Poster #11 - Associations among Racial Discrimination, Social Support, and Maternal Emotion Dysregulation

• In Event: Poster Session 12

Abstract

Maternal emotion dysregulation is associated with parenting behaviors and child socioemotional outcomes (e.g., Ostlund et al., 2019; Morelen et al., 2016). Thus, it is important to understand contextual factors, such as racial discrimination (Mekawi et al., 2020), that are associated with maternal emotion dysregulation, as they may present possible intervention targets for improving maternal and child health outcomes.
Maternal emotion regulation can be conceptualized using multiple methods, including self-report and physiology. Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), or variability in the inter-beat interval of the heart, reflects parasympathetic regulation of stress (Porges, 2007). Although research has found positive associations between race-related stress and self-reported emotion dysregulation (e.g., Mekawi et al., 2020; Roach et al., 2022), no studies have examined how racial discrimination is related to RSA in mothers. Evidence suggests that in communities of color, the experience of discrimination is biologically embedded and can impact psychophysiology (e.g., Harrell et al., 2003). Additionally, having emotional support may have a buffering effect to mitigate the negative impact of racial discrimination (Ajrouch et al., 2010). The present study examined if mothers’ perceived social support may moderate associations between perceived racial discrimination and (1) self-reported emotion dysregulation, and (2) resting RSA.
Data for this project are from a larger, ongoing longitudinal study of intergenerational transmission of emotion dysregulation. Measures were collected 18-months postpartum. Table 1 contains self-reported race/ethnicity of mothers (N=82). Mothers completed the Brief Perceived Ethnic Discrimination Questionnaire (Brondolo et al., 2005), the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (Zimet et al., 1988), and the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (Gratz & Roemer, 2004). During a laboratory visit, parents’ RSA was collected while the mother-child dyad watched a 3-minute video to elicit a relaxed, resting state.
Results showed that racial discrimination was positively associated with higher emotion dysregulation scores (B=3.98, p=.04), while social support was associated with lower emotion dysregulation scores (B=-3.07, p <.01). Social support did not moderate associations between racial discrimination and self-reported emotion dysregulation. However, social support did moderate associations between racial discrimination and maternal resting RSA (B=-0.28, p=.03). Further probing of the interaction (Figure 1) revealed that racial discrimination was only associated with resting RSA when mothers self-reported low social support (B=1.12, p=.02), while there were no significant associations between racial discrimination and resting RSA at moderate (B=0.10, p>.05) and high levels (B=-0.49, p>.05) of social support.
Findings highlight the protective role that social support may have on both mothers’ self-reported emotion dysregulation and physiological regulation in the context of racial discrimination. Of note, positive associations between racial discrimination and higher resting RSA at lower levels of social support were unexpected as higher resting RSA is often considered a marker of better regulation. However, results are consistent with prior work in African American pregnant women (Christian et al., 2020), highlighting that psychophysiological processes studied in white samples may not be generalizable to marginalized populations (Gatze-Kopp, 2015). Findings may reflect the development of a compensatory mechanism – increased parasympathetic nervous system regulation - in the context of racial discrimination in an unsupportive environment.

Authors

• Anna M Zhou, University of Utah
  Presenting Author

• Uma P. Dorn, University of Utah; New York University

• Parisa R. Kaliush, University of Utah

• Nicolette Cristina Molina, University of Utah

• Katie Wyant-Stein, University of Utah

• Sheila E Crowell, University of Utah

• Liz Conradt, Duke University