1. Ethnic/Racial Discrimination and Psychological Maladjustment:
The Buffering Role of Gender and Parent-Adolescent Relationships
Micah Ioffe, Andrew J. Flannery, Kristina Kochanova, Emily E. Stewart, & Laura D. Pittman
Northern Illinois University
Background
Results
Discussion
In a recent study of 2,490 ethnic minority adolescents, 73% of the sample reported having experienced some form of racial or ethnic discrimination (Tobler et al., 2013).
Given that racial discrimination has been associated with greater levels of perceived stress, depressive symptomatology, and lower levels of psychological well-being (Sellers et al., 2006), ethnic minority adolescents are at a greater risk for psychological maladjustment.
A wealth of research has found links between parent relationship quality (e.g., responsiveness, problematic communication) and adolescents’ psychological functioning (e.g., Brenning et al., 2012; Ohannessian, 2011); however, whether these parent-adolescent relationship factors buffer the risk associated with discrimination has rarely been examined.
Previous research has typically reported that males experience more racial discrimination than females, while there are also differential rates by gender of internalizing and externalizing behaviors (e.g., Brittian et al., 2013).
This study explored whether aspects of the parent-adolescent relationship and adolescent gender may serve as a protective factor for psychological adjustment (i.e., anger, anxiety, depression, and psychological stress) in the context of experiencing discrimination.
Table 1. Descriptive Statistics, Bivariate and Partial Correlations among Study Variables
The results of this study revealed that appraised stress from discrimination are positively linked to adolescents’ psychological symptoms. Further, positive aspects of mother- and father-adolescent relationships (i.e., RSP) were negatively linked with outcomes, while negative aspects (i.e., PC) were positively linked to symptoms.
Moderation analyses showed that in the context of low father RSP, but not high levels, appraised racial stress is positively associated with adolescent anger. This confirms the role of father RSP as a protective factor against adolescent anger in the context of racial discrimination.
Perhaps father RSP is especially salient in adolescence given that mothers are more involved with children than fathers at younger ages (Lamb & Lewis, 2013). Fathers may also play an important role in modeling adaptive coping strategies that prevent escalation of anger in the context of racial discrimination.
Parental PC appeared to be a risk factor for anxiety in males who experience stress from racial discrimination: the association between appraised racial stress and anxiety was stronger for males with high levels of father and mother PC. At low levels of parental PC, the association was not significant for either gender.
Given that males experience more racial discrimination than females (e.g., Brittian et al., 2013), it may be that males are more aware of, and subsequently anxious about, potential consequences of racial discrimination when there is poor communication with parents. Perhaps this problematic communication interferes with the provision of ethnic/racial socialization, which is associated with better outcomes (e.g., Neblett Jr. et al., 2008).
Limitations to the current study include the cross-sectional nature of the data; however, the ethnically and racially diverse sample, as well as adolescent self-report of internalizing symptoms, are strengths.
Future research could consider differential influences on these associations across adolescence. Perhaps aspects of the parent- adolescent relationship would be more influential to stress or depressive symptoms at earlier ages. Other external factors, such as peer relationships or school belonging could also be considered in influencing adolescent outcomes in the context of racial discrimination.
Variable
M (SD)
Range 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1. Appraised
Racial Stress
34.39 (18.79)
17-102 --
-.07
-.20**
.08
.20**
.16*
.25**
.18*
.40***
2. Mother RSP
19.71
(3.96)
8-25
.70***
-.36***
-.24**
-.15*
-.14+
-.11
3. Father RSP
18.82
(4.04)
5-25
.66***
-.37***
-.40***
-.29***
-.27***
-.25**
-.26***
4. Mother PC
67.74 (13.25)
29-98
.13+
-.35***
.72***
.26**
.19*
5. Father PC
65.25 (14.13)
26-96
.71***
.30***
.26***
.31***
.24**
6. Depression
5.70
(5.64)
0-21
-.19**
-.28***
.28***
.64***
.78***
.47***
7. Anxiety
5.10
(4.61)
0-19
.23***
-.18**
.21**
.27***
8. Stress
6.69
(4.82)
.14*
-.13+
-.22**
.22**
.77***
.74***
.41***
9. Anger
(10.12)
0-61
.33***
-.25***
.51***
.44***
.48***
Note. + p < .10, * p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < Bivariate correlations appear below the diagonal; Partial correlations appear above the diagonal and control for standard of living; RSP = Responsiveness, PC = Problematic Communication.
