Discrimination Matters: Relations of Perceived Discrimination to Student Mental Health
- PDF / 814,086 Bytes
- 13 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
- 13 Downloads / 258 Views
ORIGINAL PAPER
Discrimination Matters: Relations of Perceived Discrimination to Student Mental Health Mollie R. Weeks1 · Amanda L. Sullivan1
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract Although instances of discrimination are increasing across US schools, little is known about the relations of discrimination to mental health outcomes across the full range of school ages or how experiences of discrimination interact with various sociodemographic characteristics. This study entailed analysis of data from approximately 60,700 respondents to the 2011– 2012 National Survey of Children’s Health to explore the associations between racial/ethnic discrimination and depression, anxiety, oppositional defiant disorder, and conduct disorder for children and youth ages 6–17. Multivariate logistic regression indicated that experiencing racial discrimination was associated with significantly increased odds of having a range of mental health problems including depression, anxiety problems, and behavior disorders. Moreover, an interaction effect was observed between discrimination, race, and anxiety. No interactions were observed for variables related to age groupings. Implications for school-based mental health practitioners and researchers are discussed. Keywords Racial discrimination · Externalizing disorders · Internalizing disorders · School-based mental health services · Social-emotional wellbeing
Introduction In the context of a rapidly changing political and social climate in the U.S., discriminatory behavior directed toward children and youth has spiked (Southern Poverty Law Center, 2016). Racial/ethnic discrimination, or differential treatment and outcomes due to race (Blank, Dabady, & Citro, 2004), has the potential to be a chronic stressor for children and youth and may reduce their mental health and community functioning (Sanders-Phillips, 2009). Unfortunately, comparatively little is known about how discrimination influences mental health as children age (Alegría, Green, McLaughlin, & Loder, 2015), particularly across the range of school ages, relative to the robustness of the research base for adults. As such, the purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between parent-reported racial discrimination and both internalizing (depression and * Mollie R. Weeks [email protected] 1
School Psychology Program, Department of Educational Psychology, College of Education and Human Development, University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, 56 E River Rd., 250 Education Sciences Building, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
anxiety; Caughy, O’Campo, & Muntaner, 2004) and externalizing (oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder; Alegría et al., 2012) problems for school-age children and adolescents using a nationally representative survey of children’s health needs.
Discrimination and Mental Health Outcomes The National Survey of Children’s Health indicates that 26.3% of children have at least one chronic health condition, approximately half of whom report a moderate to severe impa
Data Loading...
