Associations Between Perceived Discrimination Events and Next‐Day Emotions Assessed Via Ecological Momentary Assessments

Discrimination, defined as the experience of unjustified or prejudicial treatment based on qualities such as race, age, gender, or sexual orientation, may negatively impact well-being. Prior research suggests that experiencing discrimination events is associated with higher negative affect. The purpose of this study was to use smartphone-based ecological momentary assessments (EMA) to examine day-to-day relationships between experiencing discrimination events and discrete emotions (e.g., worried, miserable, afraid, anxious) over a 28-day period. The parent study recruited participants from around the United States and collected EMA data for 28 days. Perceived discrimination from the previous day was assessed in the morning EMA. Emotions were assessed in two to four EMAs per day. Within-person and between-person associations between discrimination events yesterday and current day emotions were examined using multilevel analyses. Participants who endorsed at least one discrimination event during the study (N = 106) were on average 44.9 years old (SD = 10.9), mostly White (66.0%), female (74.5%), and had a household income more than $30,000 (58.5%). At the between-person level, those who experienced more discrimination events on average experienced higher depressed, anxious, and miserable emotions. At the within-person level, experiencing a discrimination event was associated with higher ratings of afraid, depressed, anxious, and miserable emotions the following day. Results contribute to the understanding of how everyday discrimination events can impact discrete emotions. Future work should focus on assessing relations between discrimination events and emotions over longer periods of time. In addition, interventions are needed that can address the negative impacts of discrimination on mental health.