Park IJK, Du H, Wang L, Williams DR, Alegria M. J. Adolesc. Health 2018; 62(4): 480-487.
Affiliation
Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; Department of Medicine, Disparities Research Unit at the Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts.
PURPOSE: Using a life course perspective, the present study tested the concept of "linked lives" applied to the problem of not only how racial/ethnic discrimination may be associated with poor mental health for the target of discrimination but also how discrimination may exacerbate the discrimination-distress link for others in the target's social network-in this case, the family.
METHODS: The discrimination-distress link was investigated among 269 Mexican-origin adolescents and their parents both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. It was hypothesized that parents' discrimination experiences would adversely affect their adolescent children's mental health via a moderating effect on the target adolescent discrimination-distress link. The converse was also hypothesized for the target parents. Multilevel moderation analyses were conducted to test the moderating effect of parents' discrimination experiences on the youth discrimination-distress link. We also tested the moderating effect of youths' discrimination experiences on the parent discrimination-distress link.
RESULTS: Parents' discrimination experiences significantly moderated the longitudinal association between youths' discrimination stress appraisals and mental health, such that the father's discrimination experiences exacerbated the youth discrimination-depression link. Youths' discrimination stress appraisals were not a significant moderator of the cross-sectional parent discrimination-mental health association.
CONCLUSIONS: Implications of these findings are discussed from a linked lives perspective, highlighting how fathers' discrimination experiences can adversely affect youths who are coping with discrimination, in terms of their mental health.