Multiple Discrimination and Substance Use Intention in Late Childhood: Findings From the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study

PURPOSE

The study aimed to investigate longitudinal, bidirectional associations between discrimination due to multiple reasons (race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, weight; termed multiple discrimination) and substance use (SU) intention in late childhood. These associations were compared across youth with no, single, and multiple (i.e., intersecting) marginalized identities based on race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, and overweight status.

METHODS

Data were drawn from a national sample of youth in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study (N = 8,530; 9-12 years old). Youth reported both their experiences of multiple discrimination (the number of forms of discrimination youth experienced) and SU intention at one-year and two-year follow-ups. Theoretically relevant covariates were included.

RESULTS

Compared to non-marginalized youth (n = 2,689) and youth with single marginalized identities (n = 3,399), youth with intersecting marginalized identities (n = 2,442) reported the highest SU intention and multiple discrimination across waves. Only for this last group, multiple discrimination predicted stronger SU intention subsequently (β = 0.07, 95% confidence interval [0.02, 0.11]), whereas stronger SU intention predicted lower levels of multiple discrimination over time (β = -0.06, 95% confidence interval [-0.09, -0.02]). Sensitivity analyses yielded similar patterns with some nuances among subgroups of youth with varying intersecting marginalized identities.

DISCUSSION

Multiple discrimination predicted stronger SU intention over time in late childhood, particularly among youth with intersecting marginalized identities. Policies and practices should consider addressing multiple discrimination to reduce SU disparities among diverse youth.

Girls Are Better Students but Boys Will Be More Successful at Work: Discordance Between Academic and Career Gender Stereotypes in Middle Childhood

Despite findings of female advantages at school, men still are higher achieving in the workplace. Only a small amount of research has simultaneously investigated stereotypes of these different domains. We investigated whether stereotypes about academic female superiority and paradoxical stereotypes about workplace male superiority coexist. Participants were 1144 Grades 1-6 students (M_age = 9.66) from Hong Kong. They completed measures of academic gender stereotypes and meta-stereotypes, career gender stereotypes, career-related motivation for school excellence, and school engagement. Teachers provided school exam scores. We examined (1) gender and age differences, (2) the relationship between the stereotypes, and (3) the moderating role of these stereotypes in gender differences in school engagement, exam scores, and career-related motivation. Both boys and girls perceived girls as better students but a belief in female superiority did not translate to the career domain. Although both boys and girls beginning primary school believed their gender was superior in both domains, those at the end of primary school believed that girls do better at school while men are more successful at work. Also, at the end of primary school, these two stereotypes were more discordant on the individual level, i.e., the tendency for children who believed that girls perform better at school to also believe that women perform better at work was weaker in older children. Academic gender stereotypes moderated gender differences in school engagement and exam scores. Understanding why children hold discordant beliefs about success in different arenas and combating both academic and career stereotypes early may help improve gender equality for both genders.

Examining the moderating role of regulatory fit on stereotype threat among Ugandan adolescents

Prior research in Western contexts has tested the hypothesis that stereotype threat induces a prevention focus and that in contexts where both prevention focus and stereotype threat are simultaneously activated, members of stereotyped groups experience a performance boost due to the fit between one's goal orientation and the task demands (i.e. regulatory fit or stereotype fit). The present Study tested this hypothesis with high school students in Uganda, East Africa. Study findings revealed that in this cultural context where high-stakes testing fosters a predominantly promotion-focused testing culture, individual differences in regulatory focus interacted with the broader cultural, regulatory focus test culture to impact student performance.

Toward a New Approach to Investigate the Role of Working Memory in Stereotype Threat Effects

Stereotype threat arises when the activation of negative stereotypes about a group impairs performance of stigmatized individuals on stereotype relevant tasks. There is ample evidence that stereotype threat leads to performance detriments by consuming executive resources. Several studies indeed showed that working memory (WM) mediates stereotype threat effects among young adults. More recently, researchers have sought to understand whether the same mechanisms underlie age-based stereotype threat, but findings are mixed regarding the role of WM and some authors rather favor a motivational explanation based on regulatory fit. The present review critically appraises the empirical support for distinct forms of stereotype threat effects mediated by distinct mechanisms. We propose a novel approach based on one of the most recent WM models, the time-based resource sharing model, to evaluate the impact of stereotype threat on attentional resources in WM among both young and older adults.

