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- Title
Discrimination and Cognition in Midlife Black Women: The Roles of Social Support and Spirituality.
- Authors
Dixon, Jasmine S; Wang, Dongwei; Ready, Rebecca E
- Abstract
Objectives Black women are at high risk for discrimination and cognitive impairment in late life. It is not known if discrimination is a risk factor for cognitive decline in Black women and if so, what factors are protective against the adverse cognitive effects of discrimination. Using the biopsychosocial model of gendered racism, we determined if discrimination is associated with poorer cognition in midlife Black women and if social support and/or spirituality would protect against the deleterious effects of discrimination on cognition. Methods Participants were midlife Black women (N = 669) from the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation. Discrimination was measured by the Everyday Discrimination scale. Cognitive outcomes included episodic memory, processing speed, and working memory. Total social support, emotional support, instrumental support, and spirituality were assessed as protective factors. Results Contrary to expectations, structural equation modeling indicated that discrimination was associated with better immediate recall. For women with more emotional support, greater discrimination was associated with better immediate recall than for women with lower emotional support. Spirituality was not a significant moderator in the association between discrimination and cognition. Discussion Discrimination had unexpected positive associations with learning and attention-based cognitive skills for midlife Black women. Discrimination might enhance vigilance, which could be facilitated by higher levels of emotional support. There is an opportunity for clinical and public health interventions for cognitive health and discrimination focused on Black women to better incorporate emotional support as a coping resource.
- Subjects
AFRICAN Americans; RESEARCH funding; EMOTIONS; PSYCHOLOGICAL adaptation; LEARNING; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; RACISM; ATTENTION; SPIRITUALITY; ABILITY; DISCRIMINATION (Sociology); SOCIAL support; PUBLIC health; COGNITION; BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL model; TRAINING
- Publication
Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences & Social Sciences, 2024, Vol 79, Issue 4, p1
- ISSN
1079-5014
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/geronb/gbad201