Discrimination and Mental Health in Latino Families: Mediators and Moderators

描述（由申请人提供）：暴露于种族/民族歧视一直与不良的精神和身体健康结果相关。然而，歧视与健康之间联系的内在机制仍不清楚。此外，暴露于歧视对心理健康的压力影响的潜在调节剂尚未明确确定，特别是在研究不足的群体，如拉丁美洲青少年。拟议的研究将通过调查12-17岁墨西哥裔青少年中感知到的种族/族裔歧视来解决文献中的这些差距。这项拟议的研究有三个具体目标：（1）测试有助于解释墨西哥裔青少年种族/族裔歧视与心理健康之间联系的中介机制（侧重于愤怒调节）;（2）确定应对策略（例如，种族认同;社会支持），影响种族/民族歧视和墨西哥裔青少年的心理健康之间的联系。 (3)评估家庭环境和社会文化背景因素（例如，性别、出生地、族群社会化）对种族/族群歧视对青少年心理健康的不良影响有增有减。为了实现这些研究目标，我们将在北方印第安纳州地区对N = 270个墨西哥裔家庭进行一项基于社区的纵向调查。将使用音频计算机管理的自我访谈（ACASI）方法收集青少年的数据，并与父母进行面对面的访谈。青少年将在三个测量时间间隔6个月进行调查，而父母将在第一时间点进行调查。我们将评估种族/民族歧视，情绪调节，愤怒表达/抑制，文化适应/文化适应水平，文化适应压力，民族认同发展，文化取向和价值观，种族/民族/文化社会化实践和心理健康。组内方法将使我们能够仔细研究文化影响以及心理障碍维斯弹性和脆弱性来源的变化，纵向设计将使我们能够测试跨时间的中介和适度效应，以更好地确定效应的顺序。这项拟议的研究意义重大，因为它促进了我们对以下问题的理解：（1）有助于解释歧视与精神障碍之间联系的关键中介机制;（2）潜在的调节因素，可以缓冲或加剧歧视对这一研究不足的人群心理健康的影响。该项目与公众相关 这是一个非常重要的问题，因为它有可能在歧视与心理健康的联系中确定解释机制以及可延展的风险和复原力因素。这将有助于制定更具针对性和文化敏感性的干预措施，以减轻种族主义对拉丁美洲青年心理健康的不利影响，从而有助于减少健康差距。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Exposure to racial/ethnic discrimination has been consistently associated with poor mental and physical health outcomes. However, the mechanisms underlying the link between discrimination and health are still unclear. In addition, potential moderators of the stressful impact of exposure to discrimination on mental health have yet to be clearly identified, particularly within underresearched groups such as Latino adolescents. The proposed study will address these gaps in the literature by investigating perceived racial/ethnic discrimination among Mexican-origin adolescents 12-17 years old. The proposed study has three specific aims: (1) To test mediating mechanisms (focusing on anger regulation) that help explain the link between racial/ethnic discrimination and mental health in Mexican-origin adolescents; (2) To identify coping strategies (e.g., ethnic identity; social support) that influence the link between racial/ethnic discrimination and mental health in Mexican-origin adolescents. (3) To assess the degree to which the family environment and sociocultural context factors (e.g., gender, nativity status, ethnic socialization) increase or decrease the adverse effect of racial/ethnic discrimination on adolescents' mental health. To achieve these study aims, we will conduct a longitudinal community-based survey of N = 270 Mexican- origin families in the northern Indiana region. Data will be collected using an audio computer administered self- interview (ACASI) approach with adolescents and face-to-face interviews with parents. Adolescents will be surveyed across three measurement occasions at 6-month intervals, whereas parents will be surveyed at the first time point. We will assess racial/ethnic discrimination, emotion regulation, anger expression/suppression, acculturation/enculturation levels, acculturative stress, ethnic identity development, cultural orientation and values, racial/ethnic/cultural socialization practices, and mental health. The within-group approach will allow us to carefully study cultural influences and variations in sources of resilience and vulnerability vis-¿-vis mental disorders, and the longitudinal design wil enable us to test mediation and moderation effects across time to better determine sequence of effects. The proposed study is significant because it advances our understanding of: (1) key mediating mechanisms that help explain the link between discrimination and mental disorder; and, (2) potential moderating factors that can either buffer or exacerbate the impact of discrimination on mental health in this understudied population. This project is relevant to public health as it has the potential to identify explanatory mechanisms, as well as malleable risk and resilience factors, in the discrimination-mental health link. This will aid in the development of more targeted and culturally-sensitive interventions that can mitigate the detrimental impact of racism on the mental health of Latino youth and thus, help reduce health disparities.