School Connectedness As a Mediator between School-Based Racial Discrimination and Depression Among Adolescents

Background/Purpose:

Research indicates that school connectedness serves as a protective factor against adolescent depression. Conversely, experiencing racial discrimination is correlated with depression. Despite growing evidence on the independent effects of school connectedness and racial discrimination on adolescent depression, few studies have explored the pathway through which racial discrimination alters school connectedness, thereby exacerbating depression. This gap underscores the need for the present analysis. This study examined the mediating role of school connectedness on the relationship between school-based racial discrimination and depression among high school students after controlling for age, race, sex, LGBT identification, socioeconomic status, grades, and social media use.

Methods:

Data were drawn from a nationally representative sample of high school students (N=10,059) from the 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Racial discrimination was measured as a binary variable based on responses to an item asking whether students had experienced unfair treatment at school due to their race or ethnicity throughout their lives. School connectedness was assessed using a 5-point scale. Depression (0 = no, 1 = yes) was defined as whether students experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness almost every day for at least two weeks in the past 12 months that interfered with their usual activities. Multivariate logistic regression with mediation was applied using Hayes’ PROCESS macro Model 4 in SPSS version 29.0.

Results:

The final sample comprised 10,059 students with a mean age of 16.1 years. Among these students, 44.0% reported experiencing depression and 15.3% reported racial discrimination. The largest proportions of students were White (43.3%), male (50.6%), and heterosexual (74.1%).

The analysis revealed that the effect of racial discrimination on school connectedness was negative (b = -0.27, p<.001), indicating that higher levels of racial discrimination were associated with lower levels of school connectedness. In addition, there was a negative relationship between school connectedness and depression (b = -0.34, p<.001), with an odds ratio (OR) of 0.71, indicating that each one-unit increase in school connectedness reduced the odds of depression by 29%. The direct effect of perceived racial discrimination on depression was significant (b= .95, p<.001), corresponding to an OR of 2.59. This indicates that students who experienced racial discrimination had almost three times higher odds of having depression compared to those who did not report racial discrimination. The indirect effect of racial discrimination on depression via school connectedness was significant (b = 0.09, 95% CI [0.07, 0.12], OR = 1.10), indicating that school connectedness mediated the relationship between racial discrimination and depression.

Conclusion/Implications:

The findings indicate that school connectedness significantly mediates the link between racial and ethnic discrimination and depression. Specifically, exposure to discrimination correlates with diminished feelings of connectedness within the school environment, subsequently increasing the likelihood of experiencing depression. These results highlight the need for supportive and inclusive school climates to mitigate depression among adolescents affected by racial discrimination. The implications suggest a need for school-based programs that promote and strengthen student connectedness. Moreover, future longitudinal studies are necessary to explore causal pathways and long-term effects of racial discrimination on youth mental health.