Skip to main content
NCBI home page
NIHPA Author Manuscripts logoLink to NIHPA Author Manuscripts
. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2023 Jun 29.
Published in final edited form as: J Child Fam Stud. 2022 Apr 16;31(6):1621–1629. doi: 10.1007/s10826-022-02311-3

African American Children’s Racial Discrimination Experiences and Mental Health

Chloe J Walker a, Chelsea Derlan Williams a, Marcia Winter a, Robin Everhart a
PMCID: PMC10309156  NIHMSID: NIHMS1856752  PMID: 37388712

Abstract

The current study examined how African American children’s experiences of perceived personal racial discrimination and perceived vicarious racial discrimination were linked with depressive and anxiety symptoms, and whether there were significant sex differences in these relations. The sample included 73 African American children (48% male), ranging from 7 to 12 years of age (M = 8.82, SD = 2.06). Models specified children’s personal discrimination and vicarious discrimination as predictors of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Nested model comparisons were also used to examine whether associations varied as a function of children’s sex. The current study hypothesized that both forms of discrimination would be associated with greater anxiety and depressive symptoms. Findings indicated that children’s personal racial discrimination significantly predicted greater child anxiety symptoms for both boys and girls. No significant sex differences emerged. Neither personal nor vicarious discrimination significantly predicted depressive symptoms. Our findings highlight that racialized experiences occur early in childhood and have important implications for children’s mental health.

Keywords: racial/ethnic discrimination, depressive symptoms, anxiety, childhood

Racial discrimination is known to have detrimental effects on African American adolescents’ and emerging adults’ mental health (e.g., Brody et al., 2006; English et al., 2014; Seaton et al., 2008), however, limited work has examined these associations among children in middle childhood (approximately 7 to 12 years old). Further, although existing studies have focused on children’s experiences of personal racial discrimination (i.e., individuals’ own negative treatment from others based on race; Quintana & McKown, 2008), less work has assessed children’s vicarious racial discrimination (i.e., individuals witnessing discrimination of others who share their ethnicity/race; Quintana & McKown, 2008) when considering associations with mental health.

One in four children meet lifetime criteria for a mental health disorder (Merikangas et al., 2009). Previous research provides evidence of internalizing disorders (e.g., depressive and anxiety disorders) as early as infancy (Keenan et al., 1998), and early symptoms tend to persist into childhood and adolescence (Tandon et al., 2009). Thus, early interventions with African American children are critical in order to maximize effective coping and promote positive trajectories for children’s health (Alegria et al., 2010).

Discrimination and links with mental health outcomes

In order to better understand the effects that racial discrimination has on school-aged children’s mental health, more research is warranted that tests both personal and vicarious racial discrimination processes during this developmental period. An important theory that is useful in understanding the effects that personal and vicarious racial discrimination experiences has on children’s mental health outcomes is the Social Inequality and Racial Discrimination theoretical model (SIRD theory; Sanders-Phillips et al., 2009). The SIRD theoretical model (Sanders-Phillips et al., 2009) posits that exposure to racial discrimination at both the individual level (e.g., childhood experiences of racial discrimination) and structural level (e.g., schools, media) lead to psychological and biological responses (e.g., depression, anxiety) and can have an impact on children’s mental health outcomes. A meta-analysis on racial discrimination and mental health indicated that personal discrimination was associated with less sense of control, self-esteem, life satisfaction and increased psychological distress, depression symptoms, and anxiety symptoms across individuals (Schmitt et al., 2014). Further, authors found that these effects were stronger for youth than adults and noted that more research on youths’ personal and vicarious discrimination experiences and effects on mental health is needed.

Childhood represents a critical period for understanding racialized experiences as children are processing information about ethnicity/race (Bennett & Sani, 2003; Derlan et al., 2017), have an understanding of racial identities and race-related roles within larger social contexts (Boutte et al., 2011; Ausdale & Feagin, 2001), and understand core components of racism by middle childhood (Hirschfeld, 2008; Pachter et al., 2010). In fact, racial status is one of the first social categories that children learn, in addition to learning to distinguish by sex (Quintana & McKnown, 2008). Further, given the histories of oppression, African American children tend to be particularly aware of the concept of race and may experience more frequent encounters with racial discrimination (Dulin-Keita et al., 2011; Gibbons et al., 2004; Nazroo, 2003).