Racial Stereotype Endorsement, Academic Engagement, Mindset, and Performance among Black and White American Adolescents

The role of racial stereotypes in youth's academic achievement becomes salient during adolescence. Yet, very few studies have investigated whether associations between Black and White American adolescents' stereotype endorsement and their cognitive engagement, mindset beliefs, and performance in math differed by stereotype valence (i.e., positive versus negative) and youth gender. To address these gaps, this 3-year longitudinal study (n = 2546; age range = 11-16; 50% males, 60% White, 40% Black; 57% qualified for free lunch) investigated (a) whether Black and White American adolescents' endorsement of positive and negative racial stereotypes differentially related to their cognitive engagement, ability mindset, and math performance and (b) whether gender moderated these relations. The results revealed that endorsing either negative or positive racial stereotypes (as opposed to those with unbiased beliefs) was linked to lower cognitive engagement and stronger fixed mindsets in math 1 year after, while endorsing negative racial stereotypes was linked to lower math scores. In addition, the intersection of adolescents' race and gender moderated some of the observed effects. The inverse link between negative stereotype endorsement and math cognitive engagement was significant for Black girls but not for Black boys. The positive link between negative stereotype endorsement and fixed math ability mindset was stronger for Black girls than Black boys, whereas the link was stronger for White boys than White girls. These findings shed light on the direction and strength of the links between racial stereotype valence and math outcomes among Black and White youth.

Race-related Stressors and Resources for Resilience: Associations With Emotional Health, Conduct Problems, and Academic Investment Among African American Early Adolescents

OBJECTIVE

African American youths in the United States grow up in a society with a long, pervasive, and living history of interpersonal and institutional racism. This study examined whether race-related stressors (awareness and experiences of racism) and resources for resilience (racial-ethnic connectedness and perceptions of embedded achievement) were associated with emotional health, conduct problems, and academic investment among African American early adolescents. Embedded achievement is the belief that achievement is a part of one's racial or ethnic group identity.

METHOD

Participants were recruited from an urban school and youth club (N = 75, mean age = 11.6 years, 71% male participants). Structured interviews were administered to youths.

RESULTS

Adjusting for age and sex, racial-ethnic connectedness and embedded achievement were associated with fewer emotional problems and conduct problems. In addition, embedded achievement was associated with greater academic investment. Racial-ethnic connectedness modified associations between awareness and experiences of racism and emotional problems; racism was associated with more emotional problems, but only among youths with lower levels of racial-ethnic connectedness. Youths' perceptions of embedded achievement modified an association between experiences of racism and conduct problems; experiences of racism were associated with more conduct problems, but only among youths with lower perceptions of embedded achievement.

CONCLUSION

Race-related resources for resilience appear to promote emotional, behavioral, and academic well-being among African American youths and to confer protection when youths are confronted with the stress and adversity of racism. Health professionals can advocate for policies and practices to combat racism and to foster racial pride and connectedness among youths of color.

Parental Perceptions of Child and Adolescent Mental Health During the COVID-19 Pandemic in Argentina

Background

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments have implemented preventive measures towards reducing infections. These conditions can affect the mental health of children and adolescents; however, this has not yet been fully explored.

Objective

The aim of the study was to analyze changes in symptomatology and positive emotions in Argentine children and adolescents since the onset of isolation, based on parent/caregiver report. We analyzed differences based on gender, age, socioeconomic status (SS) and containment measure (and their interactions); their associations with symptomatology and positive affect of parents/caregivers; and the moderating effects of sociodemographic factors on these associations.

Method

A total of 1205 caregivers responded to a survey regarding the mental health of children and adolescents under their care. They also completed a set of anxiety, depression, and affect measures about themselves.

