Reactions to Distress (RED) In Louisville, KY Study

Race-related stress is a public health problem and a known predictor of severe psychological symptoms in Black Americans. Although there is a strong link between race-related stress and adverse mental health outcomes, limited research has examined the transdiagnostic mechanisms that explain how experiencing race-related stress contributes to psychological symptoms or what interventions might effectively target these mechanisms. The scientific premise of this study is that race-related stress may contribute to disproportionate allocation of attention toward threatening stimuli (i.e., attention bias to threat), a known predictor of stress-related symptoms. This attentional bias may be modifiable through a brief, culturally-informed mindfulness intervention.

Racial identity is hypothesized to be a key individual difference factor that influences the extent to which race-related stress affects attention bias to threat, as well as the degree to which a mindfulness intervention can mitigate these biases. The study will recruit 200 Black adults from the community who have experienced race-related stress to participate in a laboratory study targeting three specific aims:

To use eye-tracking methods to examine whether race-related stress (compared to non-race-related stress) leads to greater attention bias to threat;

To test whether a brief mindfulness meditation (compared to a neutral audio condition) reduces attention bias to threat;

To investigate whether racial identity moderates (a) the effect of the race-related stress manipulation on attention bias to threat and (b) the efficacy of the mindfulness intervention in reducing attention bias to threat.

This project includes a strong undergraduate training component designed to promote student engagement in psychological research and provide hands-on experience and comprehensive mentorship to support future research careers.

This research addresses critical gaps in the literature by investigating how race-related stress influences threat-related attentional processes, evaluating whether these processes can be altered by mindfulness-based strategies, and identifying for whom such interventions are most effective. The study utilizes a novel manipulation of race-related stress, an objective and theoretically grounded psychological mechanism (attention bias), precise assessment tools (eye-tracking), and an experimentally manipulated intervention (mindfulness), thereby addressing key limitations in existing research. Findings are expected to advance understanding of the psychological effects of racism and inform strategies to reduce mental health disparities among historically marginalized and underserved populations.