title: Vigilance in the discrimination-stress model for Black Americans.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Daily events of discrimination are important factors in understanding health disparities. Vigilant coping, or protecting against anticipated discrimination by monitoring and modifying behaviour, is an understudied mechanism that may link discrimination and health outcomes. This study investigates how responding to everyday discrimination with anticipatory vigilance relates to the health of Black men and women.
  
  
  METHODS
  Black adults (N = 221) from the Detroit area completed measures of discrimination, adverse life events, vigilance coping, stress, depressive symptoms and self-reported health.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Vigilance coping strategies mediated the relationship between discrimination and stress. Multi-group path analysis revealed that stress in turn was associated with increased depression in men and women. Self-reported health consequences of stress differed between men and women.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Vigilance coping mediates the link between discrimination and stress, and stress has consequences for health outcomes resulting from discrimination. More research is needed to understand other underlying contributors to discrimination, stress and poor health outcomes as well as to create potential interventions to ameliorate health outcomes in the face of discrimination-related stress.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , Rutgers University , Piscataway , NJ , USA.
authors.forename: Mary S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Himmelstein
authors.forename: Danielle M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Young
authors.forename: Diana T
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Sanchez
authors.forename: James S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Jackson
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003863:Depression / Q000208:ethnology; D005260:Female; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008297:Male; D008824:Michigan; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D011287:Prejudice / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology; D057566:Self Report; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000208:ethnology* / Q000523:psychology
keywords: coping strategies; discrimination; health disparities; self-rated health; stress; vigilance