Participants and Procedures
Correlational analyses revealed that appraised stress from racial discrimination were significantly positively associated with symptoms of depression, anxiety, stress, and anger. Appraised racial stress was also significantly associated with father parenting variables (i.e., RSP, PC), but not mother variables.
All outcomes were significantly associated with all parenting variables, with the exception of mother RSP, which was only significantly correlated to anger and depressive symptoms after accounting for standard of living.
T-tests examining gender differences among study variables revealed significantly higher levels of mother RSP for females than males.
Data came from a sample of 261 late adolescents (M = years, SD = years) belonging to a minority ethnic group who were recruited from an introductory course at a large Midwestern University in northern Illinois.
Participants were:
58% female, 42% male
45% African-American; 34% Hispanic; 9% Asian; 8% Biracial; 4% Middle Eastern
Using an online survey, participants provided consent and responded to various questionnaires regarding appraisals of stress from discrimination, parent-adolescent communication and relationship quality, and their own psychological adjustment.
Regression analyses testing for interactions were run using the PROCESS macro in SPSS (Hayes, 2013) to examine the influence of aspects of parent-adolescent relationships (i.e., RSP, PC) on the association between appraised stress from racial discrimination and adolescents’ anxious, depressive, stress, and anger symptoms, controlling for family’s standard of living. Three-way interactions including gender as a moderator were also examined.
Regressions were run separately for each parent, parenting variable, and outcome variable. Three interactions were significant.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
Measures
Appraised Racial Stress and Father RSP predicting Anger Symptoms
Appraised Racial Stress, Father PC, and Gender predicting Anxiety Symptoms
Appraised Racial Stress, Mother PC, and Gender predicting Anxiety Symptoms
References
Barnes, H. L, & Olson, D. H. (1982). Parent-adolescent communication scale. In Olson, D. H., McCubbin, H. I., Barnes, Lamb, M. E., & Lewis, C. (2013). Father-child relationships. In N. J. Cabrera & C. S. Tamis-LeMonda (Eds.), Handbook of father involvement: Multidisciplinary perspectives, (pp ). New York, NY: Routledge.
Brenning, K., Soenens, B., Braet, C., & Bal, S. (2012). The role of parenting and mother-adolescent attachment in the intergenerational similarity of internalizing symptoms. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 41, doi: /s
Brittian, A. S., Toomey, R. B., Gonzales, N. A., & Dumka, L. E. (2013). Perceived discrimination, coping strategies, and Mexican origin adolescents' internalizing and externalizing behaviors: Examining the moderating role of gender and cultural orientation. Applied Developmental Science, 17, doi: /
Darling, N., & Toyokawa, T. (1997). Construction and validation of the parenting style inventory II (PSI-II). The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Pennsylvania.
Hayes, A. F. (2013). Introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis. New York, NY: Guilford.
Lamb, M. E., & Lewis, C. (2013). Father-child relationships. In N. J. Cabrera & C. S. Tamis-LeMonda (Eds.), Handbook of father involvement: Multidisciplinary perspectives, (pp ). New York, NY: Routledge.
