"We controlled for race and ethnicity…" Challenging and Unpacking Conventions on the use and communication of race and ethnicity in Psychophysiological research

Society for Psychophysiological Research, 2025 Annual Meeting Carlos Cardenas-Iniguez, PhD Assistant Professor, Keck School of Medicine, USC [email protected] Bluesky: @kharloews.bsky.social Twitter/X: @kharloews “We controlled for race and ethnicity…” Challenging and Unpacking Conventions on the use and communication of race and ethnicity in Psychophysiological research 2 3 Marybel Robledo Gonzalez, PhD Assistant Professor The Ohio State University College of Medicine Cardenas-Iniguez, C., & Gonzalez, M. R. (2024). Recommendations for the responsible use and communication of race and ethnicity in neuroimaging research. Nature Neuroscience, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-024-01608-4 4 5 6 •21 collection sites •Data made available through Annual Curated Release available through NIMH Data Archive •All data are released •So…. RESPONSIBLE USE OF DATA IS IMPORTANT ●Very popular to include race and ethnicity as covariates ●Very limited conversation about their operationalization and measurement 7 Race and ethnicity When you include race and ethnicity in your models, especially as covariates of non-interest/nuisance variables, what are you accounting for? 8 Race and ethnicity Why is this important? No consensus, many different responses. Examples: ○There are different biological responses between races and ethnicities ○Subject to different experiences in society as a result of systemic, structural, and interpersonal racism ○Because everybody does it ○”….well, because prior literature.” 9 16 Martinez RAM, Andrabi N, Goodwin AN, Wilbur RE, Zivich PN. Thoughtfully Measuring and Interpreting Race In Population Health Research. IAPHS Blog blog. 2021. https://doi.org/10.17615/bs67-jj32 Martinez, RAM, Andrabi, N., Goodwin, A., Wilbur, R., Smith, N., & Zivich, P. Resource Packet for "Clear communication of race and ethnicity for public health: best practices & common failings". IAPHS Pre-conference workshop. 2021. https://doi.org/10.17615/dcfj-9g46 People may report race and ethnicity, but those terms matter because of racialization (how it is that people are “raced”). Omi, M. & Winant, H. Racial Formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1980s. (Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986). Bonilla-Silva, E. Rethinking Racism: Toward a Structural Interpretation. Am. Sociol. Rev. 62, 465–480 (1997). Dennis, A. C., Chung, E. O., Lodge, E. K., Martinez, R. A., & Wilbur, R. E. (2021). Looking Back to Leap Forward: A Framework for Operationalizing the Structural Racism Construct in Minority and Immigrant Health Research. Ethnicity & Disease, 31(Suppl), 301–310. https://doi.org/10.18865/ed.31.S1.301 Critical Race Theory •Race is socially constructed, not biologically innate. •Racism in the United States is embedded within the structure of society and normal, not aberrational (ordinariness). This ordinariness makes it difficult to acknowledge, although it plays an integral role in how people are racialized. •Because racism advances the interests of all white people, both affluent and working-class whites, there is little incentive to eradicate racism in a large segment of society. Also referred to as interest convergence or material determinism,advances for people of color only occur when they tend to serve the interests of dominant white groups. •Members of minority groups periodically undergo differential racialization depending on the needs or interests of whites. •No individual can be adequately identified by membership in a single group (intersectionality, antiessentialism). •People of color are uniquely qualified to speak on behalf of their own group(s) regarding the forms and effects of racism (voice of color). Critical Race Theory (CRT): a framework of legal analysis engaged in studying and transforming the relationship between race, racism, and power across dominant cultural modes of expression Intersectionality Intersectionality Theory–Kimberlé Crenshaw (1989), addressing unique position of Black women in US legal system • “how multiple forms of inequality and identity inter-relate in different contexts and over time, for example, the inter-connectedness of race, class, gender, disability, [etc.]” •Often interpreted as considering the overlap of multiple identities • Importantly, also highlights “interlocking systems of oppression,” underscoring the importance of focusing on upstream social/structural determinants that may impact many/all marginalized groups. Public Health Critical Race Praxis Ford, C. L., & Airhihenbuwa, C. O. (2010a). Critical Race Theory, Race Equity, and Public Health: Toward Antiracism Praxis. American Journal of Public Health, 100(Suppl 1), S30–S35. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2009.171058 Ford, C. L., & Airhihenbuwa, C. O. (2010b). The public health critical race methodology: Praxis for antiracism research. Social Science & Medicine, 71(8), 1390–1398. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2010.07.030 Provides applications of CRT to empirical research. Can be a useful text to reference. Key Recommendation #2: Researchers should provide clear categorization and coding rationale for race and ethnicity variables and include race and ethnicity information about study populations. Key Recommendation #2: Researchers should provide clear categorization and coding rationale for race and ethnicity variables and include race and ethnicity information about study populations. Studies published in NeuroImage and Cerebral Cortex showed only about 20% of studies reported race and ethnicity information (Goldfarb & Brown, 2022; Sterling et al., 2022) This is critical for generalizability, reproducibility, and the development of appropriate interventions. But…since race and ethnicity are socially constructed, there are many categorization methods, and none are perfect. Goldfarb, M. G., & Brown, D. R. (2022). Diversifying participation: The rarity of reporting racial demographics in neuroimaging research. NeuroImage, 254, 119122. