Gender and Racial Identity Moderate the Effects of Online and Offline Discrimination on Mental Health

Abstract

The present study highlights the growing need to examine Black youths’ exposure to racial discrimination in online and offline contexts. Using a sample of 353 Black college students, findings indicate that high public regard moderates the positive association between online and offline racial discrimination and psychological consequences (i.e., depression, anxiety, and psychological well‐being) among Black women. Additionally, racial centrality moderated the positive association between online and offline racial discrimination and mental health consequences regardless of gender. The findings highlight the importance of considering context, gender, and racial identity when examining the links between Black emerging adults’ experiences of discrimination and mental health.

Dismantling systems of racism and oppression during adolescence: An agenda for anti‐racist research

“…Researchers must consider how race and ethnicity is measured and the implications for aggregating and disaggregating across different groups. Many papers in our special series illustrated the importance of examining heterogeneity within particular racial and ethnic groups, rather than considering groups in ways that assume they are monolithic (Cooper, Burnett, et al, 2022; Perkins et al, 2022; Wang et al, 2022). Additionally, a growing number of youth in the U.S. identify as multiracial, but most studies do not capture the dynamics of these experiences (for exception, see, e.g., Carter & Flewellen, 2022).…”

“…This process is often conceptualized through the lens of intersectionality, which originated from Black women activists and legal scholars to recognize that Black women and Black queer women had unique experiences of oppression that went beyond racism, sexism, and heterosexism (Combahee River Collective, 1977; Crenshaw, 1991). Intersectionality was a theme across the special series, as scholars recognized the essential importance of accurately conceptualizing multiple overlapping oppressions for understanding the impact of these systems on adolescents and for ultimately dismantling these systems (e.g., Del Toro et al, 2022; English et al, 2022; Galán et al, 2022; Perkins et al, 2022; Karras et al, 2022; Wang et al, 2022). Though this critical approach and perspective was included in some special series papers, much more work is needed in adolescent research that centers the multiple social identities of youth to understand the totality of their experiences as well as the complex and collective systems of oppression that may impact their well‐being (Santos & Toomey, 2018).…”

Racial, Ethnic, and Cultural Resilience Factors in African American Youth Mental Health

“…Higher private regard, which typically operates in a protective manner, was found to have a vulnerability influence, such that the positive association between institutional racism experiences and distress and physiological anticipation of future racism was stronger for those with higher private regard. In an attempt to better understand how gender and racial identity collectively moderate the relation between online/offline discrimination and psychological functioning, Perkins et al (2022) reported similarly counterintuitive findings whereby low public regard was protective for Black young men (i.e., decreased depression and anxiety, increased psychological well-being) and high public regard was protective for Black young women.…”

“…Examination of racism experiences that extend beyond individual instances of racism (i.e., institutional and cultural racism) 5. Consideration of age/developmental stage (Hope et al 2020) and gender (e.g., Perkins et al 2022) as moderating influences…”

Black Lives and Black Research Matter: How our Collective Emotions Continue to Drive a Movement

“…The replication and reproducibility of research findings—across research labs, time, space, and methodology—is a hallmark of the rigor of a field. The impact of racism on Black youth adjustment and the moderating roles of individual (e.g., gender and identity) and contextual factors (e.g., family, schools, and peers) is perhaps the most studied model in Black youth development (Neblett, Rivas‐Drake, & Umaña‐Taylor, 2012 ; Perkins, Durkee, Banks, & Ribero‐Brown, 2021 ). Although there are numerous variations to the model, this is a basic moderation that says (1) racial discrimination negatively impacts Black youth adjustment and (2) the strength of this association is weakened under certain conditions.…”