Discrimination-Related Stress Effects on the Development of Internalizing Symptoms Among Latino Adolescents

• Published in: Child development Vol. 86; no. 3; pp. 709 - 725
• Main Authors: Sirin, Selcuk R., Rogers-Sirin, Lauren, Cressen, Jessica, Gupta, Taveeshi, Ahmed, Sammy F., Novoa, Alfredo D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.05.2015; Wiley for the Society for Research in Child Development
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescent Behavior - ethnology; Adolescents; Behavioral Symptoms - ethnology; Child development; Child psychology; Children; Discrimination; Emigrants and Immigrants - psychology; EMPIRICAL ARTICLES; Female; Hispanic Americans - ethnology; Hispanic people; Humans; Immigration; Longitudinal Studies; Male; Mental health; Social Discrimination - ethnology; Stress, Psychological - ethnology; Teenagers
• ISSN: 0009-3920; 1467-8624
• DOI: 10.1111/cdev.12343

This three-wave longitudinal study of 173 Latino adolescents (M = 16.16 years, SD = 0.65) is designed to understand the role of discrimination-related stress in mental health trajectories during middle to late adolescence with attention to differences due to immigration status. The results of the growth curve analysis showed that anxious-depressed, withdrawn-depressed, and somatic complaints significantly decreased over time. Furthermore, although discrimination-related stress was found to be significantly related to the trajectories of three types of mental health symptoms, the results revealed that immigration status moderated these relations such that discrimination-related stress was significantly related to these outcomes for Latino youth whose parents were born in the United States, while this relation was not significant for Latino children of immigrants.