About this poster

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Panel information
Panel 7. Health and Wellbeing

Abstract

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Mental health problems such as depressive symptoms are significant public health concerns in the United States. College students are at high risk for experiencing depressive symptoms due to stress associated with the transition to and navigating college life (e.g., academic, financial, and social stress). Racially/ethnically minoritized college students may be at even higher risk due to additional stressful experiences related to their race/ethnicity. Ethnic-racial discrimination experiences are prevalent and associated with increased risk for depressive symptoms among racially/ethnically minoritized adolescents and adults. It is critical to identify protective factors that can buffer the negative impact of ethnic-racial discrimination experiences. Informed by the bioecological model and a risk and resilience framework, we examined the role of multiple protective factors across individual (emotion regulation), family (parent-child relationship), peer (friend support), and cultural (familism, ethnic identity) levels in moderating the association between ethnic-racial discrimination and depressive symptoms among Latinx college students.

Data were drawn from the Pathways to College Health Study and included 263 first-year college students who self-identified as Hispanic/Latinx (Mean age = 19.34, 74.8% female, 80.9% Mexican-origin) enrolled full time at a large Hispanic-serving public university in the Southwestern United States (Cohort 1 Fall 2020 n = 149; Cohort 2 Fall 2021 n = 114). Participants completed an online survey via Qualtrics and reported on their depressive symptoms during the past week, ethnic-racial discrimination experiences in the past 12 months, emotion regulation, perceived relationship quality with parents, perceived social support from friends, cultural values, and ethnic identity. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the association between discrimination and depressive symptoms, and the role of individual, family, peer, and cultural factors in moderating this association. Participants’ cohort, age, sex, parental education, and living arrangement were included as covariates.

Descriptive statistics and bivariate correlations between key study variables are presented in Table 1. Results from multiple regression analyses (see Table 2) indicated that ethnic-racial discrimination experiences were associated with more depressive symptoms. Difficulties in emotion regulation was associated with more depressive symptoms, whereas higher levels of parent-child relationship quality and friend support were associated with lower levels of depressive symptoms. There was no significant association between familism and ethnic identity and depressive symptoms, above and beyond the effects of covariates and discrimination. We found no evidence of moderation effect of emotion regulation, parent-child relationship, friend support, familism, and ethnic identity on the association between discrimination and depressive symptoms.

This study aligns well with SRCD’s strategic goals, particularly the goal on integrating diversity in developmental science. Our findings indicate that experiences of ethnic-racial discrimination are associated with increased risk for depressive symptoms among Latinx college students, regardless of students’ emotion regulation, parent-child relationship quality, friend support, familism values, and ethnic identity. These findings highlight the continued need to combat ethnic-racial discrimination by making systematic changes, particularly in Hispanic-serving institutions, to end structural racism and achieve health equity. Future research is needed to explore and identity factors that can buffer the negative impact of discrimination.

Author information

Author	Role
Jinni Su, Arizona State University	Presenting author
Belal Jamil, Arizona State University, United States	Non-presenting author
Hannah Doherty, Arizona State University, United States	Non-presenting author
Nirmitha Hamsanipally, Arizona State University, United States	Non-presenting author
Angel Trevino , Arizona State University, United States	Non-presenting author
José M. Causadias, José M. Causadias, United States	Non-presenting author

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