Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia and Heart Rate Reactivity Moderate the Relationship Between Racial Discrimination and Anxiety

Racial discrimination may be conceptualized as a unique, chronic stressor that impacts the lives of Black individuals with multiple associations to negative mental and physical health outcomes. High rates of racial discrimination are typically associated with increased anxiety symptomology. The present study was designed to examine if this relation may be moderated by intraindividual differences in autonomic reactivity of Black undergraduate students, as reflected by cardiac regulation. Participants completed an online questionnaire to estimate lifetime experiences of racial discrimination and current anxiety symptomology. In a subsequent laboratory visit, electrocardiogram data were collected during a task designed to mimic a real-life encounter with racial discrimination. Heart regulation responses to this challenge were measured as change from baseline estimates of heart rate and respiratory sinus arrhythmia (heart rate reactivity and ΔRSA). Multiple regression analyses showed that both heart rate reactivity and ΔRSA moderate the relationship between reported frequency of racial discrimination and anxiety symptomology, even after controlling for the effects of age, gender, and parental education. Results also demonstrated that a high baseline heart rate can account for the same relation all by itself, as it overcomes the moderating effects of autonomic regulation. These results suggest that attention to processes of physiological regulation should be central to research aimed at identifying Black emerging adults most physically and mentally affected by racial discrimination throughout development.Bachelor of Art