"They were just making jokes": Ethnic/racial teasing and discrimination among adolescents

The effects of peer-based discrimination are especially harmful for adolescents given the heightened role of social feedback during this period. The current study aimed to understand the unique expressions of discrimination that adolescents experience between close peers and friends, as well as the daily influence of such experiences.

Study 1 included semistructured interviews (10 interviews, 2 focus groups; Mage = 17.3) with an ethnic/racially diverse sample of adolescence. Study 2 (n = 79; Mage = 15.72) used a 21-day daily diary study with a different sample of ethnic/racially diverse adolescents.

Study 1 found that, among close peers and friends, adolescents experienced "ethnic/racial teasing," a unique form of discrimination characterized by humor. Additionally, adolescents consistently dismissed the negative messages as innocuous based on the supposedly humorous nature of such interactions. Study 2 found that when adolescents were targeted for ethnic/racial teasing, individuals who were already anxious experienced increased daily anxiety, and that increases in social anxiety persisted across days.

The current study suggests that among peers, ethnic/racial teasing is a common way that adolescents interact around ethnicity/race. Further, this study points to the complexity of these experiences; though they were largely considered normative and harmless, they also had negative psychological effects for some adolescents. Implications for our conceptual understanding of discrimination and teasing during adolescence are discussed.