Preparing for racial discrimination and moving beyond reactive coping: A systematic review

Racial discrimination is a commonly experienced stressor among African American that occurs in various forms. The stressful qualities of racial discrimination are highlighted by how such events are often cognitively appraised and the negative mental health outcomes associated with such racial stressors. Traditionally, existing conceptual models of racial discrimination have characterized the reactive experiences of African Americans, particularly identifying how African American typically respond cognitively, emotionally, and behaviorally. Moving forward, it is vital that the conceptual models of racial discrimination extend beyond the reactive experience and further identify nuances in the anticipatory and preparatory processes associated with racial discrimination. As such, the current review draws upon a model of proactive coping (Aspinwall & Taylor, 1997) to begin conceptualizes how African American may cope with anticipated discriminatory experiences and propose future research directions for generating conceptual models that more comprehensively capture experiences of racial stress among African Americans.