Mental Health Outcomes of Discrimination among College Students on a Predominately White Campus: A Prospective Study

Authors

Joseph C. Jochman, University of Nebraska–LincolnFollow
Jacob E. Cheadle, University of Texas at AustinFollow
Bridget J. Goosby, University of Texas at Austin
Cara Tomaso, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Chelsea Kozikowski, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
Timothy Nelson, University of Nebraska–LincolnFollow

Document Type

Article

Date of this Version

2019

Citation

The Author(s) 2019

Comments

Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World Volume 5: 1– 16

DOI: 10.1177/2378023119842728 srd.sagepub.com

Abstract

Racial discrimination is a social stressor harmful to mental health. In this paper, we explore the links between mental health and interpersonal discrimination-related social events, exposure to vicarious racism via social media, and rumination on racial injustices using a daily diary design. We utilize data from a racially diverse sample of 149 college students with 1,489 unique time observations at a large, predominantly white university. Results show that interpersonal discrimination-related social events predicted greater self-reported anger, anxiety, depressive symptoms, and loneliness both daily and on average over time. Vicarious racism from day to day was associated with increased anxiety symptoms. In contrast, rumination was not associated with negative mental health outcomes. These findings document an increased day-to-day mental health burden for minority students arising from frustrating and alienating social encounters experienced individually or learned about vicariously.