Prior work provides some support for links between personal racial discrimination and mental health among African American children in middle childhood. For example, in a study that included African American children (the full sample was African American, Latinx, and Multiracial), children’s personal racial discrimination experiences at 7 years predicted internalizing behaviors from 7 to 8 years (Marcelo & Yates, 2019). In terms of depressive symptoms, among African American 10- to 12-year-olds, personal racial discrimination was associated with an increase in depressive symptoms (Brody et al., 2006). Similarly, in a study with African American youth 11- to 14-year-olds, experiences of personal racial discrimination predicted depressive symptoms the following year (English et al., 2014). Regarding anxiety symptoms as an outcome, findings have been mixed among African American children. For example, in a sample of 8- to 14-year olds, African American youth reported experiences of personal racial discrimination within the school context, but these experiences were not significantly associated with anxiety (Cooke et al., 2014). However, other studies suggest that experiences of personal racial discrimination predict anxiety. For example, in a study of parent-reported children’s (6- to 17-year olds) experiences, African American children who experienced personal racial discrimination were 2.5 times more likely than White children who did not experience racial discrimination to have anxiety problems (Weeks & Sullivan, 2019).

Additionally, the majority of existing research has focused on outcomes such as general internalizing behaviors or either depressive symptoms or anxiety symptoms. Studies have not typically examined both depressive and anxiety symptoms in the same study of school-aged children, making it unclear whether forms of racial discrimination in childhood similarly or differently influence anxiety and depressive symptoms. In one noteworthy study of both depression and anxiety symptoms among African American children 10-to −12 years of age, researchers found that perceived racial discrimination was linked with higher levels of depressive and anxiety symptoms two years later (Walker et al., 2017). However, less is known about whether similar effects exist among school-age children and for perceived vicarious discrimination, given that prior work has focused on personal racial discrimination.

Sex as a Moderator

Not only is it important to consider the effects of personal and vicarious discrimination on outcomes, but it is also essential to test whether these relations vary based on sex. SIRD theory (Sanders-Phillips et al., 2009) posits that boys are more likely to experience and report racial discriminatory experiences from adults than girls. Although no prior work has tested sex differences among children specifically, some studies have done so with adolescents; however, these findings are inconclusive. For example, one study found that racial discrimination was associated with depressive symptoms similarly in African American boys and girls who were 10 to 12 years old (Brody et al., 2006), while another study found significant sex differences, such that the link between racial discrimination and later depressive symptoms was stronger for African American female adolescents than male adolescents (English et al., 2014). Given that prior empirical support with adolescents (Brody et al., 2006; English et al., 2014) and theory focused on children (Sanders-Phillips et al., 2009) suggest that boys and girls experience discrimination differently, it is important to test whether relations between discrimination and mental health vary by sex.

The Current Study

Given the Social Inequality and Racial Discrimination theoretical model (SIRD theory; Sanders-Phillips et al., 2009) and prior empirical work among African American youth, the current study aimed to build on previous research by examining whether both personal and vicarious racial discrimination informed depressive and anxiety symptoms among African American children. Prior research has been inconclusive on whether forms of racial discrimination in childhood similarly or differently influence both anxiety and depressive symptoms, with even less research examining perceived vicarious racial discrimination and whether relations between forms of racial discrimination and mental health vary by sex. Thus, the current study hypothesized that both forms of discrimination would be associated with greater anxiety and depressive symptoms. Additionally, given that theory and empirical support are inconsistent around sex being a moderator, we did not make specific hypotheses, but rather aimed to explore whether there were sex differences in how discrimination affected mental health. Specifically, we examined African American children’s experiences of personal racial discrimination and vicarious racial discrimination as potential risk factors for depressive and anxious symptomatology and tested whether there were sex differences in these relations.

Method

Participants and Procedure

The current study utilized data from a larger, cross-sectional study focused on risk and protective factors for health outcomes in children recruited from urban, under-resourced areas of a mid-size city in the southeast United States [author citation]. The larger study included 96 school-age children who were majority African American (91.7%), with ages ranging from 5 – 12 (M = 8.79 and SD = 2.03); half (50%) were diagnosed with asthma. Following parental consent and child assent, measures were completed during a single three-hour interview session that took place in a community-based research center. Interviews were led by trained graduate research assistants and children and their caregivers were interviewed separately. Caregivers received $50 and children received a small gift to compensate them for their time. The study was approved by the University Institutional Review Board.

The current study sample included 73 children (48% male) who were between the ages of 7 and 12 years of age (M = 9.45, SD = 1.64), identified as African American, and had interview data from the larger study (Table 1). There was a fairly even split of boys and girls across grade except there were more girls in 5th grade than boys (i.e., 6 boys compared to 10 girls). Children’s primary caregivers were mostly (99%) African American, between the ages of 25 and 67 (M = 37.68, SD = 9.75), and predominantly (95%) biological mothers. The majority of children lived in single-parent households (70%), and 80% of families were below the United States poverty threshold.

Table 1.

