Latina/o Youths’ Ethnic-Racial Discrimination Experiences in the U.S. Southwest

• In Event: 3-068 - The Pervasiveness of Stress and Adversity in the Lives of Today's U.S. Latino/a Adolescents

Integrative Statement

Ethnic-racial (E-R) discrimination is a salient and costly experience to E-R minority individuals in the U.S. Indeed, 30% to 60% of E-R minority adults report experiencing E-R discrimination (Kessler et al., 1999) and E-R discrimination is consistently associated with poorer mental and physical health (Pascoe & Smart Richman, 2009). There is an urgent need to focus on experiences of E-R discrimination during adolescence because preliminary work suggests that E-R discrimination increases during this time (Umaña-Taylor, 2016) and that such experiences in adolescence are more harmful for long-term health (Adams et al., 2015). Currently, we lack a clear understanding of how common general experiences of discrimination are among Latino/a youth, the largest E-R minority group in the U.S. (U.S. Census, 2010). Utilizing data from three studies, we present estimates of E-R general and police discrimination among Latino/a youth, aged 12 to 21 years, with attention to variability by gender and generational status. Estimates come from Latino/a youth living in the Southwest—a region of the U.S. where immigration has increasingly become a contentious issue, and where anti-immigrant legislation (Pew Hispanic Center, 2010) and increased worries of discrimination have emerged (Santos & Menjiar, 2013). A special focus on police discrimination is particularly needed given the growing awareness of problematic interactions between ethnic-racial minority individuals and law enforcement (Sugie & Turney, 2017; Dukes & Kahn, 2017). By providing estimates of Latino/a youth, and focusing on both general experiences and police interactions, we fill a critical void in the literature that identifies the salience of discrimination in the lives of many youth living in a context in which these events may be particularly relevant and influential to their development.

Methods. We utilized three independent samples of Latino/a youth living in the U.S. Southwest (total N = 1,066; ages 12 to 21 years old). Across studies, a sum score was computed that represented a count of the number of experiences of E-R discrimination; sum scores were then dichotomized into either 0 (adolescent reported no experiences of discrimination) or 1 (adolescent reported at least one experience of discrimination).

Results. Figures 1 and 2 present findings of discrimination experiences by age, gender, and nativity. Ethnic-racial discrimination experiences differed by adolescent gender; for girls, 47% reported discrimination at age 12, and the highest estimates of discrimination occurred at ages 17 (70%) and 18 (68%). Boys reported greater general discrimination than girls during early and late adolescence; the highest estimates were observed at ages 19, 20, and 21 years (94%, 86%, and 87% respectively). Gender differences also emerged with police discrimination; boys reported being hassled by a police officer more often than girls at every age.

Discussion. Findings demonstrated that a majority of Latino/a youth reported at least one experience of discrimination in the past year and that boys were more likely to experience discrimination than girls. This study provides critical information about the experiences of U.S. youth in the Southwest and underscores the importance of these events during adolescence.

Authors

• Katharine H. Zeiders, University of Arizona
  Presenting Author

• Adriana Umaña-Taylor, Harvard University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Stefanie Martinez-Fuentes, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Kimberly Updegraff, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sara Douglass Bayless, OMNI Institute
  Non-Presenting Author

• Laudan Jahromi, Teachers College Columbia University
  Non-Presenting Author