Does Emotion Regulation Protect Black Youth When Exposed to Racist Activity Spaces and Amplify the Impact of Support?: An EMA Study

Background and purpose: Racial discrimination is consistently related to negative emotions among Black adolescents, ultimately impacting their well-being. Experiences of racism are multifaceted and influenced by various environmental factors, including neighborhood characteristics, community resources, social norms, and historical legacies of segregation. Social support is a critical protective factor against the detrimental effect of various stressors including discrimination. Yet, little is known about where in Black adolescents' ecological systems they encounter racism and support, the impact of exposure on well-being or the role of emotion regulation. To address this gap, this study partnered with Black youth and employed Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA), to understand how Black youth experience the activity spaces that they frequent in their everyday lives, how it influences their negative emotion and the role of emotion regulation in these relationships.

Method: In July of 2019, the SPIN Project’s Youth Advisory Board recruited 75 Black adolescents aged 13 to 19 from a highly segregated urban area to participate in a study. Participants completed a baseline survey, EMA surveys triggered by geofences and random prompts three times a day and an end-of-day survey for a month. Emotion regulation was assessed at baseline, perceptions of racism and social support in activity spaces were assessed three times a day for a month and negative emotion was assessed at the end of each day. In addition to examining emotion regulation as a single construct subscale were also examined separately. Multilevel models were employed to understand the relationship between daily exposure to racism and social support and end-of-day negative emotions, as well as to test the moderating effect of emotion regulation on these relationships.

Results: There was a direct relationship between daily exposure to racism and social support and negative emotion and limited support for the moderating effect of emotion regulation. Emotion regulation amplified the protective effect of social support, such that individuals with a higher level of self-awareness [B(SE)= 0.04(0.02), p<0.05] and emotional clarity [B(SE)= 0.07(0.02), p<0.001] experiencing less negative emotion when exposed to activity spaces characterized as having social support. More emotion regulation also appeared to amplify negative emotions [B(SE)= 0.10 (0.04), p<0.05] when encountering racist spaces. More specifically individuals with greater acceptance of emotion regulation techniques [B(SE)= 0.09 (0.02), p<0.001] and better access to effective strategies [B(SE)= 0.06 (0.03), p<0.05] experienced more negative emotions when they perceive higher levels of racism in activity spaces.

Conclusions and Implications: While aspects of emotion regulation appeared to amplify the protective effect of being in places with high levels of social support it also amplified the negative impact of being in places characterized as racist. These findings suggest that increasing Black adolescents' emotion regulation may be protective when the environment is supportive but may be deleterious if the environment is harmful. This highlights the need to take a multi-level intervention approach to promote well-being among Black adolescents. It is not enough and in fact maybe harmful to intervene on the individual level without also addressing contextual factors like racism.