Landrine, H., & Klonoff, E. A. (1996). The schedule of racist events: A measure of racial discrimination and a study of its negative physical and mental health consequences. Journal of Black Psychology, 22, doi: /
Lovibond, P. F., & Lovibond, S. H. (1995). The structure of negative emotional states: Comparison of the Depression Anxiety Stress Scales (DASS) with the Beck Depression and Anxiety Inventories. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 33, doi: / (94)00075-U
Neblett, E. W., White, R. L., Ford, K. R., Philip, C. L., Nguyen, H. X., & Sellers, R. M. (2008). Patterns of racial socialization and psychological adjustment: Can parental communications about race reduce the impact of racial discrimination? Journal of Research on Adolescence, 18,
Ohannessian, C. M. (2011). Parental problem drinking and adolescent psychological problems: The moderating effect of adolescent–parent communication. Youth & Society, 45, doi: / X
Sellers, R. M., Copeland-Linder, N., Martin, P. P., & Lewis, R. L. (2006). Racial identity matters: The relationship between racial discrimination and psychological functioning in African American adolescents. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 16, doi: /j x
Snell, W. E., Gum, S., Shuck, R. L., Mosley, J. A., & Kite, T. L. (1995). The Clinical Anger Scale: Preliminary reliability and validity. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 51, doi: / (199503)51:2<215::AID-JCLP >3.0.CO;2-Z
Tobler, A. L., Maldonado-Molina, M. M., Staras, S. S., O'Mara, R. J., Livingston, M. D., & Komro, K. A. (2013). Perceived racial/ethnic discrimination, problem behaviors, and mental health among minority urban youth. Ethnicity & Health, 18, doi: /
Participants’ reported on their demographic information, including age, gender, race, ethnicity, and family’s standard of living.
Appraisals of stress from racial/ethnic discrimination were measured via the Schedule of Racist Events (Landrine & Klonoff, 1996). Internal consistency for this sample was excellent (α = .95).
The parental responsiveness (RSP) subscale of the Parenting Style Inventory II (Darling & Toyokawa, 1997) was used to assess parent- adolescent relationship quality. Internal consistencies for this sample were adequate (α = .74 for mothers, .70 for fathers).
The Parent-Adolescent Communication Scale (Barnes & Olson, 1982) was used to measure problematic communication (PC) in the family. Internal consistencies were good to excellent(α = .86 for mothers, .92 for fathers).
Emotional states of depression, anxiety, and stress were assessed by the short form of the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995). Internal consistencies for this sample ranged from adequate to excellent (α's =.83 for anxiety, .85 for stress, and .91 for depression).
Anger was measured by the Clinical Anger Scale (Snell et al., 2013) and demonstrated excellent internal consistency (α = .93).
Adolescent Anxiety
Adolescent Anxiety
Note. * p < .001.
Note. * p < .001.
Note. ^ p < .10, * p < .001.
The interaction between appraisals of discrimination and father RSP predicted adolescent anger (B = -.035, F(4, 183) = 7.67, p < .01).
As shown in Figure 1, when father RSP was low, appraised stress from discrimination was positively linked to anger symptoms (b = .30, t = 4.88, p < .001); however, these two constructs were not associated at low levels (b = .02, t = .28, n.s.).
The interaction between appraisals of discrimination, gender, and father PC predicted adolescent anxiety (B = -.012, F(8, 172) = 4.90, p < .05).
As shown in Figure 2, when father PC was high for males, appraised stress from discrimination was positively linked to anxiety symptoms (b = .18, t = 3.87, p < .001); however, these two constructs were not associated at low levels for males or for any amount of father PC for females.
The interaction between appraisals of discrimination, gender, and mother PC predicted adolescent anxiety (B = -.013, F(8, 202) = 5.75, p < .05).
As shown in Figure 3, when mother PC was high for males, appraised stress from discrimination was positively linked to anxiety symptoms (b = .19, t = 3.70, p < .001); however, these two constructs were not associated at low levels for males or females, but linked at a trend-level of significance for females with high mother PC (b = .07, t = 1.96, p = .05).
Please contact Micah Ioffe with comments or questions about this poster at or via the Psychology Department, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL