Skip to main content
ABCT 2024 58th Annual Convention Main banner
Psychology Tools Ad
Final Program


Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
Presentation Icons
Recorded Session
Recorded Session
Ticketed Session
Ticketed Session
Back

Culture / Ethnicity / Race

Racial Discrimination and Anxiety Symptoms among Black Youth: The Moderating Role of Youth Age and Parental Worry

(PS10-37) Racial Discrimination and Anxiety Symptoms Among Black Youth: The Moderating Role of Youth Age and Parental Worry

Saturday, November 16, 2024
1:00 PM – 2:00 PM EST
Location: Franklin Hall, Level 4, Marriott Downtown
Abstract Text: Racial discrimination is a chronic and psychologically harmful source of stress and trauma among Black children and adolescence (English et al., 2020; Cave et al., 2020; Saleem et al., 2020). Emergent research suggests that the link between racial discrimination and mental health concerns may be dependent on youth age and family level processes such as parental worry defined as parents’ emotional distress regarding their children’s safety in the context of racism-related events (Herda, 2016; Benner et al., 2018). Despite this evidence, the interplay between youth age and parental worry remains unknown in the context of racism and health. Accordingly, the current study examined whether youth age and parental worry uniquely and conjointly moderate the association between youth racial discrimination and anxiety symptoms. Participants were 217 adolescent-caregiver dyads across the United States. Youth (50% female, Mage = 14.5, SD = 2.05) completed measures assessing frequency of racial discrimination experiences (Patcher et al., 2010; Tynes et al., 2008) and anxiety symptoms (Spitzer et al., 2006). Caregivers (76.5% mothers; Mage = 42.75, SD = 9.03) completed a survey regarding their levels of parental worry (Stevenson & Winn, 2016). Multiple regression analyses revealed a significant three-way interaction indicating that the link between racial discrimination and anxiety differed as a function of parental worry and youth age. Simple slope analysis revealed that the association between racial discrimination and anxiety symptoms was significant for younger and mean level youth regardless of level of parental worry (ps < .05). However, for older adolescents, simple slope analyses revealed the link between racial discrimination and anxiety symptoms to only be significant when caregivers reported moderate to high levels of worry (ps < .05). The relationship between racial discrimination and anxiety was not significant when older adolescents’ caregivers reported low levels of worry (p = .362). Findings suggest parental worry and youth age do interact with youth racial discrimination to influence anxiety levels, highlighting the importance of considering how these factors may intersect to exacerbate feelings of anxiety in Black youth.