Patterns of Cultural and Coping Factors Among Minoritized Youth: Associations with Discrimination and Depressive Symptoms

• In Event: Discrimination, Identity, and the Health of Racially Minoritized Youth

Abstract

Models of resilience in minoritized youth (e.g., Neblett et al., 2012; Spencer et al., 1997) emphasize that youth need to draw upon multiple different cultural (e.g., ethnic-racial identity, cultural values, culturally-based coping etc.) and general factors (e.g., mainstream coping) to thrive in the face of discrimination. Nonetheless, the integration of these factors in empirical scholarship is lacking, as scholars have typically focused on single factors within these models in isolation. In this study, we focus on the potential impacts of shift-&-persist coping in concert with other, highly-related promotive factors rooted in youths’ cultural identities. Shift-&-persist coping is a way of coping with uncontrollable stressors (i.e., poverty; discrimination) where youth cognitively reappraise and accept the existence of the stressor (i.e., shifting away), then holding onto purpose, optimism, and a positive outlook on the future despite experiencing the uncontrollable stressor (i.e., persist). Shift-&-persist has been shown to work in complex ways with ethnic-racial identity to protect youth against discrimination (Stein et al., 2022), has been conceptually (Gonzalez et al., 2020) and empirically (Christophe et al., 2022) related to other culturally-based promotive factors, such as religious coping and familism values.
Building upon this prior work, and to provide a more holistic test of theoretical models positing that multiple general and cultural factors need to work together to promote positive mental health and protect youth against discrimination (Neblett et al., 2012), we utilized Latent Profile Analysis to identify patterns of several related cultural promotive factors (ethnic-racial identity, religious coping, and familism) and a related general coping factor (shift-&-persist). Demographic and developmental differences in profiles were examined, as were profile differences in depressive symptoms. Finally, we tested whether certain profiles of promotive factors better protected youth from the harmful impacts of discrimination than others. Participants were 694 minoritized youth (73.5% female, 46.1% Black) between the ages of 13 and 25 (Mage = 17.24). Before creating profiles, profile indicators (i.e., ethnic-racial identity, religious coping, familism, and shift-&-persist) were subjected through rigorous invariance testing via Moderated Nonlinear Factor Analysis (Bauer et al., 2020); this created unbiased profile indicators adjusted for invariance based on numerous factors such as age, race, socioeconomic status, gender identity, and their interactions. After comparing the fit of multiple profile solutions, we observed four profiles (see Figure 1): High Cultural High Coping (N=294), Average Cultural Average Coping (N=161), Low Religious Low Coping (N=142), and Low Cultural Low Coping (N=97). Despite a lack of developmental differences, countering past work about more cognitive coping strategies such as shift-&-persist being more common later in adolescence (Compas et al., 2017) several profile differences emerged with respect to gender, race, and socioeconomic status. Additionally, Average Promotive Average Coping youth experienced the greatest amount of discrimination. After accounting for the effects of discrimination and covariates (see Table 1), those in the High Cultural High Coping profile displayed fewer depressive symptoms than those in the Average Cultural Average Coping and Low Religious Low Coping profiles. The harmful effects of discrimination were not moderated based on one’s profile membership.

Authors

• N. Keita Christophe, McGill University
  Presenting Author

• Gabriela Livas Stein, University of North Carolina at Greensboro