Demographic Information for Children and their Caregivers (N = 73)

n %
Child
 Age
  Seven 13 17.8%
  Eight 8 11%
  Nine 17 23.3%
  Ten 12 16.4%
  Eleven 14 19.2%
  Twelve 9 12.3%
 Grade
  Kindergarten 1 1.4%
  First 5 6.8%
  Second 11 15.1%
  Third 10 13.7%
  Fourth 16 21.9%
  Fifth 16 21.9%
  Sixth 12 16.4%
  Seventh 2 2.7%
 Sex
  Boy 35 47.9%
  Girl 38 52.1%
Primary Caregiver
 Relationship to Child
  Biological Mother 64 87.7%
  Biological Father 4 5.5%
  Grandmother 4 5.5%
  Other 1 1.4%
 Race
  African American 72 98.6%
  Mixed Race 1 1.4%
 Level of Education
  Below High School 22 30.1%
  High School or GED 25 34.2%
  Beyond High School 25 34.2%
Open in a new tab

Measures

Personal and vicarious racial discrimination.

Children’s perceived racial discrimination experiences were assessed via a semi-structured interview that consisted of a series of questions based on Williams’ Everyday Discrimination Measure (Williams et al., 1997). The original measure included 9 items that measured the frequency of discriminatory experiences in the day-to-day lives of individuals who were 18 years and older via a survey that adults completed independently. The original measure asked only about race, but our larger project asked about race, gender, and income for every item. Given the focus on children, we adapted the measure to be developmentally appropriate by using a semi-structured interview method rather than the independent survey method used for the original measure with adults. We also used picture cards to make the concepts of race, gender, and income less abstract. Further, four adaptations were made to the items so that they were more developmentally appropriate for children in middle childhood. First, the original item “You were treated with less courtesy than other people” was revised to “Was there a time when people were not as nice to you as others because of your gender, race, or family’s income?” Second, the original item “People acted as if they think you are dishonest” was revised to “Was there a time when people acted as if they think you tell lies because of your gender, race, or family’s income?” Third, the original item “You were called names or insulted” was revised to “Was there a time when you were threatened or harassed because of your gender, race, or family’s income?” Lastly, we removed the item “You received poorer service than other people at restaurants.”

Regarding the process of the semi-structured interviews, prior to asking children about their experiences of discrimination, interviewers showed children a series of cards and asked children to “tell me what your race is and hand me the card that matches your race.” After children selected the card that showed pictures of Black/African American children, the card was placed on the table and the other cards were put away. Children then selected a card that depicted their gender and income. Next, the three selected cards were put on the table in front of the child and the interviewer explained “sometimes people are treated fair and sometimes they are not treated fair because of their gender, race, or family’s income. We are going to use these cards to talk about your experiences. I am going to ask you a question. You have the option of saying yes or no. Then, we will talk about it using these cards.”

Thus, children were asked 8 questions about times they may have been treated negatively (e.g., “Was there a time when people acted as if they thought you were not smart because of your gender, race, or family’s income?”) and their attributions for that behavior based on race, gender, and/or income (“Which one or ones of these was the reason why people were not as nice to you as others?”). Children reported both their personal experiences of discrimination and discrimination they noticed that others experienced. When children reported experiencing differential treatment, interviewers prompted the child to tell them more about what happened. Children’s interviews were videotaped for later coding. The full interview script and protocol are available upon request.

In this study, there were a total of eight codes: four codes that represented personal discrimination experiences because of one’s race, gender, income or other personal experience and four codes that represented vicarious discrimination experiences because of one’s race, gender, income or other vicarious experience. Videos were coded independently by two members of the research team, an African American female student and an Asian American female student. Coders were trained by the lead researcher, a Biracial Latina female, to independently observe and document each type of discriminatory experience described by participants in the video recording for the coding procedures. Given our focus on racial discrimination, we utilized the two coded scores for personal and vicarious racial discrimination experiences. Children received a “1” each time they described an instance of their own (personal) or another person’s (vicarious) experience of discrimination, then “1” scores were summed to create a total personal racial discrimination score and a total vicarious racial discrimination score. The interrater reliability score for personal discrimination was .98 and the interrater reliability score for vicarious discrimination was .72. Higher scores reflect more endorsement of personal and vicarious racial discrimination.

Prior research provides empirical support for the convergent validity and reliability of the Everyday Discrimination Measure to be used to measure perceived racial discrimination experiences among African American youth (Clark et al., 2014; Dulin-Keita et al., 2011). Specifically, using this measure among children, discrimination was related in expected ways to self-esteem (Dulin-Keita et al., 2011) and substance use among African American young adults (Clark et al., 2014). Further, in both studies the Cronbach’s α was .83 and .77 respectively.

Depressive symptoms.

