Zooming in on everyday ethnic-racial discrimination: A review of experiencing sampling methodology studies in adolescence

Abstract

This is the first review that takes stock of studies that have applied an experience sampling methodology (ESM) to examine the consequences of daily ethnic-racial discrimination (ERD) on youth’ psychological adjustment and academic outcomes. We summarise moderators and mediators of these associations, and highlight the benefits and limitations of employing ESM to examine ERD in comparison to traditional between-person methodologies. A total of 19 studies published between 2010 and September 2022 were identified and reviewed. These studies document the negative effects of experiencing ERD on a daily basis, but also that variations exist depending on the moderators accounted for in the analyses. Although the use of ESM has great potential for the understanding of everyday ERD among adolescents, this line of research requires more evidence on contextual characteristics, mediating mechanisms, and with a wider variety of ethnic-racial groups.

A systematic review and meta-analysis of the associations between perceived teacher-based racial–ethnic discrimination and student well-being and academic outcomes.

“…It is well known that retrospective measures suffer from recall bias and that responses on these measures are severely left-skewed, possibly reflecting underreporting of experiences of discrimination (Goosby et al, 2018). However, despite calls for more research that examines racial-ethnic discrimination as it occurs in the lives of children and adolescents in their daily lives (Ong & Burrow, 2017), the number of studies that have ventured beyond classic surveys and employed experience sampling methods is still quite limited (Civitillo & Jugert, 2023).…”

Daily associations between adolescents’ executive function and school engagement: The role of ethnic/racial discrimination.

“…Moving beyond these between-person level associations, research has started to recognize the episodic nature of discrimination experiences in everyday life, identifying mechanisms through which discrimination may interact with same-day psychosocial factors (e.g., ethnic/racial identity) to influence adolescent functioning on a given day (e.g., Seaton & Iida, 2019; Yip et al, 2022). This work, however, has paid limited attention to the influence of discrimination on everyday school outcomes (Civitillo & Jugert, 2022). To fill in this empirical gap, the current study investigates the extent to which daily experiences of discrimination interact with adolescents’ EF to influence their same-day school engagement.…”

“…The current study also examined how the target association varied by adolescents’ experiences of ethnic/racial discrimination, a key factor contributing to educational disparities that disadvantage ethnic/racial minority adolescents (Benner et al, 2018). However, there has been limited attention to the influence of discrimination on everyday school outcomes (Civitillo & Jugert, 2022). By focusing on the interplay between ethnic/racial discrimination and EF for adolescents’ daily school engagement, the current study seeks to explore novel, day-to-day mechanisms that may accumulate over time, leading to educational disparities in the long term.…”