Discrimination, Skin Color Satisfaction, and Adjustment among Latinx American Youth
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EMPIRICAL RESEARCH
Discrimination, Skin Color Satisfaction, and Adjustment among Latinx American Youth Lisa Kiang1 Kathy Espino-Pérez2 Gabriela L. Stein3 ●
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Received: 29 January 2020 / Accepted: 9 April 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract Race-related biases and discrimination and easily observable race-related characteristics, such as skin color, appear to go hand and hand, but it remains unclear how these factors work together to shape youth development. The current study addresses this gap by investigating skin color satisfaction as a mediator between perceptions of discrimination and adjustment. Data are from a cross-sectional sample of Latinx youth (N = 175; Mage = 12.86; 51.4% female; 86.9% US-born) who completed measures of foreigner-based objectification, peer discrimination, adult discrimination, selfesteem, depressive symptoms, and the importance or value attributed to academic success. Evidence of significant indirect effects of skin color satisfaction in the links between foreigner-based objectification and self-esteem as well as academic importance was found. Skin color satisfaction did not mediate links between either peer or adult discrimination and self-esteem, depression, and academic importance. The results provide support that being perceived as a foreigner has negative implications for Latinx youth adjustment through skin color satisfaction. The present study expands understanding of how different forms of differential treatment may affect minoritized youth. Implications and future research ideas are discussed. Keywords
Foreigner objectification Discrimination Skin color satisfaction Adjustment Latinx adolescents ●
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Introduction Historical shifts in immigration and increased diversification of the US population have many real-world implications including the redrawing of societal color lines and a resurgence of interest in the developmental impact of skin color more generally speaking (Lee and Bean 2007). In light of xenophobia, anti-immigrant sentiments, bullying, and “veiled racism” in the modern-day US rhetoric (Shattell and Villalba 2008; Southern Poverty Law Center 2017), issues of race and phenotype are highly salient. A collection of race-related processes exist (e.g., unfair treatment, stereotypes, phenotypical perceptions), and such experiences are intricately linked. For
* Lisa Kiang [email protected] 1
Department of Psychology, Wake Forest University, P. O. Box 7778, Winston-Salem, NC 27104, USA
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Western Oregon University, Monmouth, OR 97361, USA
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UNC-Greensboro, Greensboro, NC 27412, USA
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example, the underlying core of racism and discrimination stem from biases related to “phenotypicality” or the degree to which individuals resemble prototypical members of their ethnic or racial group based on race-related physical characteristics such as skin color (Maddox 2004). However, it is surprisingly unclear how these factors work together to shape youth development, especially in light of those f
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