Racial Discrimination and Conduct Problems Among Black American Youth: The Moderating Effect of Ethnic Racial Socialization.

PURPOSE

Experiencing racial discrimination in everyday life can have lasting detrimental effects on Black American youth. Conduct problems are one of the consequences of discriminatory experiences. The present study examined whether the effects of discrimination on conduct problems vary by the levels of ethnic-racial socialization youth experience.

METHODS

A sample of 472 Black American youth provided five waves of survey data from ages 11-15 (June 2013 - December 2017). We tested the moderating effect of different types of ethnic-racial socialization (preparation for bias, cultural socialization, promotion of mistrust) on the association between discrimination and conduct problems using logistic regression analyses.

RESULTS

We found that cultural socialization significantly moderates the effects of racial discrimination on conduct problems. Promotion of mistrust was directly associated with increased risk for conduct problems.

DISCUSSION

Findings suggest that high levels of cultural socialization are beneficial to mitigate the effect of discrimination on conduct problems. Promotion of mistrust needs to be avoided but future research is warranted to investigate if promotion of mistrust can be helpful to youth in certain contexts.