Experiences of racial discrimination undermine personal and relational well-being by amplifying stress for Black Americans. Given rapid shifts in technology and social media, individuals are increasingly exposed to others' experiences of racial discrimination in a virtual format. Thus, even when individuals may not report experiencing discrimination they may still expect it to occur. Our project will conduct interviews with individuals in romantic relationships to understand racism-based vigilance as a relational stressor as well as its consequences for personal and relational well-being.
Racial discrimination is not simply something that people experience. Instead, people may also anticipate that they will be discriminated against or witness another person experiencing discrimination. Importantly, romantic relationships may be a key source of general or racism-specific support for Black Americans. Our project will examine how experiences of racial discrimination, racism-related vigilance, and vicarious racism-related trauma may be differentially associated with personal and relational among Black individuals in romantic relationships.
People experience multiple types of race-related stress, but most research has focused on interpersonal experiences of discrimination for individuals rather than examining multiple dimensions of race-related stress among couples. Our project uses multiple methods (e.g. quantitative, qualitative, observational) to examine how multiple dimensions of race-related stress impact couple relationships and individual wellbeing.