Latinx Adolescents’ Ethnic Racial Identity: A Resource Against Effects of Childhood Adversity on Internalizing Symptoms

• In Event: Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Topic - Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Abstract

Latinx adolescents in the U.S. report higher rates of exposure to early life adversity and elevated risk of mood disorders compared to White counterparts (Liu, et al., 2018; Ries Merikangas et al., 2010). Culturally-informed theories posit that within-group adaptive processes might protect against environmental demands in minority youth (García Coll et al., 1996). During older adolescence, the normative process of constructing attitudes and beliefs about one’s ethnic-racial identity (ERI; Umaña-Taylor et al., 2014) might be a salient buffer for minority youth against exposure to early adversity, a stressor associated with mental health problems in Latinx adolescents (Barrera et al., 2019).

Although ERI and its subscales of exploration, resolution, and affirmation are associated with decreased depression and anxiety in Latinx adolescents (Rivas-Drake et al., 2014), research has yet to elucidate whether ERI might attenuate the deleterious effects of early adversity on adolescent internalizing symptoms. This longitudinal investigation examined whether ERI in high school moderated associations between early adversity and depression and anxiety symptoms in the first year of college.

209 Latinx late adolescents (Mage=18.1, 64.4% female) in the spring/summer prior to college (T1) completed the Brief Form of the Ethnic Identity Scale (Douglass & Umaña-Taylor, 2015, α=.76) including exploration (α = .84), resolution (α = .91), and affirmation (α = .79) subscales; Adverse Childhood Experiences Scale (adapted to assess up to age 16; Felitti et al., 1998); and Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS; Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995; depression α=.95; anxiety α=.89), and the DASS again during the Spring of their first year in college (T3, N=197, 94% retention; depression α=.96; anxiety α=.90). Controlling for T1 symptoms, multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to examine interactive effects of T1 total ERI and early life adversity on T3 depression and anxiety symptoms. Additional analyses examined interactions between T1 ERI subscales and early adversity on T3 depression and anxiety symptoms.

Greater early adversity was associated with higher depression (b=.94, p<.01) and anxiety (b=.78, p<.001) symptoms, and higher total ERI was associated with fewer depression symptoms (b=-4.82, p<.001). Total ERI did not significantly interact with early adversity in predicting either outcome, nor did exploration or resolution subscales. There was a significant interaction between ERI affirmation and early adversity in predicting anxiety (b=-1.51, p<.001), but not depression symptoms, such that Latinx adolescents with lower ERI affirmation reported a significant positive association between early adversity and anxiety (b=.63, p<.01; 26.2% of sample), compared to the non-significant association in youth reporting high ERI affirmation.

Confirming previous literature, greater early adversity was associated with higher depression and anxiety symptoms in college, even when controlling for high school levels. As the expected association between adversity and anxiety differed as a function of feeling positively about one’s ethnic-racial identity, this study identifies ERI affirmation as a potential source of resilience in Latinx adolescents, a population disproportionately exposed to early adversity. These findings encourage further examination of interventions that cultivate ERI affirmation in Latinx high schoolers to promote resilience after early adversity and better prepare youth for the transition to college.

Authors

• Michaela Gusman, Arizona State University
  Presenting Author

• Leah D Doane, Arizona State University
  Non-Presenting Author