Results

A considerable proportion of parents/caregivers perceived changes in their children’s and adolescents’ mental health compared to before the pandemic. Increased levels of anxiety-depression, aggression-irritability, impulsivity-inattention, and dependence-withdrawal were reported, as well as alterations in sleeping and eating habits, and a reduction in positive affect. Differences were observed according to their age and containment measure. Finally, we found correlations between parents/caregivers’ symptomatology and that reported about their children or adolescents. Gender, age and SS moderated some of these relationships.

Conclusions

Continued monitoring of child and adolescent mental health is a fundamental necessity. We recommend the implementation of early intervention strategies to prevent the escalation of serious mental health problems, particularly in those groups that have been most adversely affected since the onset of the pandemic.

The development of awareness of racism in adolescents of color over 4 years of high school

This mixed methods, longitudinal study considered the developing awareness of racism of adolescents of color over 4 years of high school. A series of latent growth models were fit to consider participating adolescents' (n = 643) developing awareness of interpersonal and institutional forms of racism over five waves of surveys. Additionally, four waves of interviews with a subset of adolescents (n = 70) were analyzed through a multistep process consistent with qualitative research methods that seek to balance etic/outsider and emic/insider perspectives Participating adolescents demonstrated significant, linear growth in their awareness of interpersonal and systemic forms of racism between middle and late adolescence. Participating adolescents also most frequently cited examples of racism in the systemic domain of power to demonstrate their understanding of racism, and their invocation of examples of systemic racism grew more frequent as they advanced through high school. The present study revealed that, on average, adolescents' awareness of racism increases significantly between middle and late adolescence, but also that there is considerable heterogeneity in the ways that adolescents of color recognize and understand racism.

"You Never Know Who's Looking at Your Page!": African American Male Adolescents' Perceptions of Emotional Display Rules Online

Social network sites (SNSs) are a powerful new context for adolescent development. We qualitatively investigate African American adolescent boys' (N = 50, mean age = 15.8) perceptions of emotional display rules on SNSs. We present and discuss a taxonomy of display rules for anger, sadness, embarrassment, and excitement. Perceived display rules around anger and sadness were most notable. Participants' understandings of display rules around anger were complex and varied, with many describing threats of violence as marking the line between acceptable and unacceptable expressions. Although youth stated that expressing sadness via SNS could garner emotional support, this was understood somewhat consistently as unacceptable. Overall, our findings suggest that perceptions of emotional display rules on SNSs are varied, complicated, and can be difficult to navigate.

Multiple Disadvantage and Discrimination: Implications for Adolescent Health and Education

Multiply disadvantaged youths exhibit worse health and academic success than their less disadvantaged peers, possibly due to greater exposure to social status-based discrimination. Models that capture the additive burden of disadvantage in tandem with multiple forms of discrimination are needed to explicate the unique and combined impact of these factors on adolescent health and academic outcomes. In addition, protective factors like positive family and peer relationships may attenuate these relationships. This study used data from the Beyond High School Study (N = 9,658), which looked at the transition to adulthood among senior class cohorts from 12 high schools in western Washington state, to investigate the influence of multiple disadvantage, four types of discrimination, and protective resources on student physical and mental health and school grades. Results show that both increased multiple disadvantage statuses and experienced discrimination are associated with decrements across outcomes; however, effects are attenuated when protective resources are considered. Yet, as disadvantages mount, the buffering effect of peer and family resources are dampened. No interaction was found between experienced discrimination and protective resources on outcomes.

