Study Examines Discrimination and the Mental Health of Mexican-American Adolescents (posted 9/8)

A new study published in in the July 2010 issue of the Journal of Counseling Psychology examined perceived racial/ethnic discrimination as a source of traumatic stress related to health risk behaviors among Mexican-American adolescents. The authors posit a theoretical model that suggests a mechanism by which discrimination can lead to health risk behaviors among Mexican-American adolescents and hypothesize that greater perceived discrimination would be related to higher levels of health risk behaviors, including alcohol use, marijuana use, other drug use, engaging in fights, and number of sexual partners. They further hypothesize that posttraumatic stress symptoms would mediate the relationship between perceived discrimination and health risk behaviors.

"The findings of this study support our theoretical model that perceived racial/ethnic discrimination is related to the development of posttraumatic stress symptoms among Mexican American adolescents, and, in turn, to higher levels of health risk behaviors," write the authors of the study.

National survey data indicate that Mexican-American adolescents engage in many health risk behaviors at higher rates than African-American and white adolescents. Increasing attention has been given to contextual stressors in the social environment in which adolescents live. One important aspect of the social environment for Mexican-American adolescents is experiences of racial/ethnic discrimination owing to their ethnic minority status. Mexican-American adolescents report high levels of perceived racial/ethnic discrimination, which is the subjective experience of being treated unfairly, disrespected, disliked, stereotyped, and rejected relative to others in everyday experience on the basis of race or ethnicity.

Parents and adolescents who had participated in a previous study (Study 1) were re-contacted to participate in the current study (Study 2). For Study 1 (a study that examined marital conflict and adolescent-health-related functioning among Mexican Americans and whites), potential participants were randomly selected from the membership lists of a large health maintenance organization located in a semi-urban community in Northern California. At the time of Study 1, eligible adolescents were ages 12-15. Three years later, families were re-contacted to participate in Study 2, a longitudinal follow-up study examining inter-parental conflict and dating violence among adolescents. At baseline of Study 2, 124 of the Mexican-American adolescents participated in the research.

The authors found that

• Adolescents who perceived more racial/ethnic discrimination reported worse posttraumatic stress symptoms.
• Adolescents who experienced heightened posttraumatic stress symptoms reported more alcohol use, more other drug use, more involvement in fights, and more sexual partners.
• Even when posttraumatic stress was included as a mediator, perceived racial/ethnic discrimination was related to fights; adolescents who perceived more discrimination were involved in more fights.
• The mediated effects of perceived racial/ethnic discrimination on health risk behaviors were significant for alcohol use, other drug use, involvement in fights, and number of sexual partners. Thus, posttraumatic stress symptoms mediated the effects of perceived racial/ethnic discrimination on alcohol use, other drug use, and number of sexual partners and partially mediated the relationship between perceived racial/ethnic discrimination and involvement in fights.

The authors conclude that "this study has important implications for training counseling psychologists and mental health counselors working with Mexican American adolescents in school and community settings."

Flores E, Tschann JM, Dimas JM, et al. 2010. Perceived racial/ethnic discrimination, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and healthy risk behaviors among Mexican American adolescents. Journal of Counseling Psychology 57(3):264-273. Abstract available at APA PsycNET.

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