Daily Contact and Objective School Diversity: Implications for Adolescents’ Ethnic/Racial Identity and Anxious Mood

• In Event: 3-173 - Racial/Ethnic Diversity and Adolescents’ Well-being in Everyday Life: Unpacking the Daily Processes

Integrative Statement

Introducation. The positive role of diversity has often been emphasized in research and practice. However, diversity may be considered from various perspectives and each perspective may have different implications for adolescents’ development. Diversity at the objective level may enhance chances of experiencing intergroup conflict, however, it may not necessarily lead to increased levels of contact. Therefore, the consideration of both objective diversity and actual contact experience in day-to-day lives was needed. We examined implications for adolescents’ daily ethnic/racial identity private regard and daily reports of anxious mood as adolescents’ developmental outcomes.

Method. Our participants were 286 high school students in New York City public schools. Approximately 67.48% were female, 55.24% were born in the United States (26.22% missing). There were Asian (n=85, 29.72%), Black (n=66, 23.08%), Hispanic (n=113, 39.51%), “other” race (n=10, 3.50%), and White (n=5, 1.75%) adolescents. We used daily diary data collected across 14 days. Intragroup contact was measured by the percentage of daily contact with same ethnic/racial group others. Objective school diversity was measured by Simpson’s diversity index. Private regard was measured by a revised version of Multidimensional Inventory of Black Identity, while anxious mood was measured by Profile of Mood States. Using hierarchical linear modeling, the daily associations between intragroup contact and private regard and anxious mood were examined. Then, variations by objective school diversity was tested. All of the analyses controlled for gender, nativity, and weekday/weekend.

Results. On days in which adolescents had a higher percentage of intragroup contact, they reported higher levels of private regard (b=0.08, SE=0.03, p<0.01). The daily association between intragroup contact and anxious mood was not significant. However, the variance component was significant (p<0.001) indicating a possible variation by time-invariant individual-level characteristics. The objective school diversity moderated both the association between intragroup contact and private regard (b=-0.58, SE=0.18, p<0.01) as well as anxious mood (b=-0.33, SE=0.14, p<0.05). The adolescents in low diversity schools displayed an increase in the level of daily private regard on days in which they had higher levels of intragroup contact. As for anxious mood, the adolescents in high diversity schools displayed lower levels of anxious mood on days in which they had higher levels of intragroup contact, while those in low diversity schools displayed higher levels of anxious mood on those days.

Discussion. In schools with low diversity, high percentage of daily interactions with same-race others was positively associated with daily private regard. At the same time, these intragroup interactions also increased the level of anxious mood at the daily level. In high diversity schools, high percentage of daily interactions with same-race others did not have much impact on adolescents’ private regard, but it did lower the level of anxious mood. Implications for the pros and cons of diversity as objective composition and as subjective contact experiences will be discussed.

Authors

• Yuen Mi Cheon, Fordham University
  Presenting Author

• Tiffany Yip, Fordham University
  Non-Presenting Author