T. Denny Sanford School of Social and Family Dynamics, Arizona State University.
Department of Psychology, University of Michigan.
Cultur Divers Ethnic Minor Psychol. 2018 Jan;24(1):40-50. doi: 10.1037/cdp0000162. Epub 2017 May 11.
This study bridges the empirical research on pubertal timing effects, racial identity, and school and neighborhood context to understand the pubertal development and depression link among Black adolescent females. We examined whether racial identity content dimensions moderated the relation between pubertal timing and depressive symptoms among Black adolescent females and the moderating capacity of school and neighborhood racial composition.
We administered measures of pubertal development, racial identity, and depressive symptoms to a sample of 217 Black adolescent females, aged 14 to 18. We assessed racial centrality, private regard, and public regard and used archival data to obtain the racial composition of participants' neighborhoods and schools.
The results indicated that high racial centrality levels were linked to depressive symptoms for adolescent girls with late pubertal timing relative to their early counterparts, which was stronger for girls attending not majority Black schools. The results also indicated that low public regard levels were linked to depressive symptoms among adolescent girls with early pubertal timing relative to their late counterparts, which was stronger for girls attending not majority Black schools.
The current study provides evidence that racial identity and school racial context moderate the effects of pubertal timing differentially for early and late maturing Black girls. The results support the notion that the psychological effects of pubertal timing on internalizing symptoms are context dependent. (PsycINFO Database Record
本研究填补了青春期时间效应、种族认同以及学校和社区环境方面的实证研究空白，旨在理解青春期黑人少女的发育和抑郁之间的关系。我们考察了种族认同内容维度是否调节了青春期时间与黑人少女抑郁症状之间的关系，以及学校和社区种族构成的调节能力。
我们对 217 名年龄在 14 至 18 岁的黑人少女进行了青春期发育、种族认同和抑郁症状的测量。我们评估了种族中心性、私人评价和公众评价，并使用档案数据获得了参与者所在社区和学校的种族构成。
结果表明，相对于青春期早的同龄人，种族中心性水平高与青春期晚的黑人少女的抑郁症状有关，而对于在非多数黑人学校上学的女孩，这种关系更强。结果还表明，相对于青春期晚的同龄人，公众评价水平低与青春期早的黑人少女的抑郁症状有关，而对于在非多数黑人学校上学的女孩，这种关系更强。
本研究提供了证据表明，种族认同和学校种族环境对早期和晚期成熟的黑人女孩的青春期时间效应具有不同的调节作用。结果支持了这样一种观点，即青春期时间对内化症状的心理影响是依赖于情境的。
