Discrimination moderates associations between momentary anger coping and subsequent interpersonal interaction quality

The interpersonal consequences of anger coping (i.e., anger-in, anger-out, anger-control) in everyday life are unclear. This ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study tested whether momentary variations in anger coping style were associated with the perceived quality of subsequent interpersonal interactions throughout the day. Lifetime discrimination and race were tested as moderators of these associations. A sample of 518 Black and Latinx participants (age range = 23–65, M = 38.9; 50.4% men, 49.6% women) completed surveys measuring demographics and perceived discrimination, and EMAs of anger coping and perceptions of interpersonal interaction quality every 20 minutes during waking hours. At a between-person level, those who reported more frequent use of either anger-in or anger-out also reported more negative interactions throughout the day. At the within-person level, observations during which people reported using anger-in (vs. anger-out or anger-control) were negatively associated with the quality of the interpersonal interaction on the subsequent observation 20 minutes later. Discrimination moderated the effects of anger coping. For individuals who reported experiencing higher levels discrimination, observations in which they held anger-in (vs. did not) were associated with worse subsequent interpersonal interaction quality. In contrast, for those who reported experiencing lower levels of discrimination, observations in which they expressed anger-outwardly (vs. did not) were associated with worse subsequent interpersonal interaction quality. This study provides evidence of person by context interactions in the interpersonal consequences of anger expression and may inform the development of culturally sensitive interventions to mitigate the effects of discrimination.