Daily Online, Offline, Direct and Vicarious Racial Discrimination among Black American Adolescents

• In Event: 3-172 - Online Discrimination and Adolescent Development: Better Understanding Mechanisms of Influence and Opportunities for Intervention

Integrative Statement

Although a growing body of research evinces the negative effects of interpersonal racial discrimination on a host of outcomes among Black American adolescents, several developmentally-relevant forms of racial discrimination remain understudied. In particular, racial discrimination experienced online, vicariously, and/or through joking is rarely assessed, despite the fact that the internet, teasing, and vicarious experiences are central experiences of today’s adolescents. Moreover, most studies assess discrimination using large measurement timeframes (e.g., one year) which may limit our ability to understand the harmful effects of racial discrimination. Thus, in the present study we examined the frequency and psychological effects of daily racial discrimination experienced online, offline, vicariously, and through joking. We tested the following hypotheses: 1) Black adolescents experience individual and vicarious racial discrimination multiple times per day in online and offline contexts, and 2) racial discrimination predicts more immediate changes in depressive symptoms among Black adolescents. A sample of 101 Black adolescents (Mage= 15, 58% female) from 4 schools in a U.S. east coast city participated in this two-week ecological momentary assessment (EMA) study. Participants completed a depressive symptoms measure (CES-D) at baseline and 15-day follow-up. During each day of the EMA period between these assessments, participants reported how often that day they had experienced 12 randomly-administered items of a total pool of 88 items measuring various types of racial discrimination. We drew 50 of the 88 items from common racial discrimination measures for adolescents (e.g., Perceptions of Racism in Children and Youth) and developed 33 original items in a previously conducted mixed-methods study. We completed confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) within Mplus 7.4 to examine online and offline subscales, including individual, vicarious, and joking experiences. We ran hierarchical linear analyses using two-level random effects models. All analyses used a full information maximum likelihood estimator under the assumption that racial discrimination data was missing at random. CFA results indicated that 6 subscales from 70 items fit the data well. Subscales included 2 online discrimination scales (vicarious and individual) and 4 offline scales (vicarious joking, vicarious direct, individual joking, individual direct). Participants reported a daily average of 5.50 racial discrimination experiences across 12 items. Participants reported online vicarious (M= 0.59, SD= 0.84) and online individual (M = 0.55, SD= 0.81) discrimination significantly more than all other forms of discrimination. Additionally, participants experienced individual joking (M= 0.44, SD= 0.72) more frequently than individual direct discrimination (M= 0.39, SD= 0.62). All forms of discrimination, except vicarious online discrimination, were significantly associated with changes in depressive symptoms. The results of this study indicate that Black adolescents are experiencing multiple forms of online and offline racial discrimination many times per day. These results also suggest that online racial discrimination occurs more frequently than offline racial discrimination and that joking, online, vicarious, and individual experiences of racial discrimination appear to have similar noxious effects on depressive symptoms. Overall, this research suggests that joking, online, and vicarious forms of discrimination must be examined to fully understand the role of racial discrimination in persistent health inequities among Black adolescents.

Authors

• Devin English, Hunter College, City University of New York
  Presenting Author

• Sharon Lambert, George Washington University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Brendesha Tynes, University of Southern California
  Non-Presenting Author