Department of Prevention & Community Health, Milken Institute School of Public Health, the George Washington University.
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, the George Washington University.
J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol. 2024 Jul-Aug;53(4):652-668. doi: 10.1080/15374416.2022.2093209. Epub 2022 Jul 19.
U.S. Latino/a adolescents experience high levels of ethnic discrimination, particularly in new immigrant destinations. Due to the salience of peers during adolescence, this study examined how peer discrimination related directly and indirectly, through deviant peer affiliation, to changes in Latino/a adolescents' internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Culture-specific moderators hypothesized to buffer discrimination impacts on adolescent symptomology included Spanish language enculturation and adolescents' social ties to relatives in the family's country-of-origin.
The sample of 547 Latino/a adolescent participants from the Caminos al Bienestar study (55.4% female; age = 12.8, range = 11-16) was selected at random from middle schools in a large, suburban school district in Atlanta, Georgia. Three time points of survey data spaced roughly 6 months apart were collected during 2018 and 2019.
Results from longitudinal structural equation models revealed that peer discrimination was associated indirectly with increased externalizing symptoms, through increases in affiliation with deviant peers ( = 0.05; SE = 0.02; B = 0.02; 95% CI = 0.01, 0.09). We did not observe direct or indirect effects of peer discrimination on changes in internalizing symptoms, and we found no significant protective effects of either Spanish language enculturation or social ties with the country-of-origin.
Ethnic discrimination by peers may lead to deviant peer affiliation and, in turn, increased externalizing behaviors. Future research identifying protective factors that buffer discrimination impacts on deviant peer affiliation is needed to inform the development of interventions that can prevent Latino/a adolescents' externalizing symptoms.
美国拉丁裔青少年经历着高水平的种族歧视，尤其是在新移民目的地。由于青少年时期同伴的重要性，本研究考察了同伴歧视如何直接和间接通过偏差同伴的联系与拉丁裔青少年内化和外化症状的变化相关。假设文化特异性调节因素，如西班牙语文化适应和青少年与原籍国亲属的社会联系，可缓冲歧视对青少年症状的影响。
来自 Caminos al Bienestar 研究的 547 名拉丁裔青少年参与者（55.4%为女性；年龄 = 12.8 岁，范围为 11-16 岁）是从佐治亚州亚特兰大大都会区一个大型郊区学区的中学中随机选择的。在 2018 年和 2019 年期间，收集了大约相隔 6 个月的三个时间点的调查数据。
纵向结构方程模型的结果表明，同伴歧视通过与偏差同伴的联系增加（β = 0.05；SE = 0.02；B = 0.02；95%CI = 0.01，0.09）与外化症状的增加间接相关。我们没有观察到同伴歧视对内化症状变化的直接或间接影响，也没有发现西班牙语文化适应或与原籍国的社会联系的任何显著保护作用。
同伴的种族歧视可能导致偏差同伴的联系，进而导致外化行为增加。未来需要进行研究，以确定保护因素，缓冲歧视对偏差同伴联系的影响，从而为制定可以预防拉丁裔青少年外化症状的干预措施提供信息。
