Adolescents' Exposure to Direct and Indirect Immigration-Based Harassment: Associations With Social-Emotional and Academic Functioning

• In Event: Identities in Context: Understanding How Context Influences Adolescents' and Emerging Adults' Functioning

Abstract

Objectives. This study provides insight into how direct and indirect forms of immigration-based harassment are related to social-emotional and academic functioning among adolescents.

Perspectives. 29% of 9th and 24% of 11th graders have experienced harassment for a hate-crime reason at school (Austin et al., 2015). Further, immigrant youth, compared to their non-immigrant peers, are more likely to be bullied, often due to their race or religion (Maynard et al. 2016), and those who are bullied are more likely to report negative consequences on mental and physical health. There is a dearth of research, however, on how anti-immigration rhetoric might affect youth. This study examines how direct and indirect immigration-based harassment relates to social-emotional and academic functioning among adolescents.

Methods. Analyses include baseline survey data from 5,480 adolescents (67% White; 16% Multi-race; 9.1% Hispanic/LatinX; 3.8% immigrant youth) who participated in a school-based evaluation of the Anti-Defamation League’s Peer Training Program. Online surveys asked about: (1) demographics; (2) years lived in the US; (3) direct harassment based on immigration status, adapted from the California Healthy Kids Survey (Austin et al., 2016); (4) exposure to anti-immigration rhetoric in school; (5) depression (PHQ-2; Kroenke et al., 2003); (6) anxiety (GAD-2; Kroenke et al., 2007); (7) school safety; (8) grades; (9) school racial climate (School Climate for Diversity, Secondary Scale; Byrd, 2017); and (9) sense of school membership (Psychological Sense of School membership; Goodenow, 1983). Bivariate analyses were computed. We also used linear regression in Mplus 8.4, using robust maximum likelihood estimation for accounting for potential non-normality in the data, to examine various factors related to immigration-based harassment.

Results. Two percent of students reported direct harassment based on immigration status, and 39% reported exposure to anti-immigration rhetoric. Both harassment forms were associated with more depression and anxiety symptoms. Direct harassment was also related to lower grades, a greater likelihood of not feeling safe at school, and more negative perceptions of school belonging and school racial climate. Indirect harassment was associated with a greater likelihood of not feeling safe at school, and more negative perceptions of school belonging and school racial climate. Next, we examined predictors of immigration-based harassment among students who identified as immigrants together in a regression model. The model controlled for sex, gender identity, race, Hispanic status, age, and years in the US. Students who indicated they felt warm towards other races, reported that other races are treated equally in their school, and indicated that their peers do not think joking about race is funny or ok reported lower levels of immigration-based harassment. Conversely, students who reported that when negative comments about immigration are made teachers or staff and students say they are inappropriate reported higher levels of immigration harassment. This positive association may be an indication of settings with which immigration harassment is prominent.

Significance. Findings indicate that both direct and indirect immigration-based harassment are associated with negative consequences for adolescents, highlighting the need for bias prevention programs that address how harassment and negative comments about immigration are harmful.

Authors

• Christine Marsico, Boston University

• Melissa K. Holt, Boston University

• Gabriel Joey Merrin, University of Illinois

• Javari Fairclough

• Tanvi N. Shah, Boston University

• Jennifer Greif Green, Boston University

• Phil Fogelman, Anti-Defamation League