College campuses are increasingly multicultural. Fulfilling the aims of multicultural education, research finds that exposure to interracial contact has many positive long-term outcomes, including positive racial attitudes and academic success. However, research also finds that interracial contact has negative outcomes, at least in the short-term;interracial contact is stressful and even cognitively depleting. To elucidate this paradox, the current application will consider the costs and benefits of interracial contact in tandem and across development for White and racial minority students. Specifically, the current application will measure students'stress responses, indexed physiologically (via salivary cortisol and a-amylase levels) and behaviorally (via nonverbal behavior), to address the following questions: 1) What are White and racial minority college students'responses to interracial, compared with same-race, contact?;2) How do parental racial socialization practices and interracial contact experiences jointly shape White and racial minority college students'responses to interracial contact?;and 3) Across time, what responses to interracial contact are associated with positive outcomes for White and racial minority college students? Two studies will investigate the relationship between parental racial socialization practices, interracial contact experiences, and students'outcomes, including students'racial attitudes, academic performance, psychological well-being, and physical health. More specifically, a first laboratory study will assess students'racial socialization experiences and examine whether these experiences predict students'physiological and behavioral stress responses to interracial, compared with same-race, contact. Then, a second longitudinal diary study will consider how students'physiological stress levels change over the academic year as a function of students'racial socialization and interracial contact experiences. More specifically, White and minority students who have a same-race or cross-race roommate will record their roommate experiences and collect weekly cortisol samples. These students will also provide detailed information regarding their racial socialization experiences, and give a thorough assessment of their college experience and performance at the end of the academic year. Using hierarchical linear modeling, the relationships between racial socialization, roommate experiences and cortisol levels, and end-of-year outcomes will be explored. Relevance to public health: taken as a whole, these studies will shed light on the development of college students'well-being and preparedness for life in a multicultural society.
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| Trawalter, Sophie; Richeson, Jennifer A; Shelton, J Nicole (2009) Predicting behavior during interracial interactions: a stress and coping approach. Pers Soc Psychol Rev 13:243-68 |
| Trawalter, Sophie; Todd, Andrew R; Baird, Abigail A et al. (2008) Attending to Threat: Race-based Patterns of Selective Attention. J Exp Soc Psychol 44:1322-1327 |
| Richeson, Jennifer A; Trawalter, Sophie (2008) The threat of appearing prejudiced and race-based attentional biases. Psychol Sci 19:98-102 |
| Trawalter, Sophie; Richeson, Jennifer A (2008) Let's Talk About Race, Baby! When Whites'and Blacks'Interracial Contact Experiences Diverge. J Exp Soc Psychol 44:1214-1217 |
