From the Hood to the School: Middle School Students' Experiences With Racial/Ethnic Discrimination

• In Event: 70.029 - Examining Resilience and Agency Across Race and Ethnicity

Abstract

This study examined the effects of the incongruence (mismatch) between neighborhood and school racial/ethnic composition on middle school students’ experiences with discrimination. The subsample of 1,590 students comes from a larger longitudinal study of 26 ethnically diverse middle schools and over 400 neighborhoods that vary in ethnic diversity. We hypothesized that students with a greater mismatch in school and neighborhood ethnic composition would report more discrimination. Regression analyses show that students with more neighborhood-school incongruence, particularly students living in neighborhoods where there are more residents of their same ethnicity compared to that of their school context, report more peer-initiated discrimination. These findings emphasize the importance of examining both the neighborhood and school contexts in understanding students’ experiences with racial/ethnic discrimination.

Authors

• Feliz Quinones, University of California - Los Angeles

• Sandra Graham, University of California - Los Angeles