Ethnic Identification As a Protective Factor for Latino Early Adolescents Experiencing Perceived Discrimination and Depressive Symptoms

 Background/Purpose:  Latinos are one of the fastest growing underserved groups in the US, and it is projected that by 2020 nearly 25% of early adolescents in the US will be of Latino descent. Despite their increasing presence in the US, Latino early adolescents face a number of challenges such as poverty, residing in neighborhoods with higher violence rates, and experiencing racial-ethnic discrimination. Prior research has found that such stressful experiences may threaten the well-being of Latino early adolescents, particularly with respect to their mental health status. Developing feelings of pride, belongingness, and positivity toward one’s ethnic group (i.e., ethnic identification) may make Latino early adolescents more resilient against the negative effects of perceived discrimination. Thus, examining whether ethnic identification attenuates the association between perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms will be highly informative to identifying protective factors that mental health interventions, campaigns, and community services can promote.

 Methods: To examine the protective role of ethnic identification against the detrimental effects of perceived discrimination on Latino early adolescents’ depressive symptoms, Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression was used to analyze data from a longitudinal sample (n=277) of Latino 6^th-8^th grade students. The missing data were handled with multiple imputation. Students’ experiences with perceived discrimination at wave 1 (beginning of fall semester) and depressive symptoms at wave 3 (end of spring semester) were included in the analysis, while controlling for early adolescents’ demographic information (e.g., socioeconomic status, adolescents’ and mothers’ nativity, adolescents’ sex, adolescents’ age) and past depressive symptoms.

Results: The full regression model achieved significance. At the initial wave of data collection, at least 50% of the Latino early adolescents had experienced discrimination in the last six months prior to completing the survey. The first model revealed a significant positive association between discrimination and depressive symptoms, while taking into account the demographic factors. In the second model, adolescents’ ethnic identification was added, and it was negatively associated with depressive symptoms. In the last model, the interaction term between ethnic identification and perceived discrimination was added. Overall, the findings indicate that perceived discrimination was positively related to depressive symptoms and ethnic identification was a significant moderator; for Latino early adolescents who strongly identified with their ethnic background, the positive association between discrimination and depressive symptoms was not significant. By contrast, for Latino early adolescents who did not strongly identify with their ethnic background, the positive association discrimination and depressive symptoms was significant.

Conclusions and Implications: Utilizing longitudinal survey data, the current study addressed an important question regarding Latino early adolescents’ perceived discrimination and its association with depressive symptoms, providing evidence for a significant positive association. It also found support for the protective role of ethnic identification against perceived discrimination. This study’s results are consistent with the previous studies, and it suggests that community and school-based services should try to reduce discrimination. Also, social work interventions can support Latino early adolescents by promoting ethnic identification, with a particular focus on developing a sense of belongingness, pride, and positivity.