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School and Neighborhood Contexts, Perceptions of Racial Discrimination, and Psychological Well-being Among African American Adolescents

  • Empirical Research
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Abstract

The present study examined contextual influences on the relationship between racial discrimination (individual, cultural, and collective/institutional) and psychological well-being. Two hundred and fifty two African American adolescents (46% male and 54% female, average age = 16) completed measures of racial discrimination, self-esteem, depressive symptoms and life satisfaction. Archival information regarding the racial/ethnic composition of the participants’ neighborhoods and schools was used and increased school diversity was linked to increased perceptions of cultural discrimination. Regardless of school and neighborhood diversity, high perceptions of collective/institutional discrimination were linked to lower self-esteem for students in high diversity settings. Further, high levels of collective/institutional discrimination were associated with lower life satisfaction for African American youth in low diversity settings.

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Notes

  1. Because one of the main goals of this paper was to examine the interactive effects of diversity and sources of discrimination, the school and neighborhood diversity indices were averaged into a single score. An analysis testing all possible combinations of school and neighborhood diversity with each of the three dimensions of discrimination would have resulted in a less parsimonious regression model.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA

    Eleanor K. Seaton

  2. Fordham University, New York City, USA

    Tiffany Yip

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  1. Eleanor K. Seaton
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  2. Tiffany Yip
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Correspondence to Eleanor K. Seaton.

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Seaton, E.K., Yip, T. School and Neighborhood Contexts, Perceptions of Racial Discrimination, and Psychological Well-being Among African American Adolescents. J Youth Adolescence 38, 153–163 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-008-9356-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-008-9356-x

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