Cross-race Friendships and Psychological Well-being Among Asian Americans: The Moderating Effects of School Contexts

• In Event: 2-019 - The Salience of Racial-Ethnic Climate in School for Minority Youth: Contributions to Adolescent Psychosocial Outcomes

Integrative Statement

As the racial/ethnic diversity within U.S. schools is growing, cross-race friendships become particularly relevant for development, but there is limited research on Asian American adolescents’ cross-race friendships. Research on Asian American youth has primarily concentrated on academic adjustment, with little attention to psychosocial adjustment (Mistry et al., 2016). Yet, Asian American adolescents tend to have greater peer challenges and poorer psychological well-being than other racial/ethnic groups (Qin et al., 2008). To fill in these voids, we investigated how cross-race friendships influence trajectories of Asian Americans’ psychological well-being from adolescence to emerging adulthood. Furthermore, research on Asian American adolescents has primarily used local, community samples (Yoshikawa et al., 2016). Therefore, we used a nationally representative sample of Asian American adolescents and additionally investigated how the influence of cross-race friendships on trajectories of psychological well-being may vary by school contexts (racial climate and racial composition).

Data were drawn from a nationally representative sample of Asian American adolescents from the National Longitudinal Study for Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health). The current sample included 873 Asian Americans (49.3% females) in 7th to 12th grade at baseline (Mage = 15.32, SD = 1.68). We used data from the In-school Wave (1994-95), Wave 1 (1995), Wave 2 (1996), and Wave 3 (2001-02). We created an objective measure of cross-race friendships at the In-School Wave by matching adolescents’ nominated friends and friends’ self-reported race/ethnicity. We then calculated the proportion of friends with a different racial background in each participant’s network. Self-esteem and depression symptoms were assessed at Waves 1 to 3. School contexts included racial climate (i.e. school prejudice) and racial marginalization (having less than 15% of same-race peers at school; Benner & Wang, 2015).

We modeled trajectories of self-esteem and depression in linear age-based growth models using the definition variable approach to scale time by youth age (Grimm et al., 2017). Results indicate a linear increase for self-esteem and a linear decrease for depression from adolescence into emerging adulthood. We then conducted conditional linear age-based growth models to explore how Asian American adolescents’ trajectories of self-esteem and depression were predicted by cross-race friendships, school contexts, and interactions between variables (see Table 1). For self-esteem, adolescents who had more cross-race friendships at baseline reported more positive self-esteem at age 12; particularly when they were in schools with higher (versus lower) levels of prejudice (see Figure 1) or when they were racially marginalized at their schools. Unexpectedly, adolescents with more cross-race friendships at baseline also reported slower increase in their self-esteem over time, particularly when they were marginalized at schools. For depressive symptoms, adolescents who had more cross-race friendships at baseline also reported fewer depressive symptoms at age 12, particularly when their schools had higher (versus lower) levels of prejudice.

The current study suggests that cross-race friendships are, in general, promotive of Asian Americans’ psychological well-being, particularly in schools with more negative racial climate or where they were racially marginalized. These findings contribute to our limited understanding of Asian American adolescents’ psychosocial well-being within varying school contexts.

Authors

• Shizhu Liu, Michigan State University
  Presenting Author

• Yijie Wang, Michigan State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Amy K Nuttall, Michigan State University
  Non-Presenting Author