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Abstract
The primary goal of this study was to examine the role of change in negative affect as a mediator of the relationship between perceived discrimination and health expectations for African Americans as they go from late childhood to emerging adulthood (i.e., prediction over an 11-year period from age 10.5 to 21.5). A second goal was to examine the role of both individual factors (code of the street and negative emotionality) and contextual factors (harsh parenting, neighborhood disadvantage, and SES) as moderators that may amplify the impact of discrimination on negative affect, or the impact of negative affect on health. Using five waves of data, I found that perceived discrimination was associated with poorer health expectation, and that the association was significantly mediated by change in negative affective symptoms over time. Moderated mediational analyses revealed that code of the street and negative emotionality as well as neighborhood disadvantage and SES were significant moderators in specific pathways in the mediational model. The implications of the current findings for prevention are discussed.