Overdiagnosis of ADHD in boys: Stereotype impact on neuropsychological assessment

There is vigorous debate regarding the possibility that ADHD is overdiagnosed in boys. We investigated the impact of the gender stereotype depicting boys as inattentive and impulsive on neuropsychological assessment (observation of psychology students and child's cognitive performance). In experiment 1, after the stereotype was activated, psychology students rated a "boy," a "girl," or a "child" on a behavioral assessment scale. In experiment 2, 103 children (boys and girls) completed neuropsychological tasks under stereotype threat or neutral conditions. The gender stereotype led psychology students to assess a child's behaviors more negatively if they thought the child was a boy. Boys' performance on one cognitive score declined following stereotype threat. Regression path analyses suggested moderation by stigma consciousness. Additionally, there were mediating and suppressing (through stereotype endorsement) effects. Our results suggest that the gender stereotype might contribute to the overdiagnosis of ADHD in boys.

Children rectify inequalities for disadvantaged groups

Children's decisions regarding the allocation of societal resources in the context of preexisting inequalities were investigated. African American and European American children ages 5 to 6 years (n = 91) and 10 to 11 years (n = 94) judged the acceptability of a medical resource inequality on the basis of race, allocated medical supplies, evaluated different resource allocation strategies, and completed a measure of status awareness based on race. With age, children were increasingly aware of wealth status disparities between African Americans and European Americans, and judged a medical resource inequality between groups more negatively. Further, with age, children rectified the resource inequality over perpetuating it, but only when African American children were disadvantaged. With age, children also referenced rights when reasoning about their judgments concerning the disadvantaged African American group. When European American children were disadvantaged, children did not systematically allocate more resources to one group over another. The results are discussed in terms of social inequalities, disadvantaged status, moral judgments, and intergroup attitudes. (PsycINFO Database Record

Children's Perceptions of Social Resource Inequality

Children's perceptions of social resource inequalities were investigated by measuring spontaneous explanations for race-based disparities in access to societal resources. Fifth graders (N = 139, M = 11.14 years, SD = .61 years) viewed animated vignettes depicting hypothetical resource inequalities between institutions serving children of African-American and European-American background. Children frequently explained disparities in terms of institutions' differing financial resources, revealing awareness that economic inequalities often underlie groups' differential access to societal resources. Further, children attributed inequalities to preferential treatment more often when they witnessed African-Americans at a disadvantage than when they witnessed European-Americans at a disadvantage, demonstrating awareness that racial minority groups are more likely to experience restricted access to resources. Finally, children who reasoned about preferential treatment judged inequality, and actions that perpetuated inequality, more negatively than children who attributed inequalities to institutions' differing needs, revealing a link between awareness of discrimination and rejection of social inequalities.

Urban Middle School Students' Stereotypes at the Intersection of Sexual Orientation, Ethnicity, and Gender

Heterosexual urban middle school students' (N = 1,757) stereotypes about gender typicality, intelligence, and aggression were assessed. Students (M_age  = 12.36 years) rated Facebook-like profiles of peers who varied by gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation. Several hypotheses about how the gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation of target peers intersect to shape stereotypes were tested. As predicted, a peer's sexual orientation determined stereotypes of gender typicality, with gay and lesbian students viewed as most atypical. As expected, ethnicity shaped stereotypes of intelligence, with Asian American students seen as most intelligent. Gender, ethnicity, and sexual orientation independently and jointly affected stereotypes of aggression. These results demonstrate the value of an intersectional approach to the study of stereotypes. Implications for future research and practice are offered.

Rectifying social inequalities in a resource allocation task

To investigate whether children rectify social inequalities in a resource allocation task, participants (N=185 African-American and European-American 5-6year-olds and 10-11year-olds) witnessed an inequality of school supplies between peers of different racial backgrounds. Assessments were conducted on how children judged the wrongfulness of the inequality, allocated new resources to racial ingroup and outgroup recipients, evaluated alternative allocation strategies, and reasoned about their decisions. Younger children showed ingroup favorability; their responses differed depending on whether they had witnessed their ingroup or an outgroup at a disadvantage. With age, children increasingly reasoned about the importance of equal access to school supplies and correcting past disparities. Older children judged the resource inequality negatively, allocated more resources to the disadvantaged group, and positively evaluated the actions of others who did the same, regardless of whether they had seen their racial ingroup or an outgroup at a disadvantage. Thus, balancing moral and social group concerns enabled individuals to rectify inequalities and ensure fair access to important resources regardless of racial group membership.

