2nd generation migrants.
A potential HPA axis dysregulation of Turkish-origin pregnant women may contribute to the intergenerational transmission of health disadvantages in this group.
Advancing health equity through integrated biology and population health research: A community-based sample cortisol feasibility and exploratory study
2022, Comprehensive Psychoneuroendocrinology
Community-based research inclusive of self-assessment and objective environmental metrics can be enhanced by the collection of biomarker data in unity toward assessing the health impacts of the totality of environmental stress driven by structural racism. Cortisol dynamic range (CDR), a measure of chronic stress burden, may underpin place-based connections to health, but a gap remains in elucidating community-based CDR methodology.
To 1) assess the feasibility of cortisol collection and CDR measurement in a community-based study with home-based, participant-directed specimen collection, and 2) explore the association between CDR and other individual and environmental measures in a sample of predominantly Black participants. Methods: In this cross-sectional, observational study in predominantly Black urban neighborhoods, participants (n = 73) completed health assessments and in-home, self-collected salivary cortisol. For feasibility, CDR (peak-nadir) was compared to cortisol awakening response (CAR) slope over time. Comparisons of CDR quartile by person and place variables were explored (ANOVA).
The cohort (77% Black, 39.7% <$15 k/year income, high perceived stress) completed 98.6% of cortisol collection timepoints. CDR was calculated in all participants without interruptions to sleep-wake cycle as seen with CAR collection. Participants in the lowest quartile of CDR were the oldest (p = 0.03) with lowest reported mental health (p = 0.048) with no associations seen for CAR.
Participant-collected CDR is more feasible than cortisol measures dependent on slopes over time in a community-based, predominately Black cohort with exploratory findings supporting relevance to outcomes of interest to future work. Future community-based studies should integrate CDR with environment and psychosocial measures.
A systematic review and meta-analysis of the Everyday Discrimination Scale and biomarker outcomes
2022, Psychoneuroendocrinology
Discrimination has consistently been associated with multiple adverse health outcomes. Like other psychosocial stressors, discrimination is thought to impact health through stress-related physiologic pathways including hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activation, dysregulation of inflammation responses, and accelerated cellular aging. Given growing attention to research examining the biological pathways through which discrimination becomes embodied, this systematic review and meta-analysis synthesizes empirical evidence examining relationships between self-reported discrimination and four biomarker outcomes (i.e., cortisol, C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and telomere length) among studies that have used the Everyday Discrimination Scale. We conducted a systematic review of studies discussing self-reported, everyday, or chronic discrimination in the context of health by searching Medline / PubMed (National Library of Medicine, NCBI), PsycInfo (APA, Ebsco) and Web of Science Core Collection (Clarivate). Twenty-five articles met the criteria for meta-analysis, with several reporting on multiple outcomes. Discrimination was associated with elevated CRP levels (r = 0.11; 95% CI: 0.01, 0.20, k = 10), though not cortisol (r = 0.05; 95% CI: −0.06, 0.16, k = 9), IL-6 (r = 0.05; 95% CI: −0.32, 0.42, k = 5), or telomere length (r = 0.03; 95% CI: −0.01, 0.07, k = 6). We identify several points of consideration for future research including addressing heterogeneity in assessment of biomarker outcomes and the need for longitudinal assessments of relationships between discrimination and biomarker outcomes.
Is educational attainment associated with young adult cardiometabolic health?
2021, SSM - Population Health
Citation Excerpt :
This spans from experiences of institutional racism (e.g., residential segregation) to those of interpersonal discrimination (Williams et al., 2016). For example, the high effort coping that is required by Black men in order to navigate discrimination and achieve upward mobility can be costly to health (Fuller-Rowell, Doan, & Eccles, 2012; James, 1994). A similar phenomenon has been described among Black women, who face differential health risks both because of racial discrimination and gender subordination (Mullings, 2005).
Educational disparities in health and mortality are well-documented and evidence suggests that they may be widening. Yet, there is much unknown about when educational disparities begin to emerge and for whom. This paper investigates the association between educational attainment and cardiometabolic health in young adults with critical attention paid to differences across racial/ethnic and sex subgroups. We focus on cardiometabolic health in young adulthood as it is particularly relevant for understanding current population health trends. We used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) when participants were aged 12–19 years (Wave I) and aged 24–32 years (Wave IV). Using a series of logistic regression models, we first estimated the association between education and five markers of cardiometabolic health (high-risk blood pressure, high-risk waist circumference, diabetes/pre-diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and high-risk inflammation). We then examined the extent to which this association was explained by adolescent health and both adolescent and young adult socioeconomic status (SES) (including parental education, participant educational attainment, household income, and employment status). Finally, we investigated whether the association between educational attainment and cardiometabolic health differed by race/ethnicity and sex. We found evidence of an association between educational attainment and cardiometabolic health that persisted net of adolescent health, adolescent SES, and young adult SES. We also found some evidence of modest differences in this association by race/ethnicity and sex. Our findings suggest that even as early as young adulthood there are disparities in cardiometabolic health by educational attainment, which may lead to even larger disparities in late life health.
Short-term cortisol adaption to discrimination and Mexican-origin adolescents' mental and sleep health
2023, Development and Psychopathology

