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

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

As the U.S. population becomes increasingly diverse and racial tensions continue to be salient in society, understanding how racial/ethnic diversity impacts adolescent development is an increasingly critical issue. The existing literature has investigated diversity as a stable context (e.g., school racial/ethnic composition diversity). Yet, much less is known regarding adolescents’ varying experiences of racial/ethnic diversity in everyday life and how these daily processes impact their well-being. Adolescence is a time marked by complexity and variability in one’s social experiences and well-being from day to day, situation to situation. Daily processes are key to uncover how the larger racial/ethnic context (e.g., school diversity) becomes meaningful in one’s everyday life. This symposium puts together three studies investigating adolescents’ experiences of diversity in a daily diary approach. Each study examines diversity at a unique level, from the distal, school level to the proximal, peer and friendship levels.

Study 1 investigates how school diversity interacts with adolescents’ daily intragroup contact to influence their identity and emotional well-being. Study 2 focuses on diversity in a more proximal peer context and investigates how daily interactions with cross-ethnic peers impact adolescent well-being in academic, emotional, and sleep domains. Study 3 focuses on diversity in the friendship context and investigates how daily interactions with ethnically diverse friends may promote academic self-concepts and social support. The discussant, an expert on racial/ethnic diversity within the school settings, will integrate the themes. Together, this symposium highlights the importance of examining daily processes and mechanisms through which racial/ethnic diversity impacts adolescent adjustment.

Sub Unit

• Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Chair

• Yijie Wang, Michigan State University

Discussant

• Stephanie Rowley, University of Michigan

Individual Presentations

• Daily Contact and Objective School Diversity: Implications for Adolescents’ Ethnic/Racial Identity and Anxious Mood - Presenting Author: Yuen Mi Cheon, Fordham University; Non-Presenting Author: Tiffany Yip, Fordham University

• Daily Associations Between Cross-Ethnic Peer Interactions and Adolescent Adjustment: Disentangling Situational Contexts - Presenting Author: Yijie Wang, Michigan State University

• Daily Diverse Peer Interactions, Academic Efficacy, and Social Support for Late Adolescent STEM Majors - Presenting Author: Shannon Peiffer, University of California, Davis; Non-Presenting Author: Alysha Ramirez Hall, University of California Davis; Non-Presenting Author: Adrienne Nishina, University of California, Davis