A Transactional/Ecological Perspective on Ethnic-Racial Identity, Socialization, and Discrimination

We first review current literature on three ethnic-racial dynamics that are considered to be resources and stressors in the lives of ethnic-minority youth: ethnic-racial identity, socialization, and discrimination. Next, we propose that a more contextualized view of these ethnic-racial dynamics reveals that they are interdependent, inseparable, and mutually defining and that an ecological/transactional perspective on these ethnic-racial dynamics shifts researchers' gaze from studying them as individual-level processes to studying the features of settings that produce them. We describe what is known about how identity, socialization, and discrimination occur in four microsystems-families, peers, schools, and neighborhoods-and argue that focusing on specific characteristics of these microsystems in which particular types of identity, socialization, and discrimination processes cooccur would be informative.

Trajectories of ethnic-racial discrimination among ethnically diverse early adolescents: associations with psychological and social adjustment

Using longitudinal data, the authors assessed 585 Dominican, Chinese, and African American adolescents (Grades 6-8, M(age) at W1 = 11.83) to determine patterns over time of perceived ethnic-racial discrimination from adults and peers; if these patterns varied by gender, ethnicity, and immigrant status; and whether they are associated with psychological (self-esteem, depressive symptoms) and social (friend and teacher relationship quality, school belonging) adjustment. Two longitudinal patterns for adult discrimination and three longitudinal patterns for peer discrimination were identified using a semiparametric mixture model. These trajectories were distinct with regard to the initial level, shape, and changes in discrimination. Trajectories varied by gender and ethnicity and were significantly linked to psychological and social adjustment. Directions for future research and practice are discussed.

The roots of stereotype threat: when automatic associations disrupt girls' math performance

Although stereotype awareness is a prerequisite for stereotype threat effects (Steele & Aronson, 1995), research showed girls' deficit under stereotype threat before the emergence of math-gender stereotype awareness, and in the absence of stereotype endorsement. In a study including 240 six-year-old children, this paradox was addressed by testing whether automatic associations trigger stereotype threat in young girls. Whereas no indicators were found that children endorsed the math-gender stereotype, girls, but not boys, showed automatic associations consistent with the stereotype. Moreover, results showed that girls' automatic associations varied as a function of a manipulation regarding the stereotype content. Importantly, girls' math performance decreased in a stereotype-consistent, relative to a stereotype-inconsistent, condition and automatic associations mediated the relation between stereotype threat and performance.

Age and Race Differences in Racial Stereotype Awareness and Endorsement

Age and race differences in race stereotype awareness and endorsement were examined in 382 Black and White fourth, sixth, and eighth graders. Youth reported their own beliefs and their perceptions of adults' beliefs about racial differences in ability in two domains: academics and sports. Children's own endorsement of race stereotypes was highly correlated with their perceptions of adults' race stereotypes. Blacks reported stronger traditional sports stereotypes than Whites, and fourth- and sixth-grade Blacks reported roughly egalitarian academic stereotypes. At every grade level, Whites reported academic stereotypes that favored Whites, and sixth and eighth grade Whites reported sports stereotypes that favored Blacks. Results support the tenets of status theory and have implications for identity development and achievement motivation in adolescents.

Racial Socialization in Cross-Racial Families

The purpose of this study was to investigate how multiracial people of African descent experience racism in schools and to understand how their parents or guardians prepare them to cope with incidents of racism in school. Through qualitative in-depth interviews with multiracial and transracially adopted adults of African descent, this study seeks to raise awareness regarding the complexity of family racial dynamics and how family racial socialization processes affect students’ ability to navigate racism. Findings suggested that racial socialization processes varied by the racial composition of the family, that is, families in which there was at least one Black parent or guardian present tended to more openly address issues of race and racism in comparison with families in which there was no Black parent or guardian present. Findings from this study hold theoretical implications for how racial socialization is conceptualized and practical implications for programs and policies designed to support families raising children of African descent.