Maternal Race‐Related Stressors and African American Adolescents' Academic and Behavioral Outcomes

• Published date: 01 April 2021
• Author: Kathleen Holloway,Fatima Varner
• Date: 01 April 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12540

K H  F V The University of Texas at Austin

Maternal Race-Related Stressors and African

American Adolescents’ Academic and

Behavioral Outcomes

Objective: The purpose of the current study

was to use the integrative model for the Study

of Stress in Black American Families to test

whether a set of maternal race-related stres-

sors were related to adolescents’ academic and

behavioral outcomes through maternal depres-

sive symptoms and involved-vigilant parenting.

Gender differences in these relationswere tested

also.

Background: Research on race-related stres-

sors has predominantly focused on the role of

personal racial discrimination experiences on

individual outcomes. Yet parents’ vicarious and

anticipated racial discrimination also may be

related to parents’ psychological functioning,

family processes, and adolescent development.

Method: Path analyses were conducted in

Mplus 8.2 using online survey data from a

national sample of 317 African American moth-

ers of adolescents to examine direct and indirect

relations between maternal personal, vicari-

ous, and anticipated racial discrimination, and

adolescents’ problem behaviors, grades, and

academic persistence.

Results: Maternal personal racial discrim-

ination experiences were positively related

108 E. Dean Keeton Street, Stop A2702, Austin, TX 78712

(kathleenholloway@utexas.edu).

KeyWords: adolescents, African Americans, anticipated dis-

crimination, parenting, racial discrimination, vicarious dis-

crimination.

to adolescents’ internalizing and externaliz-

ing problem behaviors directly and indirectly

through maternal depressive symptoms and

involved-vigilant parenting. Anticipated racial

discrimination and vicarious racial discrimina-

tion were indirectly related to better adolescent

outcomes through positive relations with mater-

nal involved-vigilant parenting.

Conclusion: Maternal personal, vicarious, and

anticipated racial discrimination act differently

in relation to adolescent competencies in African

American families.

Racial discrimination and prejudice are com-

mon experiences in the lives of many African

Americans (Pieterse & Powell, 2016). Gener-

ally, African Americans report the highest level

of race-related stressors relative to other racial

groups (Herda, 2016). Race-related stressors,

which include personal racial discrimination

(e.g., direct interaction with other individuals),

vicarious racial discrimination (e.g., witness-

ing or hearing about another person’s racial

discrimination experience; Agnew, 2002), and

anticipated racial discrimination (e.g., fear

that one may be discriminated against in the

future; Utsey et al., 2013) have been associated

with poorer mental health outcomes (Riina &

McHale, 2010; Tran, 2014) and worse phys-

ical health (Pieterse & Powell, 2016) among

other outcomes for African Americans. How-

ever, previous research has focused mainly

on the role of personal experiences of racial

Family Relations 70 (April 2021): 603–618 603

DOI:10.1111/fare.12540

604 Family Relations

discrimination and the outcomes for the target

of discrimination. This focus may underestimate

the impact of race-related stressors, including

vicarious, and anticipated discrimination, for

individuals, family members, and also family

processes.

Past research suggests that stressors in a

parent’s life not only inuence their depressive

symptoms but also their interactions with other

family members and can negatively inuence

adolescent outcomes (Anderson et al., 2015;

Brody et al., 2008; McLoyd, 1990; McNeil

Smith et al., 2014; Riina & McHale, 2010).

Therefore, in the current study, guided by

pathways in the sociohistorical integrative

model for the study of stress in Black families

(Murry et al., 2018), we examined how African

American mothers’ race-related stressors,

including personal, vicarious, and anticipated

racial discrimination, were each related to

adolescents’ academic and behavioral out-

comes. We also examined whether there were

indirect pathways between race-related stress

and adolescent outcomes through maternal

depressive symptoms and involved-vigilant

parenting. Involved-vigilant parenting consists

of vigilance, mutual problem-solving, induc-

tive reasoning, and consistent discipline and

has been linked to positive outcomes among

African American youth (Kim et al., 2003;

Murry et al., 2014; Varner et al., 2018). Third,

we explored adolescent gender differences in all

study pathways.

T F

The sociohistorical integrative model for

the study of stress in Black families (Murry

et al., 2018) was developed by codifying pre-

vious family stress frameworks and expanding

their scope to capture the often omitted expe-

riences of Black families. Black American

families are embedded in sociocultural con-

texts marked by racism (i.e., economic, social,

and political) and exposed to discrimination

and marginalization. Within these contexts

they experience more direct race-related

daily hassles (e.g., personal, vicarious, and

anticipated racial discrimination), which the

model suggests inuence the psychologi-

cal and emotional functioning of parents

and spill over into family relationships, ulti-

mately inuencing child outcomes. Further,

these processes also can be inuenced by

other social position characteristics including

gender. Therefore, the current study used path-

ways within the sociohistorical integrative

model for the study of stress in Black fami-

lies to understand how mothers’ experiences

of race-related stressors are related to their

psychological functioning, involved-vigilant

parenting, and adolescent outcomes in African

American families. Further, we examined dif-

ferences in these paths by adolescent gender

(Figure 1).

P R D

E

Researchers have been examining links between

race-related stressors and developmental out-

comes for decades. However, most of this work

was conducted using measures of personal

racial discrimination experiences (Broman

et al., 2000). Few studies have examined links

between different types of race-related stressors

and family processes. Individuals can expe-

rience other race-related stressors, including

vicarious and anticipated racial discrimina-

tion; and these race-related stressors may be

differently related to parental depressive symp-

toms and involved-vigilant parenting, which

may have implications for their adolescents’

outcomes.

Personal racial discrimination experiences

encompass instances of unfair treatment based

on one’s membership in a racial group. These

experiences happen at an interpersonal level,

through direct interaction with other individ-

uals; can occur verbally or with nonverbal

actions; and can take place in different con-

texts (Harrell, 2000; Krysan & Farley, 2002).

Additionally, personal racial discrimination was

cited as the most commonly studied form of

race-related stress (Heard-Garris et al., 2018).

Personal experiences of racial discrimination

have been related to outcomes for African

American adults and their children. Specically,

African American parents’ reports of racial

discrimination in the past year were positively

linked to their reports of depressive symptoms

in the past month (Tran, 2014). Further, parents’

personal racial discrimination experiences were

positively related to their children’s external-

izing, (e.g., getting into ghts; McNeil Smith

et al., 2014) and internalizing problem behav-

iors (e.g., acting fearful or anxious; Anderson

et al., 2015).