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119122 Sterling, E., Pearl, H., Liu, Z., Allen, J. W., & Fleischer, C. C. (2022). Demographic reporting across a decade of neuroimaging: A systematic review. Brain Imaging and Behavior, 16(6), 2785–2796. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11682-022-00724-8 Asked two questions: What is your race? What is your ethnicity? Responses are then coded into the following categories: •Hispanic/ Latinx/e •White •Black/African American •Asian •Multi-racial/Other •Combined ethnoracial construct, consistent with Census categories •Hispanic/Latinx category supersedes all others •If not, assigned “Other” category •Limitations •What is other?! •Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander American Indian or Alaska Native not often included •Census categories subject to sociopolitical and historical context A popular coding approach to race/ethnicity: Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Directive 15, NIH minimum reporting requirements 25 Key Recommendation #4: Researchers should justify their inclusion of race and/or ethnicity in statistical models, avoiding default inclusion. Common to control for race and ethnicity as a “covariate of no interest” or “control variables” without providing an appropriate rationale. But, what is it that is being “accounted for” when doing so? Using race and ethnicity as a proxy can leave the door open to many interpretations. Are you accounting for: groups experiencing different events? Not deviating from the accepted default category? Important to explore the implications of assuming “white = neutral.” Can use QuantCrit framework to examine these assumptions. ●What does it mean to use white as the “default category”? ●Although race derives meaning from many factors, it alone does not encapsulate all of those factors. Garcia, N. M., López, N., & Vélez, V. N. (2018). QuantCrit: Rectifying quantitative methods through critical race theory. Race Ethnicity and Education, 21(2), 149–157. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2017.1377675 Gillborn, D., Warmington, P., & Demack, S. (2018). QuantCrit: Education, policy, ‘Big Data’ and principles for a critical race theory of statistics. Race Ethnicity and Education, 21(2), 158–179. https://doi.org/10.1080/13613324.2017.1377417 NASEM report on population descriptors in genomics research asserts that race is neither useful nor scientifically valid as a measure of the structure of human genetic variation. Key recommendation #5: Race and ethnicity should not be equated with genetic ancestry. Specifically, the report suggests strong skepticism regarding claims of genetic causation of disease differentials (that avoid discussion of gene-environment interactions) among socially defined groups in the US. Avoid using continental geographic labels for ancestry (e.g., European, African, American, Asian), as they reify typological thinking. Alternative: Use “-like” as a modification in your label, or be as specific as possible about the training or source data. To quote Joseph Graves Jr., “Racially subordinated populations (such as Amerindians, Latinx, and African Americans) have never lived in environments that are equivalent to the socially dominant European population.” MORE on this topic Key Recommendation #6: Evaluate biases in population representation and participation, measurements, patterns of missingness, and generalizability. •Underrepresentation of historically minoritized populations in research, •Anatomical templates were not derived from diverse populations, •Limited genetics research to those not of European ancestry, •Many measures may not have been normed with diverse samples, •Overly strict exclusion criteria may disproportionately impact minoritized groups Key Recommendation #7: Avoid “health equity tourism” and interrogate upstream causes instead of simply exploring “race and ethnicity effects.” Health equity tourists: those motivated to explore “race effects” or “ethnicity effects” without particular attention to what these variables may represent, or previous efforts that have brought attention to racial and ethnic health disparities in their fields and the forces that give rise to them (Lett et al., 2022) Exploring a “race effect” or an “ethnicity effect” alone does not constitute “health disparities research.” HD research requires interrogating upstream causes and investment in minoritized populations. Focus on beneficence: not just ”doing no harm”, but “doing good” Key Recommendation #7: Avoid “health equity tourism” and interrogate upstream causes instead of simply exploring “race and ethnicity effects.” Health equity tourists: those motivated to explore “race effects” or “ethnicity effects” without particular attention to what these variables may represent, or previous efforts that have brought attention to racial and ethnic health disparities in their fields and the forces that give rise to them (Lett et al., 2022) Exploring a “race effect” or an “ethnicity effect” alone does not constitute “health disparities research.” HD research requires interrogating upstream causes and investment in minoritized populations. Focus on beneficence: not just ”doing no harm”, but “doing good” Important Addendum in 2025: Race/ethnicity effects and health disparities =/= DEI. Gonzalez, M., Cardenas-Iniguez, C., Linares, D., Wonnum, S., Bagot, K., White, E., Cuan, A., DiMatteo, S., Akiel, Y., Lindsley, P., Harris, J., Perez-Amparan, E., Powell, T., Latino de City Heights (COLCH), C. O., Dowling, G., Alkire, D., Thompson, W., & Murray, T. (2025). Responsible research in health disparities using the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 71, 101497. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2024.101497 Responsible research in health disparities using the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. Extras and next steps Paper also includes a checklist and additional research for a deeper dive. Spread the word, continue these conversations. Acknowledgments Herting Lab, and my lab! NIEHS, NIDA, NIMHD, NINDS Southern California Environmental Health Sciences Center Department of Population and Public Health Sciences ABCD Study participants and their families The many comrades in the ABCD Consortium. Peers in BRAINS, NSP, DCNS, SACNAS PLI for their support.