Shifting and Persisting in the Face of Life Stressors: Consequences for Adolescent Health

Promoting Cross-Racial and Ethnic Friendships in Schools: Roles of School Diversity and Interracial Climate and Intersections with Immigrant Status

Cross-racial/ethnic friendships are associated with positive outcomes related to social cohesion; however, attention to the specific school contextual factors that promote these friendships during adolescence and how such factors vary by adolescents' social positions is lacking. This study examined how school diversity and interracial climate were related to students' friendship diversity and whether these associations differed by immigrant status. The participants were from a diverse sample of 591 U.S. 9th graders who were approximately 14- to 15-year-old across 29 schools (10% Asian American, 4% Black, 34% Latino/a/x, 40% White, and 12% other or multiple races/ethnicities; 53% female). The results indicated that higher school racial/ethnic diversity was linked to greater friendship diversity. However, this relation diminished as school diversity increased and was less pronounced among adolescents from immigrant families. Youth from immigrant families who perceived a more positive interracial climate among peers reported having more diverse friendships compared to their counterparts from immigrant families in the same schools. The findings highlight the facilitating roles of school diversity and peer interracial climate in positive interracial interactions and the varying influences of adolescents' immigrant status.

The co-development of ethnic identity and future orientation among ethnically/racially minoritized adolescents: A parallel process model

This brief report examined the co-development of ethnic/racial identity (ERI) and future orientation among ethnically/racially minoritized adolescents. The current study used three waves of longitudinal data (N = 619) spanning 8th to 10th grades from a diverse sample (55.9% Latino/a/x, 21.2% biracial/multiethnic/other, 13.2% Asian, 9.7% Black; 54.1% female; 57.4% economically disadvantaged). We investigated the developmental trajectories of future orientation and ethnic identity and determined if these trajectories were interrelated. The results of the single and parallel process latent growth curve models showed that mean levels of ERI increased while future orientation decreased over time. Initial levels of ERI were significantly related to accelerated declines in future orientation. Exploratory analyses, which tested distinct forms of ethnic/racial discrimination as moderators, revealed that the negative association between ERI in 8th grade and the rate of change in future orientation was significant only at average and high levels of educator-perpetrated discrimination. These results point to complex interrelations between ERI formation and experiences of ethnic/racial discrimination and their influence on trajectories of future orientation during early to middle adolescence.

Shift-and-Persist Strategies and Psychological Well-Being: Where Adolescents Stand on Social Ladder Matters

OBJECTIVES

Shift-and-persist coping strategies have been demonstrated to be beneficial for physical health of individuals in low socioeconomic status (SES); however, their impacts on psychological well-being remain less clear. This study aimed to examine: (1) whether the protective effects of shift-and-persist with respect to psychological well-being (i.e., depressive symptoms and subjective well-being) only exist among adolescents with lower (vs. higher) subjective SES, and (2) what drives the potential benefits, shifting strategy or persisting strategy, or both of them?

METHODS

This study recruited 686 middle school students (54.5% male; Mage = 12.57 years, SD = 0.65) from Guangdong Province, China, in January 2019, and they completed measures of subjective SES (i.e., perceived family social status), shift-and-persist strategies, depressive symptoms, subjective well-being, and demographic information.

RESULTS

Adolescents who engaged in more shift-and-persist strategies reported fewer depressive symptoms and higher levels of subjective well-being, with stronger effects among those lower (vs. higher) in subjective SES. When further exploring what drove these effects, results showed that persisting strategy was associated with fewer depressive symptoms and higher levels of subjective well-being, with more pronounced effects for adolescents with lower (vs. higher) subjective SES. The shifting strategy was associated with fewer depressive symptoms only among those with lower subjective SES, while associated with higher levels of subjective well-being regardless of subjective SES levels.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings support the applicability of the shift-and-persist model to both positive and negative indicators of psychological well-being and enrich the theory by providing preliminary evidence for the domain-specific roles of shifting strategy in buffering the negative psychological effects of low-SES contexts.

Coping with ethnic-racial discrimination: Protective-reactive effects of shift-and-persist coping on internalizing symptoms among Black American adolescents

Ethnic-racial discrimination has pervasive negative effects on Black youth's mental health; therefore, it is crucial to identify factors that provide resilience against discrimination. Two promising factors to help youth cope are ethnic-racial identity (how one feels about their ethnicity/race) and shift-and-persist coping (reappraising and accepting an uncontrollable stressor while remaining optimistic about the future). While there is existing scholarship on ethnic-racial identity among Black youth, this work has not yet assessed the impacts of shift-and-persist in this population. Using a sample of 155 Black youth (ages 13-17), the current study examined the interplay between discrimination, ethnic-racial identity, shift-and-persist coping, and internalizing symptoms. Symptoms of depression and anxiety were positively associated with discrimination and negatively associated with shift-and-persist. Significant interactions between discrimination and shift-and-persist predicting both depressive and anxiety symptoms revealed significant negative associations between shift-and-persist and internalizing symptoms at low and average, but not high discrimination levels. Effects are, thus, protective-reactive; the protective effects of shift-and-persist are not significant for youth facing high levels of discrimination. Ethnic-racial identity, surprisingly, was not significantly associated with either depressive or anxiety symptoms, nor did it interact with shift-and-persist as it has in studies of Latinx youth. By understanding the protective benefits of shift-and-persist and ethnic-racial identity in Black youth, during a pivotal period for mental health, we can provide this growing population with tools to lessen the maladaptive outcomes associated with discrimination.

"Some people will tell jokes to you; some people be racist:" A mixed-method examination of racist jokes and adolescents' well-being

This study examined how adolescents make meaning of racist jokes and their impact on daily well-being using a sequential mixed-methods research design with interview (N = 20; 60% girls, 5% gender-nonconforming; 45% Asian American, 40% Latina/o/x, 10% Black, 5% biracial/multiethnic) and daily diary data (N = 168; 54% girls; 57% Latina/o/x, 21% biracial/multiethnic, 10% Asian American, 9% White, 4% Black). Qualitative results revealed that racist jokes were common, distinct from other overt forms of discrimination, and perceived as harmless when perpetrated by friends. Quantitatively, approximately half of adolescents reported hearing at least one racist joke during the study period, and racist jokes by friends were associated with higher daily angry, anxious, and depressed moods and stress. Racist jokes by known others and strangers were also significantly associated with poorer well-being, although less consistently. Findings highlight the hidden harmful effects of racist jokes on adolescents' daily mood and stress.