Understanding how discrimination relates to other stressors will require examining the ways in which multiple forms of psychosocial stress accumulate to adversely affect health. The stress literature suggests that one’s ability to manage a new stressor is reduced by the burden and demands of preexisting stressors (Cohen et al. 2007). Moreover, stressors may combine not only in additive ways but also in interactive ways. Future research on perceived discrimination should pay special attention to potential interactions among stressors. This includes attention to environmental stressors linked to the physical, chemical, and built environment. Some limited evidence indicates that psychosocial stressors and environmental factors may interact with each other. One study found that high levels of air pollution were associated with distress among people with recent life events, but unrelated to distress among persons with no social stressors (Evans et al. 1987). Another study of an Indian sample, and two U.S. college student samples, found that social stressors adversely affected mental health only among persons living under the environmental condition of crowding (Lepore et al. 1991).
