Media Exposure of Police Violence: Assessing Psychological Risk and Resilience in Black Americans

Police violence has been identified as a major public health concern by the American Public Health Association (2018) due to the deleterious physical and psychological impact police violence has on marginalized communities. Similarly, exposure to violence in media is associated with increased risk for psychopathology (Holman et. al., 2014; Silver et. al., 2013). With an estimated 1.4 billion plus individuals exposed to media of the death of George Floyd by police alone, understanding how media exposure and exposure to police violence intersect is essential in understanding whether viewers of this media face pronounced risk. Black populations in particular may be at increased risk given their shared identity with the victims of viral videos of police violence and their pre-existing increased vulnerability to poor physical, behavioral, and psychological outcomes following exposure to police violence (Staggers-Hakim, 2016; Jones, 2014; Oh et. al., 2017; Geller et. al, 2014; Sewell, 2017; Alang et. al.,2017).The current study sought to understand the phenomenological experience of viewing police violence toward Black Americans as a Black America, as well as the associated risks and protective factors that characterize the experience. Using an exploratory, sequential, mixed method design, the study was broken into two phases. In Phase 1, 12 Black Americans were interviewed using a hermeneutical phenomenological approach to develop a composite description of the phenomenon studied; namely, watching members of your own racial group being victimized by police. In Phase 2, emergent themes in Phase 1 were reconstructed as psychological outcome and protective factor variables measured in a survey administered to 89 Black American adults. Results found that media exposure, age, and engagement in active coping behaviors were associated with endorsement of depression and anxiety symptoms, perceived stress, and hopelessness, wherein media exposure emerged as a risk factor and active coping emerged as a protective factor. Implications for clinical intervention and prevention efforts are discussed