Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 4, 2025

A Modified Trier Social Stress Test for Vulnerable Mexican American Adolescents
Published on: July 10, 2017
Peer Discrimination, Deviant Peer Affiliation, and Latino/a Adolescent Internalizing and Externalizing Symptoms: A
Morgane Bennett1, Kathleen M Roche1, David M Huebner1
1Department of Prevention & Community Health, Milken Institute School of Public Health, the George Washington University.
Objective:
U.S. Latino/a adolescents experience high levels of ethnic discrimination, particularly in new immigrant destinations. Due to the salience of peers during adolescence, this study examined how peer discrimination related directly and indirectly, through deviant peer affiliation, to changes in Latino/a adolescents' internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Culture-specific moderators hypothesized to buffer discrimination impacts on adolescent symptomology included Spanish language enculturation and adolescents' social ties to relatives in the family's country-of-origin.
Method:
The sample of 547 Latino/a adolescent participants from the Caminos al Bienestar study (55.4% female; age M = 12.8, range = 11-16) was selected at random from middle schools in a large, suburban school district in Atlanta, Georgia. Three time points of survey data spaced roughly 6 months apart were collected during 2018 and 2019.
Results:
Results from longitudinal structural equation models revealed that peer discrimination was associated indirectly with increased externalizing symptoms, through increases in affiliation with deviant peers (β = 0.05; SE = 0.02; B = 0.02; 95% CI = 0.01, 0.09). We did not observe direct or indirect effects of peer discrimination on changes in internalizing symptoms, and we found no significant protective effects of either Spanish language enculturation or social ties with the country-of-origin.
Conclusions:
Ethnic discrimination by peers may lead to deviant peer affiliation and, in turn, increased externalizing behaviors. Future research identifying protective factors that buffer discrimination impacts on deviant peer affiliation is needed to inform the development of interventions that can prevent Latino/a adolescents' externalizing symptoms.
More Related Videos
11:31Rapid Fractionation and Isolation of Whole Blood Components in Samples Obtained from a Community-based Setting
Published on: November 30, 2015
05:52Handwriting Analysis Indicates Spontaneous Dyskinesias in Neuroleptic Naïve Adolescents at High Risk for Psychosis
Published on: November 21, 2013
Related Concept Videos
Ethnic Identity within a Larger Culture
Stereotypes, Prejudice, and Discrimination
Self-Discrepancy Theory
Influence of Parents and Peers on Identity
Parental Influence on Identity Development
Parents serve as primary guides and managers in an adolescent's life, offering support instrumental in decision-making and personal growth....
Surveys
Stereotype Threat and Self-fulfilling Prophecies