Children’s depressive symptoms were measured using the 28-item Children’s Depression Inventory-2-Child Version (CDI-2-C; Kovacs & MHS Staff, 2011). For each item, children selected one of three sentences on a 0- to 2-point scale that best described him or her over the past two weeks (i.e., “I am sad once in a while”, “I am sad many times”, “I am sad all of the time”.). The global scale was used in the current study and higher scores reflected greater depressive symptoms. Support for validity and reliability have been found for this measure among African American children (Bae, 2012). Internal consistency for this sample, indexed by Cronbach’s α, was .85.

Anxiety symptoms.

Children’s anxiety was measured with the 50-item Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children −2 (MASC-2; March, 2012). Children rated each item (e.g., “I feel tense or uptight”) on a 4-point Likert scale (0: Never true about me to 3: Often true about me). The global scale was used in the current study and higher scores reflected greater anxiety symptoms. Support for validity and reliability have been found for this measure among African American children (Fraccaro et al., 2015; Osman et al., 2009). Internal consistency in the current study was α=.88.

Children’s sex.

Primary caregivers reported their children’s sex in a demographic questionnaire.

Analytic Approach

Path analysis in Mplus version 7.2 (Muthen & Muthen, 1998–2014) was used in the current study to investigate whether both personal and vicarious racial discrimination predicted depressive and anxiety symptoms among African American children. Testing research questions via path analysis in Mplus enabled the use of full information maximum likelihood for handling missing data, which is a recommended approach (Enders, 2013). Three primary fit indices were used to examine model fit: the comparative fit index (CFI), the root-mean-square-error residual (RMSEA), and the standardized root-mean-square-residual (SRMR). Model fit is considered good (acceptable) if the CFI is ≥ .95 (≥ .90) and the RMSEA and SRMR are ≤ .05 (.08; Hu & Bentler, 1999).

Sex differences were tested via nested multigroup models (with child sex as the grouping variable). In this approach, a less constrained model (i.e., all paths were freely estimated across boys and girls) was compared to a fully constrained model (i.e., all paths were constrained to be equal across boys and girls), and a chi-square difference test was performed (McHugh, 2013). A significant chi-square difference test suggests that there are significant sex differences. Within the text below, we report unstandardized coefficients, and in Figure 1 we report standardized coefficients. Given that coefficients below are standardized, coefficients of .20, .50, and .80 correspond to small, medium, and large effect sizes, respectively (Cohen, 1988).

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Open in a new tab

Final Hypothesized Model Testing the Effects of Children’s Discrimination Experiences on Mental Health

Note. Sex coded as girl = 1, boy = 0. Control paths are in grey. Standardized path estimates are presented. Given that coefficients are standardized, coefficients of .20, .50, and .80 correspond to small, medium, and large effect sizes, respectively (Cohen, 1988).

Results

Correlations were computed for all study variables (see Table 2). Regarding the primary study constructs, the mean for anxiety symptoms was 64.90 (SD = 21.32; range = 0 – 150), and the mean for depressive symptoms was 8.76 (SD = 7.18; range = 0 – 56). Anxiety symptoms and depressive symptoms were positively correlated (r = .40**). For personal discrimination, 68% of children reported no experiences, 27% reported 1 experience, and 5% reported 2 or more experiences. For vicarious discrimination, 65% of children reported no experiences, 32% reported 1 experience, and 3% reported 2 or more experiences. Skewness and kurtosis were examined, which indicated that all measures were normally distributed (i.e., skewness < 2.0, kurtosis < 7.0; Tabachnick & Fidell, 2006) except for personal discrimination (skewness = 2.1) and vicarious discrimination (skewness = 2.0). Given the slight non-normality of these variables, these variables were log transformed.

Table 2.

Bivariate Correlations among Study Variables (N = 73)

1 2 3 4 5
1. Personal Discrimination ---
2. Vicarious Discrimination −.08 ---
3. Sex .04 .13 ---
4. Anxiety Symptoms .30* .02 −.02 ---
5. Depressive Symptoms .12 −.17 .03 .40** ---
Open in a new tab

Note.

*

p ≤ .05.

**

p ≤ .01.

***

p ≤ .001.

Next, we compared the freely estimated model to the fully estimated model and the chi-square difference test was not significant (Δ χ2 (Δ df = 6) = 12.14, p = .10), indicating that there were no significant sex differences. Thus, our final model tested how personal and vicarious discrimination were associated with anxiety and depressive symptoms, controlling for children’s sex (see Figure 1). The final model demonstrated good fit: χ2 (df = 2) = .54, p = .76; CFI = 1.00, RMSEA = .00, 90% CI [.00, .17]; SRMR = .02. Findings indicated that children’s personal racial discrimination was significantly associated with greater anxiety symptoms (β = 14.20, p = .04). Neither personal nor vicarious discrimination was associated with depressive symptoms (p > .05).

Sensitivity analyses.

