Profiles of bullying victimization, discrimination, social support, and school safety: Links with Latino/a youth acculturation, gender, depressive symptoms, and cigarette use.

Abstract

Latino/a youth are at risk for symptoms of depression and cigarette smoking but this risk varies by acculturation and gender. To understand why some youth are at greater risk than others, we identified profiles of diverse community experiences (perceived discrimination, bullying victimization, social support, perceived school safety) and examined associations between profiles of community experience and depressive symptoms, cigarette smoking, acculturation, and gender. Data came from Project Red (Reteniendo y Entendiendo Diversidad para Salud), a school-based longitudinal study of acculturation among 1919 Latino/a adolescents (52% female; 84% 14 years old; 87% U.S. born). Latent profile analysis (LPA) revealed four distinct profiles of community experience which varied by gender and acculturation. Boys were overrepresented in profile groups with high perceived discrimination, some bullying, and lack of positive experiences, while girls were overrepresented in groups with high bullying victimization in the absence and presence of other community experiences. Youth low on both U.S. and Latino/a cultural orientation described high perceived discrimination and lacked positive experiences, and were predominantly male. Profiles characterized by high perceived discrimination and/or high bullying victimization in the absence of positive experiences had higher levels of depressive symptoms and higher risk of smoking, relative to the other groups. Findings suggest that acculturation comes with diverse community experiences that vary by gender and relate to smoking and depression risk. Results from this research can inform the development of tailored intervention and prevention strategies to reduce depression and/or smoking for Latino/a youth at risk for depression and/or smoking.

Perceived Racial/Ethnic Discrimination and Mental Health: a Review and Future Directions for Social Epidemiology

“…However, the measures of historical trauma used, such as the Historical Loss Scale and Historical Loss Associated Symptoms Scale [28], were developed for Native American populations and may not incorporate concepts that are pertinent to other racial or ethnic groups’ experiences. Additionally, bullying, a form of violence characterized by repeated unprovoked aggressive behavior that intends to cause harm [27,29,30], has been examined among marginalized racial/ethnic adolescents. With the scarcity of racial/ethnic discrimination measures designed specifically for use with adolescents, some studies have examined independently or in addition to questions related to discrimination in the form of “bullying” with metrics such as the Bully Survey [26,27,29–31].…”

“…Several longitudinal studies were referenced in the articles, but only a few analyzed data using longitudinal methods [18,22,30,32–43]. Overwhelmingly, the findings are based on cross-sectional data.…”

“…Overwhelmingly, the findings are based on cross-sectional data. Regression analysis was primarily used, but some employed more sophisticated methods, such as latent class analysis and latent profile analysis to create categories of various exposure variables, including discriminatory experience, cultural stressors, and coping styles [22,28,30,31,44,45]. Techniques were employed by some studies to examine potential intermediary pathways between discrimination and mental health, such as through depressive symptoms or anxiety [19,24,43,46], avoidant coping strategies [33,47], trans diagnostic factors [48], general stress [40], stronger belief in an unjust world [49], acculturation-related and social support variables [13,50,51], anger [46], prosocial behavior [33], and perfectionism [52].…”

Resilience in the face of peer victimisation and discrimination: The who, when and why in five patterns of adjustment

“…For instance, Lorenzo-Blanco et al (2016) utilised a person-centred approach to observe how a combination of peer victimisation, perception of discrimination, school safety and social support are related to depressive symptoms and cigarette use. The results indicated four groups: 1) highest discrimination and lowest protection; 2) high bullying and high social support; 3) high bullying and high discrimination, and; 4) highest protective and lowest risk.…”

Cyber bullying and its effects on the adolescent and youth health: A huge problem behind tiny keys

“…Again, it has been shown in a study on Latin youths that bullying victims have a high risk for smoking [37]. Drug addiction is also considered among the factors associated with cyber bullying.…”