Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

School Discrimination and Changes in Latinx Adolescents’ Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms

  • Empirical Research
  • Published:
Journal of Youth and Adolescence Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

U.S. Latinx youth are growing up in an environment characterized by increased anti-immigrant policy and rhetoric, including experiences of discrimination. Given the salience of the school setting for youth’s development, it is important to understand how experiences of discrimination by teachers and other adults at school, or school discrimination, relate to the emotional and behavioral adjustment of today’s Latinx adolescents. Study participants include 547 Latinx adolescents selected at random from a large, suburban school district in Atlanta, Georgia (55.4% female; age M = 12.8, range = 11–16). Youth provided two time points of survey data spaced roughly 6 months apart during 2018 and 2019. Structural equation models (SEM) were used to test the main and interaction effects of school discrimination and parental support on later internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Multiple group SEM was used to investigate gender differences in pathways to adolescent adjustment. More school discrimination was related to more internalizing and externalizing symptoms at a later time point. Greater parental support was associated with fewer internalizing symptoms, but did not moderate associations between school discrimination and adolescent outcomes. Pathways to adolescent outcomes were similar for males and females. Study results suggest that discrimination by teachers and other adults at school is an important source of adversity potentially jeopardizing Latinx youth’s emotional and behavioral adjustment. Future research is needed to identify factors that mitigate potentially harmful consequences of discrimination for Latinx adolescents.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Achenbach, T. M., & Edelbrock, C. S. (1991). Youth self-report and profile. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.

  • Alfaro, E., Umaña-Taylor, A., Gonzales-Backen, M., Bámaca, M., & Zeiders, K. (2009). Latino adolescents’ academic success: the role of discrimination, academic motivation, and gender. Journal of Adolescence, 32(4), 941–962.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ayón, C. (2016). Talking to Latino children about race, inequality, and discrimination: raising families in an anti-immigrant political environment. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 7(3), 449–477.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barajas‐Gonzalez, R. G., Ayón, C., & Torres, F. (2018). Applying a community violence framework to understand the impact of immigration enforcement threat on Latino children. Social Policy Report, 31(3), 1–24.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benner, A. D., & Graham, S. (2011). Latino adolescents’ experiences of discrimination across the first 2 years of high school: Correlates and influences on educational outcomes. Child development, 82(2), 508–519.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Benner, A. D., & Graham, S. (2013). The antecedents and consequences of racial/ethnic discrimination during adolescence: does the source of discrimination matter? Developmental Psychology, 49(8), 1602.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Benner, A. D., Wang, Y., Shen, Y., Boyle, A. E., Polk, R., & Cheng, Y.-P. (2018). Racial/ethnic discrimination and well-being during adolescence: a meta-analytic review. American Psychologist, 73(7), 855–883.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Berkel, C., Knight, G. P., Zeiders, K. H., Tein, J. Y., Roosa, M. W., Gonzales, N. A., & Saenz, D. (2010). Discrimination and adjustment for Mexican American adolescents: a prospective examination of the benefits of culturally related values. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 20(4), 893–915.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Brown, C. S., & Chu, H. (2012). Discrimination, ethnic identity, and academic outcomes of Mexican immigrant children: the importance of school context. Child Development, 83(5), 1477–1485.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Calzada, E. J., Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., & Yoshikawa, H. (2013). Familismo in Mexican and Dominican families from low-income, urban communities. Journal of Family Issues, 34(12), 1696–1724.

    Google Scholar 

  • Calzada, E. J., Roche, K. M., White, R. B. M., Partovi, R., & Little, T. D. (In Press). Latinx parentingand adolescent externalizing behavior: Modifying impacts of an adverse immigration environment. Journal of Latinx Psychology.

  • Cantor, G., Ryo, E., & Humphrey, R. (2019). Changing patterns of interior immigration enforcement in the United States, 2016-2018. Washington, DC: American Immigration Council. http://americanimmigrationcouncil.org/research/interior-immigration-enforcement-united-states-2016-2018.