In the current study, 26 children reported that they did not experience personal or vicarious discrimination. Although our main goal was to test how discrimination experiences informed mental health across a range of children, we conducted additional sensitivity analyses to test whether findings varied when we excluded children who reported no experiences of personal or vicarious discrimination. The model included personal and vicarious discrimination predicting anxiety and depressive symptoms, controlling for sex. Findings from this model were the same, such that personal discrimination predicted anxiety symptoms (β = .56, p = .00). No other paths were significant (p > .05). Given that the findings did not change, and consistent with other studies that also included children in their samples who reported no discrimination experiences (e.g., Gibbons et al., 2004; Hou et al., 2015), we moved forward with our original model that included all children.

Additionally, given our modest sample size and correlation between anxiety and depressive symptoms, we tested whether findings would vary if we ran two separate models that each included only one outcome variable, instead of one model with two outcome variables. In the first model that included anxiety as the outcome, findings indicated that personal discrimination predicted anxiety symptoms (β = 15.44, p = .02). Model 2 included only depressive symptoms as the outcome, and neither vicarious nor personal discrimination were significant predictors. Given that these smaller models did not yield different findings, suggesting that the modest sample size is not preventing the detection of findings that would emerge with less variables, we moved forward with our original final model that included both outcomes.

Discussion

The current study examined how personal and vicarious racial discrimination were associated with depressive and anxiety symptoms during childhood, and whether sex moderated these associations. Consistent with SIRD theory (Sanders-Phillips et al., 2009) and previous work with children and adolescents (Weeks & Sullivan, 2019), personal racial discrimination was associated with increased anxiety symptoms among African American boys and girls (no sex differences emerged). Contrary to expectations and previous work (e.g., Brody et al., 2006; English et al., 2014), personal racial discrimination did not predict depressive symptoms.

It is possible that children may struggle to process and cope with these negative experiences on their own, leading to heightened symptoms of anxiety. In fact, a recent theoretical framework on children’s experiences of racial stress and trauma highlights that caregivers and clinicians play a valuable role in helping children to process and cope with their racialized experiences (Anderson & Stevenson, 2019). African American youth disproportionately experience less access to mental health services, and even more so African American children of single-parent families in poverty who may not have time to find and/or attend free mental health services or afford the services that they may need, resulting in unmet mental healthcare needs (Trent et al., 2019). Thus, it will be important for future work to further investigate how clinicians can bridge access issues to help young African American children process and cope with negative racial discrimination experiences in order to prevent negative effects on mental health.

Contrary to expectations and previous work (e.g., Brody et al., 2006; English et al., 2014), personal racial discrimination did not predict depressive symptoms. Although the age range of the current study overlapped with previous work in this area, our study included African American children who were 7, 8, and 9 years of age, whereas the other studies that found discrimination to be associated with depressive symptoms did not include African American children younger than 10 (Brody et al., 2006) or 11 years (English et al., 2014). It is possible that personal racial discriminatory experiences manifest more in anxiety symptoms among African American children younger than 10 because these experiences make them feel more worried and unsure about themselves. In fact, internalizing symptoms established as early as infancy tend to persist into childhood and adolescence (Tandon et al., 2009). However, as children age and they accumulate additional negative race-based experiences over time, it manifests more in symptoms of depression. In other words, the manifestation of the experiences of discrimination may change developmentally and with accumulated experience. Work reviewing the longitudinal associations between racial discrimination exposure during childhood and adolescence and later mental and physical health (Cave et al., 2020) highlights this notion, however, given that the current study only had one time point of data, we were unable to test this notion, but more longitudinal work is warranted.

Another explanation for the differential findings for anxiety and depressive symptoms is that as African American children age and accumulate additional negative race-based experiences over time, symptoms of depression may increase. In other words, the manifestation of the experiences of discrimination may change with accumulated experience. The manifestation may also change with development. In early developmental periods when children are developing their ethnic-racial identity (Williams et al., 2020), they may experience arousal and threat associated with discriminatory experiences but be less likely to fully internalize the negative views others have about their ethnic-racial group. However, as their cognition advances in adolescence they may be more likely to incorporate their negative racial experiences as part of their personal identity (Sellers et al., 2006), leading to greater depression.

Relatedly, establishing a positive ethnic-racial identity has been found to reduce the negative effect that racial discrimination has on mental health among African American adolescents (Zapolski et al., 2018). However, our findings suggest that racialized experiences occur earlier in development, and thus facilitating a positive ethnic-racial identity among school-aged children may be important for helping children cope with discrimination experiences, and to prevent trajectories of mental health concerns. Examining how personal racial discrimination is internalized and associated with ethnic-racial identity during early and middle childhood is an important direction for future research.