View all citing articles on Scopus

View full text

Differential effects of perceived discrimination on the diurnal cortisol rhythm of African Americans and Whites

Summary

Section snippets

Differential effects of perceived discrimination on the diurnal cortisol rhythm of African Americans and Whites

Data

Results

Discussion

Role of the funding source

Conflicts of interest

Acknowledgements

Psychoneuroendocrinology

Soc. Sci. Med.

J. Adolesc. Health

Psychoneuroendocrinology

Psychoneuroendocrinology

Soc. Sci. Med.

J. Exp. Soc. Psychol.

Int. J. Psychophysiol.

Psychoneuroendocrinology

Day-to-day dynamics of experience-cortisol associations in a population-based sample of older adults

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Assessing daily stress processes in social surveys by combining stressor exposure and salivary cortisol

Biodemogr. Soc. Biol.

Interindividual differences in intra individual variability in the cortisol awakening response: an examination of age and gender

Psychol. Aging

The relationship between smoking status and cortisol secretion

J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab.

An examination of the African American experience of everyday discrimination and symptoms of psychological distress

Community Ment. Health J.

Diary methods: capturing life as it is lived

Annu. Rev. Psychol.

Disruption of affectional bonds and its effects on behavior

Canada's Ment. Health Suppl.

Perceived discrimination and the adjustment of African American youths: a five-year longitudinal analysis with contextual moderation effects

Child Dev.

Perceived racism and blood pressure: a review of the literature and conceptual and methodolgical critique

Ann. Behav. Med.

Racism as a stressor for African Americans: a biopsychosocial model

Am. Psychol.

Socioeconomic status, race, and diurnal cortisol decline in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) Study

Psychosom. Med.

Very low birth weight in African American infants: the role of maternal exposure to interpersonal racial discrimination

Am. J. Public Health

Social stigma and self-esteem: The self-protective properties of stigma

Psychol. Rev.

Social stigma: the affective consequences of attributional ambiguity

J. Pers. Soc. Psychol.

Shades of Black

Clear and Convincing Evidence: Measurement of Discrimination in America

A Multilevel analysis of the relationship between institutional and individual racial discrimination and health status

Am. J. Public Health

Perceived discrimination and substance use in African American parents and their children: a panel study

J. Pers. Soc. Psychol.

Personal and ideological aspects of internal and external control

Soc. Psychol.

An update on Helm's White and people of color racial identity model

Performance data: three comparison methods

Eval. Rev.

Defensive avoidance of disapproval: the relationship of a defensive style to physical and mental health

Harv. Rev. Psychiatry

The prevalence, distribution, and mental health correlates of perceived discrimination in the United States

J. Health Social Behav.

Racial discrimination and blood pressure: the CARDIA study of young black and white adults

Am. J. Public Health