Understanding disordered eating in Black adolescents: Effects of gender identity, racial identity, and perceived puberty.

Abstract

Gender identity has been identified as a risk factor for disordered eating behaviors (DEB) in adolescents. However, extant studies have been slow to consider the combined influence of multiple social identities. This study examined whether social identities (gender and race) interact with perceived pubertal timing relative to peers, to predict DEB in Black adolescents and whether these relations were moderated by biological sex. Data are drawn from Black adolescents (N = 328; 42% male) who participated in Waves 3 to 5 (eighth grade, 11th grade, and 1-year post high school) of the Maryland Adolescent Development in Context Study. Results demonstrated that highly androgynous eighth-grade boys who engaged in less racial exploration reported low DEB in the 11th grade; however, post high school, high racial exploration mitigated the effects of androgyny on DEB. Moreover, boys engaged in less DEB post high school if they felt less feminine and engaged in more racial exploration in eighth grade; similar findings emerged for boys who were highly masculine and late developers. For girls, feeling more masculine and engaging in less racial exploration in eighth grade predicted low DEB in the 11th grade; however, girls who felt less feminine and engaged in less racial exploration reported low DEB in the 11th grade. Findings offer new insights into the independent and synergistic linkages between gender identity, racial identity, and perceived puberty in their relation to DEB among Black adolescent boys and girls.

Comparing Associations Between Puberty, Ethnic–Racial Identity, Self‐Concept, and Depressive Symptoms Among African American and Caribbean Black Boys

“…Ge et al (2006) demonstrated that early pubertal timing and more advanced pubertal development predicted the highest levels of anxiety and depressive symptoms among African American boys. Late pubertal timing also appears to be problematic for the mental health and self-concepts of African American boys (Blazek & Carter, 2019;Carter, 2015;Carter, Caldwell, Matusko, & Jackson, 2015). Carter (2015) demonstrated that African American boys who perceived their development as late relative to their same-sex, same-age peers reported higher levels of anxiety symptoms relative to early and ontime African American boys.…”

“…Yet early pubertal effects are substantially less well understood among boys than girls (see Deardorff, Hoyt, Carter, & Shirtcliff, 2019). Early development may be particularly detrimental because girls tend to develop earlier than boys and their maturation moves them further away from the thin feminine ideal, whereas boys tend to develop later than girls and their pubertal development causes increased muscle development bringing them closer to the muscular masculine ideal (Blazek & Carter, 2019). If early puberty is problematic for boys, more research is needed to better understand the underlying mechanisms linking early puberty to negative outcomes among this population.…”

Puberty, depressive symptoms, and neighborhood context among African American and Caribbean Black males.

“…There is also a lack of empirical research examining the impact of race- or ethnic-related variables that shape the social experiences of early-maturing boys (Ge & Natsuaki, 2009). Although early pubertal development may place Black American boys at increased risk of harm (see Goff et al, 2014; Schultz, 2015), recent empirical research indicated that pubertal development is nuanced and complex when disentangling race and ethnicity among Black American boys (see Blazek & Carter, 2019; Carter, Leath, et al, 2017; Carter, Seaton, et al, 2017; Carter et al, 2020; Seaton & Carter, 2020). The present study examined the ethnic–racial composition of neighborhoods as a moderator in the relation between pubertal timing and depressive symptoms among a nationally representative sample of African American and Caribbean Black boys.…”

Impact of perceived discrimination on depression and anxiety among Muslim college students: The role of acculturative stress, religious support, and Muslim identity.

“…According to Phinney and Ong, (2007), the development of ethnic identity is an active process that changes with time and context, and its previously mentioned dimensions provide a framework for comparing ethnic identity with other types of group identity (Phinney & Ong, 2007). Other researchers have adapted this definition to apply to other aspects of identity, including Muslim American identity (Lowe et al, 2019), racial identity (Blazek & Carter, 2019), and lesbian, gay, and bisexual group identity (Sarno & Mohr, 2016). In the current study, the research team consulted with the leadership of ( masked for blind review ) the Muslim Student Association (MSA) and decided to examine participants’ Muslim identity separate from their American identity, as most members considered these distinctive identities.…”