  • Coatsworth, J. D., Pantin, H., McBride, C., Briones, E., Kurtines, W., & Szapocznik, J. (2002). Ecodevelopmental correlates of behavior problemsin young Hispanic females. Applied Developmental Science, 6(3), 126–143.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conger, K. J., Rueter, M. A., & Conger, R. D. (2000). The role of economic pressure in the lives of parents and their adolescents: the family stress model. New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Crosnoe, R., Johnson, M. K., & Elder, G. H. (2004). Intergenerational bonding in school: the behavioral and contextual correlates of student-teacher relationships. Sociology of Education, 77(1), 60–81.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, T. M., & Cardemil, E. V. (2009). Parent-child communication and parental involvement in Latino adolescents. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 29(1), 99–121.

    Google Scholar 

  • DeGarmo, D. S., & Martinez Jr, C. R. (2006). A culturally informed model of academic well‐being for Latino youth: the importance of discriminatory experiences and social support. Family Relations, 55(3), 267–278.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • DiClemente, R. J., Santelli, J. S., & Crosby, R. A. (2009). Adolescent health: understanding and preventing risk behaviors. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dotterer, A. M., & James, A. (2018). Can parenting microprotections buffer against adolescents’ experiences of racial discrimination? Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 47(1), 38–50.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dumka, L. E., Roosa, M. W., & Jackson, K. M. (1997). Risk, conflict, mothers’ parenting, and children’s adjustment in low-income, Mexican immigrant, and Mexican American families. Journal of Marriage and the Family, 59(2), 309–323.

    Google Scholar 

  • Eamon, M. K., & Mulder, C. (2005). Predicting antisocial behavior among Latino young adolescents: an ecological systems analysis. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 75(1), 117–127.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ebert, K., & Ovink, S. M. (2014). Anti-immigrant ordinances and discrimination in new and established destinations. American Behavioral Scientist, 58(13), 1784–1804.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ee, J., & Gándara, P. (2020). The impact of immigration enforcement on the nation’s schools. American Educational Research Journal, 57(2), 840–871.

    Google Scholar 

  • Enders, C. K. (2010). Applied missing data analysis. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, C. B., Wallace, S. A., & Fenton, R. E. (2000). Discrimination distress during adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 29(6), 679–695.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frey, W. H. (2018). Diversity explosion: how new racial demographics are remaking America. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fry, R. (2006). The changing landscape of American public education: new students, new schools. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center.

  • Garcia Coll, C., Crnic, K., Lamberty, G., Wasik, B. H., Jenkins, R., Garcia, H. V., & McAdoo, H. P. (1996). An integrative model for the study of developmental competencies in minority children. Child Development, 67(5), 1891–1914.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gee, G. C., Walsemann, K. M., & Brondolo, E. (2012). A life course perspective on how racism may be related to health inequities. American Journal of Public Health, 102(5), 967–974.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Glanz, K., Rimer, B. K., & Viswanath, K. (2008). Health behavior and health education: theory, research, and practice. San Francisco, CA: John Wiley & Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gonzalez, L. M., Stein, G. L., Kiang, L., & Cupito, A. M. (2014). The impact of discrimination and support on developmental competencies in Latino adolescents. Journal of Latina/o Psychology, 2(2), 79.

    Google Scholar 

  • Howard, W. J., Rhemtulla, M., & Little, T. D. (2015). Using principal components as auxiliary variables in missing data estimation. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 50(3), 285–299.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • James, A. (2016). Parenting and protecting: advocating microprotections through loving and supporting Black parent–child relationships. Saint Paul, MN: National Council on Family Relations. https://www.ncfr.org/ncfr-report/focus/family-focus-cultural-seachange-and-families/parenting-and-protecting-advocating.

  • Kam, J. A., & Bámaca-Colbert, M. Y. (2012). Supportive parenting as a moderator of perceived ethnic/racial discrimination’s associations with psychological and academic adjustment: a comparison between Mexican-origin females in early and middle adolescence. Communication Research, 40(5), 645–668.

    Google Scholar 

  • Knight, G. P., Roosa, M. W., & Umaña-Taylor, A. J. (2009). Studying ethnic minority and economically disadvantaged populations: methodological challenges and best practices. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

  • Lang, K. M., & Little, T. D. (2014). The supermatrix technique: a simple framework for hypothesis testing with missing data. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 38(5), 461–470.

