Social Support and the Link Between Devaluing Youths’ Contributions and Self Esteem

• In Event: Understanding and Mitigating the Effects of Discrimination During Adolescence

Abstract

Experiencing the devaluation of one’s contributions because of one’s ethnic background and gender has recently emerged as a significant, yet underappreciated way adolescents experience marginalization. Recent studies have reported worse depressive symptoms, academic achievement, and self-esteem among youth who experience their contributions being dismissed, ignored, or thwarted, above-and-beyond traditional measures of discrimination (e.g., Fuligni et al., 2022). Yet, no studies have investigated whether family and friends play a role in mitigating the effects of experiencing devalued contributions. The current study aimed to build on this work by examining whether and how parental and peer support and feeling needed and useful by family and friends protect against the negative effects of experiencing devalued contributions on self-esteem.

This study targeted large, diverse, suburban, and urban high schools across the United States. The analytic sample consisted of 1,300 high school students (Mage=15.94, SDage=1.25) with 49% identifying as female, 47.7% as male, and 3.3% reporting either other gender identities (e.g., non-binary, genderfluid, genderqueer, transgender) or preferring not to answer. Participants identified as Hispanic or Latino (40.2%), European American (19.8%), African American (14.7%), Multiethnic (9.2%; e.g., Afro-Latino), Asian American (7.1%), and Other Ethnicity (7.7%; e.g., Native American, Caribbean Islander).

Students reported how frequently they felt their contributions being devalued due to their ethnicity and gender using a scale ranging from 1 (“Almost Never”) to 5 (“Almost Always”) to answer seven items including “My contributions are not welcome because of my ethnic background” and “I am not viewed as an asset because of my gender” (Fuligni et al., 2022). Participants also completed a measure of feeling needed and useful among their family and friends using the same scale as above for five items such as “I feel that I am a good member of my family” and “I feel needed by my friends” (N&U; Fuligni et al., 2020). A nine-item modified measure of the Inventory of Parent and Peer Attachment (IPPA; Armsden & Greenberg, 1987) was used. Lastly, self-esteem was measured using the Rosenberg Self-Esteem (RSE; Rosenberg, 1979) scale.

Moderation analysis using PROCESS on R revealed significant interactions between positive family and peer measures and devalued contributions due to both ethnicity and gender in all models predicting self-esteem (ps<.05-.001), except one (needed and useful to friends x devalued contributions due to gender, p=.588). Significant moderations were probed, and all conditional effects taken at the 16th, 50th, and 84th percentile of the parental and peer measures were significant (Figures 1 and 2). In every case, devaluing youth’s contributions were related to worse self-esteem, regardless of family and friends. Those with high family and friend support, however, consistently reported the highest self-esteem regardless of the level of devalued contributions. Interestingly, the effect of devalued contributions on self-esteem was worse (i.e., steeper slope) for adolescents with high levels of family and friend support and feeling needed and useful by family and friends. Perhaps this is because experiencing devalued contributions is not as notable for youth’s self-esteem in the context of already low family and friend support.

Authors

• Xochitl Arlene Smola, University of California - Los Angeles
  Presenting Author

• Andrew J Fuligni, University of California - Los Angeles