Reactions to Distress (RED) In Louisville, KY Study

NCT ID: NCT07016945

Last Updated: 2025-06-12

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: RECRUITING
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 270 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2024-07-25
• Study Completion Date: 2027-04-30

Brief Summary

The goal of this study is to understand whether race-related stress can impact the way people direct their attention and what interventions may be helpful for attention.

Detailed Description

Race-related stress is a public health problem and a known predictor of severe psychological symptoms in Black Americans. Although there is a strong link between race-related stress and adverse mental health outcomes, limited research has examined the transdiagnostic mechanisms that explain how experiencing race-related stress contributes to psychological symptoms or what interventions might effectively target these mechanisms. The scientific premise of this study is that race-related stress may contribute to disproportionate allocation of attention toward threatening stimuli (i.e., attention bias to threat), a known predictor of stress-related symptoms. This attentional bias may be modifiable through a brief, culturally-informed mindfulness intervention.

Racial identity is hypothesized to be a key individual difference factor that influences the extent to which race-related stress affects attention bias to threat, as well as the degree to which a mindfulness intervention can mitigate these biases. The study will recruit 200 Black adults from the community who have experienced race-related stress to participate in a laboratory study targeting three specific aims:

To use eye-tracking methods to examine whether race-related stress (compared to non-race-related stress) leads to greater attention bias to threat;

To test whether a brief mindfulness meditation (compared to a neutral audio condition) reduces attention bias to threat;

To investigate whether racial identity moderates (a) the effect of the race-related stress manipulation on attention bias to threat and (b) the efficacy of the mindfulness intervention in reducing attention bias to threat.

This project includes a strong undergraduate training component designed to promote student engagement in psychological research and provide hands-on experience and comprehensive mentorship to support future research careers.

This research addresses critical gaps in the literature by investigating how race-related stress influences threat-related attentional processes, evaluating whether these processes can be altered by mindfulness-based strategies, and identifying for whom such interventions are most effective. The study utilizes a novel manipulation of race-related stress, an objective and theoretically grounded psychological mechanism (attention bias), precise assessment tools (eye-tracking), and an experimentally manipulated intervention (mindfulness), thereby addressing key limitations in existing research. Findings are expected to advance understanding of the psychological effects of racism and inform strategies to reduce mental health disparities among historically marginalized and underserved populations.

Conditions

Threat Sensitivity

Study Design

• Allocation Method: NA
• Intervention Model: SINGLE_GROUP
• Primary Study Purpose: BASIC_SCIENCE
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Main sample

Participants are randomized to experimental and intervention conditions. They are either in: race stress/mindfulness, race stress/control audio, control stress/mindfulness, or control stress/control audio.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Stress and Mindfulness Intervention

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Participants will be randomized to either the race-related stress condition or the non-race-related stress condition and the experimental group (7-minute pre-recorded audio file of a guided mindfulness practice) or the control group (7-minute pre-recorded neutral audio file). Thus there are four conditions total (RRS/Control Audio, RRS/Mindfulness Audio, Control Stress/Control Audio, Control Stress/Mindfulness Audio)

Interventions

Stress and Mindfulness Intervention

Participants will be randomized to either the race-related stress condition or the non-race-related stress condition and the experimental group (7-minute pre-recorded audio file of a guided mindfulness practice) or the control group (7-minute pre-recorded neutral audio file). Thus there are four conditions total (RRS/Control Audio, RRS/Mindfulness Audio, Control Stress/Control Audio, Control Stress/Mindfulness Audio)

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Eligibility for this study will include a positive response to the following questions: 1) Do you identify as Black or African American? 2) Have you ever in your lifetime personally experienced or witnessed another person experience any acts of racism or racial microaggressions? 3) Are you willing to complete a 1.5-hour study at the University of Louisville in the next 2 weeks? 4) Are you 18 or older?

Exclusion Criteria

• None

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

University of Louisville

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Locations

Davidson Hall

Louisville, Kentucky, United States

Site Status: RECRUITING

Countries

United States

Central Contacts

Yara Mekawi, PhD

Role: CONTACT

yara.mekawi@louisville.edu

16308636375

Facility Contacts

Yara Mekawi, PhD

Role: primary

yara.mekawi@louisville.edu

630-863-6375

Provided Documents

Document Type: Study Protocol

View Document

Other Identifiers

iRIS234741

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id