    Google Scholar 

  • Little, T. D., Rhemtulla, M., Gibson, K., & Schoemann, A. M. (2013). Why the items versus parcels controversy needn’t be one. Psychological Methods, 18(3), 285.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Little, T. D., Slegers, D. W., & Card, N. A. (2006). A non-arbitrary method of identifying and scaling latent variables in SEM and MACS models. Journal of Structural Equation Modeling, 13(1), 59–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Loeber, R., & Burke, J. D. (2011). Developmental pathways in juvenile externalizing and internalizing problems. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 21(1), 34–46.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lopez, W. D., LeBron, A. M., Graham, L. F., & Grogan-Kaylor, A. (2016). Discrimination and depressive symptoms among Latina/o adolescents of immigrant parents. International quarterly of community health education, 36(2), 131–140.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lorenzo-Blanco, E. I., Meca, A., Piña-Watson, B., Zamboanga, B. L., Szapocznik, J., Cano, M. Á., & Schwartz, S. J. (2019). Longitudinal trajectories of family functioning among recent immigrant adolescents and parents: links with adolescent and parent cultural stress, emotional well-being, and behavioral health. Child Development, 90(2), 506–523.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lorenzo-Blanco, E. I., Unger, J. B., Ritt-Olson, A., Soto, D., & Baezconde-Garbanati, L. (2011). Acculturation, gender, depression, and cigarette smoking among US Hispanic youth: the mediating role of perceived discrimination. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 40(11), 1519–1533.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Mack, K. Y., Peck, J. H., & Leiber, M. J. (2015). The effects of family structure and family processes on externalizing and internalizing behaviors of male and female youth: a longitudinal examination. Deviant Behavior, 36(9), 740–764.

    Google Scholar 

  • McFarland, L., Murray, E., & Phillipson, S. (2016). Student–teacher relationships and student self-concept: relations with teacher and student gender. Australian Journal of Education, 60(1), 5–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Morey, B. N. (2018). Mechanisms by which anti-immigrant stigma exacerbates racial/ethnic health disparities. American Journal of Public Health, 108(4), 460–463.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Muthén, L. K., & Muthén, B. O. (1998–2017). Mplus user’s guide. 8th ed. Los Angeles, CA: Muthén & Muthén.

    Google Scholar 

  • Natanson, H., Woodrow Cox, J., & Stein, P. (2020). Trump’s words, bullied kids, scarred schools: the president’s rhetoric has changed the way hundreds of children are harassed in American classrooms, The Post found. The Washington Post.

  • Nelson, K. M., Carey, K. B., Scott-Sheldon, L. A., Eckert, T. L., Park, A., Vanable, P. A., & Carey, M. P. (2017). Gender differences in relations among perceived family characteristics and risky health behaviors in urban adolescents. Annals of Behavioral Medicine, 51(3), 416–422.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Park, I. J., Wang, L., Williams, D. R., & Alegría, M. (2018). Coping with racism: moderators of the discrimination–adjustment link among Mexican‐Origin adolescents. Child Development, 89(3), e293–e310.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pianta, R. C., Hamre, B., Stuhlman, M., Reynolds, W., Miller, G., & Weiner, I. (2003). Relationships between teachers and children. Handbook of psychology 7, Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

    Google Scholar 

  • Piña-Watson, B., Ojeda, L., Castellon, N. E., & Dornhecker, M. (2013). Familismo, ethnic identity, and bicultural stress as predictors of Mexican American adolescents’ positive psychological functioning. Journal of Latina/o Psychology, 1(4), 204.

