Racial-Ethnic Discrimination and Early Adolescents’ Behavioral Problems: The Protective Role of Parental Warmth

Objective The purpose of the study was to investigate the association between discrimination by multiple sources (i.e., teachers, students, and other adults) and early adolescents' behavioral problems (i.e., internalizing, externalizing, and attention problems), also considering the protective role of parental warmth in this association. Method Cross-sectional analyses were conducted with 3,245 early adolescents of color obtained from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study at Year 1 follow-up (Y1), a large and diverse sample of US children (N = 11,876, Mage = 9.48 years). Racially-ethnically minoritized adolescents reported the source of discrimination, parental warmth, and symptoms of psychopathology. Regression with interaction terms was conducted to investigate the associations among sources of discrimination, parental warmth, and behavioral problems among racially-ethnically minority adolescents. Sensitivity analyses were conducted to examine (1) race/ethnicity and gender variations; (2) whether the associations between different sources of discrimination and behavioral problems are reliably different; (3) effects of discrimination, parental warmth, and their interplay at Y1 in predicting adolescents' behavioral problems at Year 2 follow-up. Results Early adolescents experiencing interpersonal racial-ethnic discrimination by multiple sources, including teachers, students, and other adults, reported higher levels of attention, internalizing, and externalizing problems. Parental warmth was protective for the association between interpersonal racial-ethnic discrimination and early adolescents' behavioral problems. Conclusion Experiencing interpersonal racial-ethnic discrimination from teachers, peers, and other adults is related to heightened attention, internalizing and externalizing problems among racial-ethnic early adolescents. Parental warmth may reduce the risk of developing behavioral problems among early adolescents who experience interpersonal racial-ethnic discrimination from students, teachers, and other adults outside of school.