Can I Trust You? A Longitudinal Study of the Consequences of Suspicion Among Latina/o Students

Racial/ethnic minority group members vary in the extent to which they are chronically suspicious of the motives behind White people’s positive behavior toward minorities. Chronic suspicion has been shown to shape racial/ethnic minorities’ perception, cognition, emotion, and physiology following positive overtures from White people in laboratory experiments. However, little is known about the long-term consequences of chronic suspicion of Whites’s motives. Here, we examine the consequences of chronic suspicion for low-income and/or first-generation Latino/a college students over their first 3 years of college. Students who entered college with higher levels of chronic suspicion experienced college more negatively, including more experiences of discrimination and a lack of perceived university inclusiveness. These experiences, in turn, predicted declines in mental and reported physical health by the end of students’ third year of college. This research provides longitudinal evidence of the long-term negative effects of chronic suspicion on college students’ mental and physical well-being.