An Examination of Culturally Relevant Stressors, Coping, Ethnic Identity, and Subjective Well-Being in Urban, Ethnic Minority Adolescents

Abstract

This study explored relations between culturally relevant stressors (i.e., urban hassles, perceived discrimination) and subjective well-being (SWB; i.e., positive/negative affect, life satisfaction) to examine whether ethnic identity and/or coping strategies would serve as moderators of the relations between stress and SWB for 157 urban, ethnic minority adolescents. Ethnic identity moderated the relation between perceived discrimination and life satisfaction. Self-distraction coping moderated the relation between urban hassles and negative affect. This article discusses implications for school counseling prevention and interventions.

Do Parental and Peer Support Protect Adjustment in the Face of Ethnic Discrimination? A Comparison between Refugee Youth and Youth of Immigrant Descent

“…As previous research [68][69][70][71] found significant links between our sociodemographic variables (age, gender, status and school form) and the well-being and school integration of ethnic-minority youth, we included them as control variables in our study. Further, several studies [25,72] found a significant link between ethnic identification and indicators of well-being and school adjustment for adolescents; therefore, we decided to include ethnic identification as a control variable. It was measured with the item "How strongly do you feel connected to your country of origin?"…”

Trust and Communication With a Caregiver Reduces Behavior Problems and Protects Against Stress Among Urban Adolescents

“…Internationally, urban communities struggle to overcome adversities such as violence (Schultz et al, 2017), weapons (Luccisano & Macdonald, 2017), poor school systems (Bruce et al, 2019), increased cost of living, poor air and water quality as well as mounting poverty (Lim et al, 2012). Adolescents growing up in low-income urban environments have been found to be exposed to a greater number of adverse childhood events (ACEs) than those in other communities (Bethell et al, 2017; Vera et al, 2011). For instance, one national survey found that 69.3% of all children and adolescents surveyed had been victimized in the previous year, and 79.6% of the 12- to 17-year-olds had been victimized before 18 years of age (Finkelhor et al, 2009).…”

“…Others, including the current study, view trauma as having potentially cumulative effects on behavior outcomes. Chronic and cumulative trauma exposure has been conceptualized in several well-known theories, including complex trauma (Cook et al, 2017), ACEs (Wade et al, 2014) and polyvictimization (Turner et al, 2017). While these terms differ to a degree in definition and overlap to differing degrees in regard to operationalization, they also share a general common assumption that more stressors and traumas compound and contribute to negative outcomes.…”

Latino Immigrant Youth Living in a Nontraditional Migration City

“…Though there is significant extant literature examining the stress experiences of Latino youth, still underdeveloped is research attending to those of recently immigrated Latino children. Stress levels among urban minority youth are important to examine due to the adverse effects of stress on academic (e.g., Crean, 2004), psychological (e.g., Vera et al, 2011), and health (e.g., White & Farrell, 2006) outcomes. In terms of educational barriers, acculturative stress may contribute to or compound achievement differences among Latino youth (Roche & Kuperminc, 2012).…”