As noted, findings for vicarious racial discrimination were not significant. It is possible that among school-aged children, who tend to be more egocentric and are still developing their perspective-taking skills (Piaget, 1968), the first-hand experience of personal racial discrimination is more meaningful. This is not to say that understanding children’s vicarious discrimination experiences is not important. We know that children pay attention to their sociocontextual environments from birth, including messages that they receive and observe regarding race and ethnicity (Williams et al., 2020). Although children may notice others’ experiences of racial discrimination, it may not be as impactful for their mental health until they begin to view themselves more as a member of their ethnic-racial group and connect others’ experiences as relevant for their own regard and well-being.

The findings of the current study should be considered in light of various limitations. First, this study had a relatively small sample size and racial discrimination experiences overall were relatively low, which may have limited the ability to detect significant findings (e.g., sex differences and findings for vicarious discrimination). However, findings were still statistically significant for the associations between personal discrimination and anxiety symptoms, suggesting that this is a fruitful area for future investigation. In addition, it is important to highlight the cross-sectional design of the current work. Even though our hypotheses were theoretically based, previous work has suggested that racial discriminatory experiences may increase over time (Smith-Bynum et al., 2014). Increases in discrimination over time could be because older children have more experiences of discrimination or because they understand discrimination better and can identify it more readily. An important direction for future research will be to conduct longitudinal research that focuses on the nuances in discrimination experiences over time and how it is associated with mental health. Further, it is important to note that our interview assessment of discrimination was largely piloted in this study. The field is in need of such measures, but further refinement and development will be important given implications for children’s mental health. Finally, the majority of the children in the current study were from single-parent households that were below the poverty threshold. Economic hardship has been associated with greater family stress and children’s increased internalizing symptoms (Derlan et al., 2019; Zhang, 2014), which may have affected the generalizability of our findings. Given that our sample included such a small number of families who were above the poverty threshold and who were not single-parent families, we were unable to test for differences based on these factors. An important direction for future studies will be to test for differences in the effects of racial discrimination on children’s mental health based on differences in family structures and income backgrounds.

Despite limitations, the current study has meaningful implications. By focusing on perceived personal and vicarious racial discrimination and mental health in early and middle childhood, we extend prior work that has focused primarily on adolescents. The current study captures a time period in which children are starting to perceive racial discrimination experiences (Ausdale & Feagin, 2001), and demonstrates the impact of these negative race-related experiences on children’s anxiety symptoms. Findings highlight the importance of continued research and the development of interventions focused on helping young African American children process and cope with racial discrimination in order to prevent negative impacts on mental health.

Highlights.

  • Racial discrimination is known to have detrimental effects on African American adolescents’ and emerging adults’ mental health, but limited work has tested these effects among school-aged children.

  • Findings indicated that personal racial discrimination experiences predicted greater anxiety symptoms among 7- to 12-year-old children.

  • Clinicians working with African American children, especially those with anxiety symptoms, should assess children’s negative racialized experiences. Clinicians are well-positioned to help young African American children process and cope with their racial discrimination experiences in order to prevent negative effects on mental health.

Funding.

This work was supported by Virginia Commonwealth University and C. Kenneth and Dianne Wright Center for Clinical and Translational Research (award number UL1TR002649).

Footnotes

Ethics Approval. Approval was obtained from the ethics committee of Virginia Commonwealth University. The procedures used in the study adhere to the tenets of the Declaration of Helsinki.

Consent to Participate. Written informed consent was obtained from the parents. Informed assent was obtained from the children.

Consent to Publish. The participants consented to the submission of the manuscript to the journal.

