Rumination Moderates the Association Between Resting High-Frequency Heart Rate Variability and Perceived Ethnic Discrimination

Williams, DeWayne P.; Pandya, Kinjal D.; Hill, LaBarron K.; Kemp, Andrew H.; Way, Baldwin M.; Thayer, Julian F.; Koenig, Julian (2019). Rumination Moderates the Association Between Resting High-Frequency Heart Rate Variability and Perceived Ethnic Discrimination. Journal of psychophysiology, 33(1), pp. 13-21. Hogrefe & Huber 10.1027/0269-8803/a000201

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Ethnic discrimination (ED) is both an unfortunate and uncontrollable phenomenon that uniquely impacts African Americans (AAs) and other individuals of ethnic minority status. Perceived ethnic discrimination (PED), defined as the degree to which an individual consciously perceives a negative event as discriminatory and threatening, largely determines the impact that ED can have on target individuals. However, research has not yet considered how individual differences in both emotion regulation abilities, as indexed by resting high-frequency heart rate variability (HF-HRV), and rumination, a maladaptive emotion regulation strategy, may predict PED in AAs. The following investigation examined this relationship in a sample of 101 college-aged students (45 AAs and 56 Caucasian Americans). Resting HF-HRV was assessed via electrocardiogram during a 5-minute-resting period. Rumination was assessed using the ruminative responses scale and everyday PED was assessed using the perceived ethnic discrimination questionnaire. Results showed a significant negative relationship between resting HF-HRV and PED in AAs only. Rumination significantly moderated this relationship, such that lower HF-HRV was related to higher PED only in AAs who reported moderate to higher, β = 0.417 (0.125), p < .01, levels of trait rumination. These results suggest that greater HF-HRV and lesser ruminative tendencies are key factors in reducing PED and therefore possibly, negative consequences associated with ED.

Item Type:	Journal Article (Original Article)
Division/Institute:	04 Faculty of Medicine > University Psychiatric Services > University Hospital of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy 04 Faculty of Medicine > University Psychiatric Services > University Hospital of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy > Research Division
UniBE Contributor:	Koenig, Julian
Subjects:	600 Technology > 610 Medicine & health
ISSN:	0269-8803
Publisher:	Hogrefe & Huber
Language:	English
Submitter:	Chantal Michel
Date Deposited:	02 Dec 2019 16:29
Last Modified:	05 Dec 2022 15:32
Publisher DOI:	10.1027/0269-8803/a000201
URI:	https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/135649