(SSCP1-6) SSCP Submission: When the World Says “don’t Say Race”: Serial Indirect Effects of Internalized Racism and Posttraumatic Cognitions on Everyday Discrimination and Internalizing Psychopathology

Research demonstrates significant correlations among identity-based discrimination, internalized self-hate, posttraumatic cognitions, and adverse mental health outcomes. When viewed through the lens of trauma-informed cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) frameworks that emphasize that exposure to adverse life events may condition people to develop ineffective beliefs, it can be inferred that repeated exposure to race/ethnicity-based discrimination may lead people of color (POCs) to internalize the derogatory messages and experience self-hate (i.e., internalized racism). Internalized racism may overgeneralize to posttraumatic cognitions of negative cognitions about the self (NCA-Self; e.g., “I am inadequate”) and negative cognitions about the world (NCA-World; e.g., “the world is a dangerous place”), which, in turn, confer risk for psychopathology that disproportionately burdens marginalized populations. The current study sought to test this potential serial and indirect effect of internalized racism and posttraumatic cognitions (i.e., NCA-Self and NCA-World) on the relationship between everyday discrimination and internalizing psychopathology.

A structural equation path model was estimated with robust maximum likelihood in a sample of diverse POC adults recruited from a southeastern university (n = 145; 58.6% Hispanic/Latine; 22.8% non-heterosexual; 6.9% gender expansive), who completed the Everyday Discrimination Scale, Cross Ethnic-Racial Identity Scale (CERIS) subscales of assimilation, miseducation, and self-hatred, Posttraumatic Cognitions Inventory, and validated measures of depression, anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder symptom severity. Internalized racism and internalizing psychopathology were modeled as latent variables with respective indicators of CERIS subscales and psychopathology measures. 

Internalized racism (b = .239, p = .037) significantly related with everyday discrimination and fully accounted for the relationships between everyday discrimination and both NCA-Self (β = .529, p < .001) and NCA-World (β = .406, p =.004). Internalizing psychopathology correlated with both NCA-Self (β = .281, p = .039) and NCA-World (β = .422, p = .002) above and beyond everyday discrimination (β = .278, p = .004) and internalized racism (β = -.172, p = .201), indicating a partial serial indirect effect of internalized racism and posttraumatic cognitions on the relationship between everyday discrimination and internalizing psychopathology, and a full indirect effect of posttraumatic cognitions on the relationship between internalized racism and internalizing psychopathology. This model accounted for 39% of internalizing psychopathology variance. Overall, findings support internalized racism and posttraumatic cognitions as salient mechanisms underlying the relationship between everyday discrimination and internalizing psychopathology in POCs residing in the southeastern U.S., which may be potential intervention targets for racism-related traumatic distress especially in the current political climate.