Discrimination and Heart Rate Variability Responses to Stress in a Diverse Sample of Young Adults

Discrimination is increasingly understood to be linked with heart rate variability (HRV), an index of cardiovascular and self-regulatory (e.g., emotion regulatory) function. The current study examined how self-reported discrimination might be linked with HRV responses while undergoing a social evaluative speech task in a diverse sample of young adults in the US. Continuous HRV was collected as participants ( N = 158, M age = 20.49, 58% female) completed the social evaluative speech task. Lower self-reported discrimination was linked with a quadratic pattern (i.e., inverted U-shape) of HRV throughout the social evaluative speech task, reflecting an adaptive self-regulatory response. In contrast, higher self-reported discrimination was associated with blunted HRV throughout the social evaluative speech task, suggesting minimal to no self-regulatory action. These data support the notion that higher perceived discrimination might compromise self-regulatory capacity under circumstances unrelated to discrimination, as indicated by a blunted HRV response. Our novel findings contribute to the emerging literature on the key role of the parasympathetic nervous system, indexed by HRV, as a link in the association of higher discrimination with impaired self-regulation and cardiovascular health.