Everyday Discrimination, Police-Related Discrimination, and Racial Identity: Predictive Roles in Internalizing Symptoms, Hazardous Alcohol Use, and Life Satisfaction

Objectives: Psychological effects of racism and discrimination may reflect both the common nature of differential treatment itself, distinctive ways that various types of discrimination impact adjustment outcomes, and ways in which individuals integrate these experiences within their ethnoracial group memberships. Everyday racial discrimination and police-related discrimination tend to be examined separately, and it remains unclear how individuals organize their racial identity to navigate these experiences with intergroup contact. Method: African American (N = 213, 61.5% women) and Asian American (N = 571, 49.6% women) university students were sampled to assess their exposure to everyday racial and police/law enforcement-related discrimination, elements of their racial identity, and psychological adjustment. Results: African Americans reported more experiences with both forms of discrimination, whereas exposure to both forms of discrimination was related more consistently to poorer psychological adjustment among Asian Americans. Multivariate regression analyses showed that different dimensions of racial identity accounted for different patterns of internalizing symptoms, hazardous alcohol use, and life satisfaction. Notably, higher levels of private regard were associated with better psychological adjustment among African Americans and Asian Americans. Among Asian Americans, higher levels of centrality were linked to greater internalizing symptoms whereas private regard reduced the correlations between everyday racial discrimination exposure and internalizing symptoms. Conclusions: Findings have implications for examining group-specific discrimination experiences through refined and comprehensive measurement, as well as the systematic consideration of identity dimensions as risks and promotive factors for psychological adjustment.