Through the Lens of the Target: The Role of Stress Appraisal in the Link Between Online Racism and Negative Mental Health

Although there are approaches (e.g., psychological measures) to capture how people encounter online racism experiences, there is limited work on how the actual impact of online racism is felt or deemed relevant. Notably, in assessing the impact of online racism on negative mental health, it may be important to account for the degree to which people find their racist online interactions and exposure to racist online content stressful. Using data from 958 racially/ethnically minoritized adults ( M age = 27.41), we conducted moderation analyses to examine if the association between online racism and mental health was moderated by stress appraisals of racist online interactions and exposure to racist online content. Online racism was significantly associated with worse mental health. Both stress appraisals of racist online interactions and exposure to racist online content were significant moderators. Negative mental health associated with online racism was exacerbated among those who appraised their exposure to online racism as more stressful. When the stressfulness was appraised to be low, the association between online racism and negative mental health was not significant. These findings inform future research focused on mechanisms that could differentiate why certain individuals are more at risk of being impacted by online racism experiences.