The Relationship Between Acculturation, Racial Discrimination, Test Anxiety, and Neuropsychological Test Performance among a Racialised Minority Sample in the UK.

Objective: It has been suggested that variables such as education, culture and acculturation, and psychosocial factors such as racism and test anxiety could be associated with test performance among racialised minorities. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the relationship between acculturation, racial discrimination, test anxiety, and neuropsychological test scores in a UK sample of racialised minorities. Method: A total of 57 racialised minority individuals residing in the UK were recruited online. Participants completed online questionnaires and a battery of neuropsychological tasks. Acculturation, test anxiety, and racial discrimination served as predictor variables, while neuropsychological test scores were the outcome variables. Regression analysis was used to examine the associations between the predictor variables and test scores. Results: Regression analysis indicated that most predictors were not significant across analyses. However, acculturation showed a significant negative association with working memory performance (Digit span backward). Racial discrimination predicted poorer executive function performance (Trail-making-test B), while test anxiety was associated with fewer errors on a processing speed task (Trail-making-test A). Conclusion: The study's findings highlight the importance of considering cultural and psychosocial variables in neuropsychological assessments with racialised minorities. Clinicians should be mindful of the relationship of these variables with test performance to ensure culturally sensitive evaluations. However, the findings are limited by the small sample size, lack of racial/ethnic diversity, and the relatively high education and young age of participants. Further research with larger and more diverse samples is needed to enhance our understanding of these associations with neuropsychology test performance