    Google Scholar 

  • Potochnick, S. R., & Perreira, K. M. (2010). Depression and anxiety among first-generation immigrant Latino youth: key correlates and implications for future research. The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 198(7), 470.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Putnick, D. L., & Bornstein, M. H. (2016). Measurement invariance conventions and reporting: the state of the art and future directions for psychological research. Developmental Review, 41, 71–90.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Roche, K. M., & Leventhal, T. (2009). Beyond neighborhood poverty: family management, neighborhood disorder, and adolescents’ early sexual onset. Journal of Family Psychology, 23(6), 819.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Roche, K. M., Little, T. D., Ghazarian, S. R., Lambert, S. F., Calzada, E. J., & Schulenberg, J. E. (2019). Parenting processes and adolescent adjustment in immigrant Latino families: the use of residual centering to address the multicollinearity problem. Journal of Latinx Psychology, 7(1), 6.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roche, K. M., Vaquera, E., Delbasso, C. A., Kuperminc, G. P., Cordon, M., & Rivera, M. I. (2020). Worry, behavior change, and daily adversity: how US Latino/a parents experience contemporary immigration actions and news. Journal of Family Issues. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X19898512.

  • Romero, A. J., Gonzalez, H., & Smith, B. A. (2015). Qualitative exploration of adolescent discrimination: experiences and responses of Mexican-American parents and teens. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 24(6), 1531–1543.

    Google Scholar 

  • Santisteban, D., Coatsworth, J. D., Briones, E., Kurtines, W., & Szapocznik, J. (2012). Beyond acculturation: an investigation of the relationship of familism and parenting to behavior problems in Hispanic youth. Family Process, 51(4), 470–482.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Schaefer, E. S. (1965). A configurational analysis of children’s reports of parent behavior. Journal of Consulting Psychology, 29(6), 552.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Schumacker, R. E., & Lomax, R. G. (2016). A beginner’s guide to structural equation modeling. New York, NY: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • StataCorp. (2017). Stata Statistical Software: Release 15. College Station, TX: StataCorp LP.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stein, G. L., Castro-Schilo, L., Cavanaugh, A., Mejia, Y., Christophe, N., & Robins, R. (2019). When discrimination hurts: the longitudinal impact of increases in peer discrimination on anxiety and depressive symptoms in Mexican-origin youth. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 48(5), 864–875.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Stein, G. L., Cavanaugh, A., Supple, A., Kiang, L., & Gonzalez, L. M. (2018). Typologies of discrimination: Latinx youth’s experiences in an emerging immigrant community. Developmental Psychology, 55(4), 846–854. https://doi.org/10.1037/dev0000638.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Umaña-Taylor, A. J. (2016). A post-racial society in which ethnic-racial discrimination still exists and has significant consequences for youths’ adjustment. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 25(2), 111–118.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Roushanac Partovi, MPH at The George Washington University for her careful and difficult work on recruitment, the calculation of response and retention rates, data cleaning, collection, and management, and for her contributions to measurement and structural models.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Prevention and Community Health, Milken Institute School of Public Health, The George Washington University, 950 New Hampshire Ave, Suite 300, Washington, DC, 20052, USA

    Morgane Bennett, Kathleen M. Roche & David M. Huebner

  2. Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Columbia College of Arts and Sciences, The George Washington University, 2125 G St. NW, Washington, DC, 20052, USA

    Sharon F. Lambert

Authors
  1. Morgane Bennett
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kathleen M. Roche
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. David M. Huebner
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Sharon F. Lambert
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

M.B. conceived the study, conducted analyses, and drafted the manuscript; K.M.R. secured funding for, designed, and implemented Caminos, the parent study from which data for the current study were collected, and contributed to the design of the current study, interpretation of findings, and drafting the manuscript; D.M.H. and S.F.L. contributed to the design of the current study and assisted in critical revisions of the manuscript for intellectual content. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

Funding

This work was funded by research grant R01 HD090232 (PI: Roche) from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health.

Data Sharing Declaration

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but will be available from the corresponding author at a later date.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Morgane Bennett.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Investigators obtained a Certificate of Confidentiality from the National Institutes of Health and Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval from The George Washington University.

Informed Consent

Informed parental consent and youth assent was obtained for all study participants.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bennett, M., Roche, K.M., Huebner, D.M. et al. School Discrimination and Changes in Latinx Adolescents’ Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms. J Youth Adolescence 49, 2020–2033 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01256-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-020-01256-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation