1 - (SYM 120) Exploring the Role of Self-control and Impression Management Motives in Shaping the Use of Reappraisal and Suppression in Response to Discrimination

Contending with discrimination can yield a cascade of negative affective, cognitive, behavioral, and physiological outcomes. The ways in which individuals manage their emotions in response to discrimination can shape the degree to which it yields negative psychological and physiological outcomes. Emotion regulation strategies, therefore, may be a point of intervention for disrupting links between discrimination and poor health. People of color might be less likely to use putatively adaptive emotion regulation strategies such as reappraisal and experiences with discrimination might explain this pattern. People of color, for instance, are more likely to engage in suppression (e.g., Hatzenbuehler et al., 2009) and less likely to use reappraisal (Riley et al., 2020) in response to discrimination. Why might people of color be more likely to engage in putatively maladaptive strategies in response to discrimination? In the present research, we investigated two possible mechanisms that may explain the differential use of suppression and reappraisal in response to discrimination — self-control and impression management motives (i.e., regulating one’s emotions to control how one appears to others). In the current study, Black participants (N = 500) completed a survey that assessed their experiences with everyday discrimination, reappraisal and suppression use in response to the discrimination, self-reported self-control, impression management motives, and mental health outcomes. Results revealed that increased everyday discrimination experiences were related to increased suppression, lower state self-control, increased impression management motives, and worse mental health outcomes. Interestingly, heightened everyday discrimination was not significantly associated with reappraisal. Additional analyses revealed that self-control and impression management motives were significant mediators of the effect of discrimination on suppression and reappraisal. Implications for potential interventions designed to mitigate the negative outcomes of contending with discrimination will be discussed.