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01-10-2015 | Original Article

The Buffering Effects of Emotion Regulation in the Relationship Between Experiences of Racism and Anxiety in a Black American Sample

Authors: Jessica R. Graham, Amber Calloway, Lizabeth Roemer

Published in: Cognitive Therapy and Research | Issue 5/2015

Abstract

The current study explores the potential moderating effect of difficulties in emotion regulation on the relationship between racist experiences and anxiety symptomology in a Black American sample. One hundred forty participants completed a questionnaire packet containing measures of anxious arousal and stress (general anxiety) symptoms, difficulties in emotion regulation, and experiences of racist events. Results indicated that difficulties in emotion regulation moderated the relationship between past week frequency of racist events and anxious arousal as well as past year frequency of racist events and anxious arousal. Specifically, these relationships were significantly positive at high levels of difficulties in emotion regulation and not significant at low levels of difficulties in emotion regulation. Emotion regulation skills may help Black Americans cope with anxious arousal related to racist experiences. The clinical implications of these findings and future research directions are discussed.

Analyses were conducted excluding both the age (two individuals) and income (one individual) outliers and arrived at the same results. Given this, we continued with the current sample.

Given the larger proportion of women in the current sample, study analyses were conducted excluding the male identifying participants to avoid potential confounds and the results did not change. Therefore, we continued with the current sample.

In the analysis of difficulties in emotion regulation moderating the relationship between SRE-W and depressive symptoms, the final step significantly improved the model ΔR ² = .04, F(1,126) = 6.35, p = .01, indicating that difficulties in emotion regulation significantly moderated the relationship between past week frequency of racist experiences and depressive symptoms in this sample. Results indicated that the simple slope was not significant at one standard deviation below the mean (p = .10), not significant at the mean (p = .53), and approached significance at one standard deviation above the mean (p = .069). In the analysis of difficulties in emotion regulation moderating the relationship between SRE-Y and depressive symptoms, the final step significantly improved the model ΔR ² = .03, F(1,127) = 6.07, p = .02, indicating that difficulties in emotion regulation significantly moderated the relationship between past year frequency of racist experiences and depressive symptoms in this sample. Results indicated that the simple slope was not significant at one standard deviation below the mean (p = .83), approached significance at the mean (p = .05), and was significant at one standard deviation above the mean (p = .0005).

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Title: The Buffering Effects of Emotion Regulation in the Relationship Between Experiences of Racism and Anxiety in a Black American Sample
Authors: Jessica R. Graham
Amber Calloway
Lizabeth Roemer
Publication date: 01-10-2015
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Cognitive Therapy and Research / Issue 5/2015
Print ISSN: 0147-5916
Electronic ISSN: 1573-2819
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-015-9682-8

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The Buffering Effects of Emotion Regulation in the Relationship Between Experiences of Racism and Anxiety in a Black American Sample

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