“They were just making jokes”: Ethnic/racial teasing and discrimination among adolescents.

Abstract

Objectives The effects of peer-based discrimination are especially harmful for adolescents given the heightened role of social feedback during this period. The current study aimed to understand the unique expressions of discrimination that adolescents experience between close peers and friends, as well as the daily influence of such experiences. Method Study 1 included semistructured interviews (10 interviews, 2 focus groups; Mage = 17.3) with an ethnic/racially diverse sample of adolescence. Study 2 (n = 79; Mage = 15.72) used a 21-day daily diary study with a different sample of ethnic/racially diverse adolescents. Results Study 1 found that, among close peers and friends, adolescents experienced “ethnic/racial teasing,” a unique form of discrimination characterized by humor. Additionally, adolescents consistently dismissed the negative messages as innocuous based on the supposedly humorous nature of such interactions. Study 2 found that when adolescents were targeted for ethnic/racial teasing, individuals who were already anxious experienced increased daily anxiety, and that increases in social anxiety persisted across days. Conclusions The current study suggests that among peers, ethnic/racial teasing is a common way that adolescents interact around ethnicity/race. Further, this study points to the complexity of these experiences; though they were largely considered normative and harmless, they also had negative psychological effects for some adolescents. Implications for our conceptual understanding of discrimination and teasing during adolescence are discussed.

Children's perceptions of social resource inequality

“…In this context, what may be more relevant than children’s membership in a racial/ethnic group alone are personal experiences with differential treatment as a result of one’s group membership. It is notable that, with age, many adolescents, and particularly adolescents of African-American and Latino background, report increasing personal experiences with discrimination from teachers, peers, and strangers, with reports ranging from wrongful discipline in school to being hassled by store clerks to teasing and online harassment (Douglass, Mirpuri, English, & Yip, 2016; Fisher, Wallace, & Fenton, 2000; Rivas-Drake, Hughes, & Way, 2009; Umaña-Taylor, Tynes, Toomey, Williams, & Mitchell, 2015). Thus, it may be that, later in development (i.e., later in adolescence), increasing personal experiences with others’ biases would be associated with greater recognition of discriminatory resource allocation for racial/ethnic minority adolescents.…”

The Everyday Implications of Ethnic-Racial Identity Processes: Exploring Variability in Ethnic-Racial Identity Salience Across Situations

“…For ethnic-racial identity salience, variability would mean that adolescents are at times very aware of their ethnic-racial identity, and at other times not at all aware of their ethnic-racial identity. For example, qualitative work highlights such experiences of stability and variability in adolescents’ own words (Douglass et al 2015 for study details). When asked by an interviewer “When you’re walking around and you’re going to classes and you’re hanging out with friends, are you aware of your race?” a 17-year old African American female responded:

Yeah I am, I don’t know…like it depends because sometimes when I’m in the cafeteria… I’m with certain groups right?

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Schools as Acculturative and Developmental Contexts for Youth of Immigrant and Refugee Background

“…Yet, as with teachers, peer discrimination can also be indirect. A recent daily diary study found that adolescents already experiencing anxiety who faced ethnic teasing from peers then reported heightened and prolonged anxiety (Douglass, Mirpuri, English, & Yip, 2016).…”