Conflict of Interest. The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

References

  1. Alegria M, Vallas M, & Pumariega AJ (2010). Racial and ethnic disparities in pediatric mental health. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics, 19(4), 759–774. 10.1016/j.chc.2010.07.001 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Anderson RE, & Stevenson HC (2019). RECASTing racial stress and trauma: Theorizing the healing potential of racial socialization in families. American Psychologist, 74(1), 63. 10.1037/amp0000392 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Ausdale DV, & Feagin J (2001). The first R: How children learn race and racism. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield. [Google Scholar]
  4. Bae Y (2012). Test review: Children’s depression inventory 2 (CDI 2). Journal of Psychoeducational Assessment, 30(3), 304–308. 10.1177/0734282911426407 [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  5. Bennett M, & Sani F (2003). The role of target gender and race in children’s encoding of category-neutral person information. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 21(1), 99–112. 10.1348/026151003321164645 [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  6. Boutte GS, Lopez-Robertson J, & Powers-Costello E (2011). Moving beyond colorblindness in early childhood classrooms. Early Childhood Education Journal, 39(5), 335–342. 10.1007/s10643-011-0457-x [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  7. Brody G, Chen Y, McBride V, Ge X, Simons R, Gibbons F, Gerrard M, & Cutrona C (2006). Perceived discrimination and the adjustment of African American youths: A five year longitudinal analysis with contextual moderation effects. Child Development 77(5), 1170–1189. 10.1111/j.1467-8624.2006.00927.x [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Cave L, Cooper MN, Zubrick SR, & Shepherd CC (2020). Racial discrimination and child and adolescent health in longitudinal studies: a systematic review. Social Science & Medicine, 250, 112864. 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.112864 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Clark TT (2014). Perceived discrimination, depressive symptoms, and substance use in young adulthood. Addictive Behaviors, 39(6), 1021–1025. 10.1016/j.addbeh.2014.01.013 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Cohen J (1988). Set correlation and contingency tables. Applied Psychological Measurement, 12(4), 425–434. 10.1177/014662168801200410 [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  11. Cooke CL, Bowie BH, & Carrère S (2014). Perceived discrimination and children’s mental health symptoms. Advances in Nursing Science, 37(4), 299–314. 10.1097/ANS.0000000000000047 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Derlan CL, Umaña-Taylor AJ, Updegraff KA, & Jahromi LB (2017). Longitudinal relations among Mexican-origin mothers’ cultural characteristics, cultural socialization, and 5-year-old children’s ethnic-racial identification. Developmental Psychology, 53(11), 2078–2091. 10.1037/dev0000386 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Derlan CL, Umaña-Taylor AJ, Updegraff KA, Jahromi LB, & Fuentes S (2019). A prospective test of the family stress model with Mexican-origin adolescent mothers. Journal of Latinx Psychology, 7(2), 105–122. 10.1037/lat0000109 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Dulin-Keita A, Hannon Iii L, Fernandez JR, & Cockerham WC (2011). The defining moment: Children’s conceptualization of race and experiences with racial discrimination. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 34(4), 662–682. 10.1080/01419870.2011.535906 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. English D, Lambert SF, & Ialongo NS (2014). Longitudinal associations between experienced racial discrimination and depressive symptoms in African American adolescents. Developmental Psychology, 50(4), 1190. 10.1037/a0034703 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Enders CK (2013). Dealing with missing data in developmental research. Child Development Perspectives, 7(1), 27–31. 10.1111/cdep.12008 [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  17. Fraccaro RL, Stelnicki AM, & Nordstokke DW (2015). Test review: multidimensional anxiety scale for children by JS March. Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 30(1), 70–77. 10.1177/0829573514542924 [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  18. Gibbons FX, Gerrard M, Cleveland MJ, Wills TA, & Brody G (2004). Perceived discrimination and substance use in African American parents and their children: A panel study. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 86(4), 517–529. 10.1037/0022-3514.86.4.517. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  19. Hirschfeld LA (2008). Children’s developing conceptions of race. Handbook of race, racism, and the developing child (p. 37–54). John Wiley & Sons Inc. [Google Scholar]
  20. Hou Y, Kim SY, Wang Y, Shen Y, & Orozco-Lapray D (2015). Longitudinal reciprocal relationships between discrimination and ethnic affect or depressive symptoms among Chinese American adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 44(11), 2110–2121. 10.1007/s10964-015-0300-6 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  21. Hu L, & Bentler PM (1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indices in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6(1), 1–55. 10.1080/10705519909540118 [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  22. Keenan K, Shaw D, Delliquadri E, Giovannelli J, & Walsh B (1998). Evidence for the continuity of early problem behaviors: Application of a developmental model. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 26(6), 441–452 (1998). 10.1023/A:1022647717926 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  23. Kovacs M, & MHS Staff. (2011). Children’s Depression Inventory (2nd edition; CDI 2): Technical manual. North Tonawanda, NY: MultiHealth Systems. [Google Scholar]
