Dataset Information

Racial Discrimination during Adolescence Predicts Mental Health Deterioration in Adulthood: Gender Differences among Blacks.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Despite the existing knowledge regarding the negative mental health consequences of perceived racial discrimination, very few researchers have used a longitudinal design with long-term follow-up periods to explore gender differences in this association over time.

Objective

The current longitudinal study aimed to investigate gender differences in predictive role of an increase in perceived racial discrimination during adolescence for mental health deterioration a decade later when they are transitioning to young adulthood.

Methods

Current study followed 681 Black youths for 18?years from 1994 (mean age 15) to 2012 (mean age 32). All participants spent their adolescence and transition to young adulthood in an economically disadvantaged urban area in the Midwest of the United States. Independent variable was perceived racial discrimination measured in 1999 and 2002. Outcomes were psychological symptoms (anxiety and depression) measured in 1999 and at end of follow-up (2012). Covariates included sociodemographics (age, family structure, and parental employment) measured in 1994. Gender was used to define groups in a multigroup structural equation model to test moderating effects.

Results

Multigroup structural equation modeling showed that among male Black youth, an increase in perceived racial discrimination from age 20 to 23 was predictive for an increase in symptoms of anxiety and depression from age 20 to 32. Among female Black youth, change in perceived racial discrimination did not predict future change in depressive or anxiety symptoms.

Conclusion

While racial discrimination is associated with negative mental health consequences for both genders, male and female Black youth differ in regard to long-term effects of an increase in perceived discrimination on deterioration of psychological symptoms. Black males seem to be more susceptible than Black females to the psychological effects of an increase in racial discrimination over time.

SUBMITTER: Assari S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5447045 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Racial Discrimination during Adolescence Predicts Mental Health Deterioration in Adulthood: Gender Differences among Blacks.

Assari Shervin S Moazen-Zadeh Ehsan E Caldwell Cleopatra Howard CH Zimmerman Marc A MA

Frontiers in public health 20170529

<h4>Background</h4>Despite the existing knowledge regarding the negative mental health consequences of perceived racial discrimination, very few researchers have used a longitudinal design with long-term follow-up periods to explore gender differences in this association over time.<h4>Objective</h4>The current longitudinal study aimed to investigate gender differences in predictive role of an increase in perceived racial discrimination during adolescence for mental health deterioration a decade ...[more]

PMID: 28611972

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Project description:Black adolescents in the US are less likely to use alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco compared with non-Hispanic Whites, but little is known about the consistency of these racial/ethnic differences in substance use across the lifecourse. Understanding lifecourse patterning of substance use is critical to inform prevention and intervention efforts. Data were drawn from four waves of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health; Wave 1 (mean age = 16): N = 14,101; Wave 4 (mean age = 29): N = 11,365). Outcomes included alcohol (including at-risk drinking, defined as 5+/4+ drinks per drinking occasion or 14+/7+ drinks per week on average for men and women, respectively), cigarette, and marijuana use in 30-day/past-year. Random effects models stratified by gender tested differences-in-differences for wave by race interactions, controlling for age, parents' highest education/income, public assistance, and urbanicity. Results indicate that for alcohol, Whites were more likely to use alcohol and engage in at-risk alcohol use at all waves. By mean age 29.9, for example, White men were 2.1 times as likely to engage in at-risk alcohol use (95% C.I. 1.48-2.94). For cigarettes, Whites were more likely to use cigarettes and smoked more at Waves 1 through 3; there were no differences by Wave 4 for men and a diminished difference for women, and difference-in-difference models indicated evidence of convergence. For marijuana, there were no racial/ethnic differences in use for men at any wave. For women, by Wave 4 there was convergence in marijuana use and a cross-over in frequency of use among users, with Black women using more than White women. In summary, no convergence or cross-over for racial/ethnic differences through early adulthood in alcohol use; convergence for cigarette as well as marijuana use. Lifecourse patterns of health disparities secondary to heavy substance use by race and ethnicity may be, at least in part, due to age-related variation in cigarette and marijuana use.

Dataset Information

Racial Discrimination during Adolescence Predicts Mental Health Deterioration in Adulthood: Gender Differences among Blacks.

Background

Objective

Methods

Results

Conclusion

Publications

Racial Discrimination during Adolescence Predicts Mental Health Deterioration in Adulthood: Gender Differences among Blacks.

Similar Datasets

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