  24. Leath S, Mathews C, Harrison A, & Chavous T (2019). Racial identity, racial discrimination, and classroom engagement outcomes among Black girls and boys in predominantly Black and predominantly White school districts. American Educational Research Journal, 56(4), 1318–1352. 10.3102/0002831218816955 [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  25. Marcelo AK, & Yates TM (2019). Young children’s ethnic–racial identity moderates the impact of early discrimination experiences on child behavior problems. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 25(2), 253. 10.1037/cdp0000220 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  26. March JS (2012). Manual for the Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC 2). North Tonawanda, NY: Multi-Health Systems. [Google Scholar]
  27. McHugh ML (2013). The chi-square test of independence. Biochemia Medica, 23(2), 143–149. 10.11613/BM.2013.018 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  28. Merikangas KR, Nakamura EF, & Kessler RC (2009). Epidemiology of mental disorders in children and adolescents. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 11(1), 7–20. 10.31887/DCNS.2009.11.1/krmerikangas [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  29. Muthén LK, & Muthén BO (1998–2014). Mplus: Statistical analysis with latent variables. User’s guide (Version 7.31) [Computer software]. Los Angeles, CA: Author. [Google Scholar]
  30. Nazroo JY (2003). The structuring of ethnic inequalities in health: economic position, racial discrimination, and racism. American Journal of Public Health, 93(2), 277–284. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  31. Osman A, Williams JE, Espenschade K, Gutierrez PM, Bailey JR, & Chowdhry O (2009). Further evidence of the reliability and validity of the multidimensional anxiety. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment, 31(3), 202–214. 10.1007/s10862-008-9095-z [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  32. Pachter LM, Bernstein BA, Szalacha LA, & Coll CG (2010). Perceived racism and discrimination in children and youths: An exploratory study. Health & Social Work, 35(1), 61–69. 10.1093/hsw/35.1.61 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  33. Piaget J (1968). Quantification, conservation, and nativism. Science, 162(3857), 976–979. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  34. Quintana SM, & McKown C (2008). Introduction: Race, racism, and the developing child. In Quintana SM & McKown C (Eds.), Handbook of race, racism, and the developing child (p. 1–15). John Wiley & Sons Inc. [Google Scholar]
  35. Sanders-Phillips K, Settles-Reaves B, Walker D, & Brownlow J (2009). Social inequality and racial discrimination: Risk factors for health disparities in children of color. Pediatrics, 124(Supplement 3), S176–S186. 10.1542/peds.2009-1100E [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  36. Schmitt MT, Branscombe NR, Postmes T, & Garcia A (2014). The consequences of perceived discrimination for psychological well-being: A meta-analytic review. Psychological Bulletin, 140(4), 921–948. 10.1037/a0035754 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  37. Seaton E, Caldwell C, Sellers R, Jackson J, & García Coll Cynthia. (2008). The prevalence of perceived discrimination among African American and Caribbean Black youth. Developmental Psychology, 44(5), 1288–1297. 10.1037/a0012747 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  38. Sellers RM, Copeland-Linder N, Martin PP, & Lewis RLH (2006). Racial identity matters: The relationship between racial discrimination and psychological functioning in African American adolescents. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 16(2), 187–216. 10.1111/j.1532-7795.2006.00128.x [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  39. Smith-Bynum MA, Lambert SF, English D, & Ialongo NS (2014). Associations between trajectories of perceived racial discrimination and psychological symptoms among African American adolescents. Development and Psychopathology, 26(4), 1049–1065. 10.1017/S0954579414000571 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  40. Tabachnick BG, & Fidell LS (2006). Using multivariate statistics. Boston: Pearson. [Google Scholar]
  41. Tandon M, Cardeli E, & Luby J (2009). Internalizing disorders in early childhood: A review of depressive and anxiety disorders. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics, 18(3), 593–610. 10.1016/j.chc.2009.03.004 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  42. Trent M, Dooley DG, & Dougé J (2019). The impact of racism on child and adolescent health. Pediatrics, 144(2), e20191765. 10.1542/peds.2019-1765 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  43. Walker R, Francis D, Brody G, Simons R, Cutrona C and Gibbons F (2017), A longitudinal study of racial discrimination and risk for death ideation in African American youth. Suicide Life-Threating Behavior, 47(1), 86–102. 10.1111/sltb.12251 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  44. Weeks MR, & Sullivan AL (2019). Discrimination matters: Relations of perceived discrimination to student mental health. School Mental Health, 11(3), 425–437. 10.1007/s12310-019-09309-1 [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  45. Williams CD, Byrd CM, Quintana SM, Anicama C, Kiang L, Umaña-Taylor AJ, Calzada EJ, Pabón Gautier MC, Ejesi K, Tuitt NR, Martinez-Fuentes S, White L, Marks AK, Rogers LO, & Whitesell N (2020). A lifespan model of ethnic-racial identity. Research in Human Development, 17(2–3), 99–129. 10.1080/15427609.2020.1831882 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  46. Williams DR, Yu Y, Jackson JS, & Anderson NB (1997). Racial differences in physical and mental health: Socio-economic status, stress and discrimination. Journal of Health Psychology, 2(3), 335–351. 10.1177/135910539700200305 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  47. Zhang X (2014). Family income, parental education and internalizing and externalizing psychopathology among 2–3-year-old Chinese children: The mediator effect of parent-child conflict. International Journal of Psychology, 49(1), 30–37. 10.1002/ijop.12013 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  48. Zapolski TC, Beutlich MR, Fisher S, & Barnes-Najor J (2018). Collective ethnic–racial identity and health outcomes among African American youth: Examination of promotive and protective effects. Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology, 25(3), 388–396. 10.1037/cdp0000258 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

RESOURCES