Longitudinal Links Between Vicarious Racism and Mental Health Among Mexican-Origin Adolescents: The Moderating Role...

To investigate how exposure to vicarious racism for Mexican-origin adolescents is associated with subsequent generalized anxiety and internalizing symptoms 1 year later. The study also considers how daily sleep health behaviors (duration, quality) moderate these associations.

The sample includes 317 Mexican-origin adolescents (46.7% female, 49.2% male, and 2.5% non-binary/third gender) residing in the Midwestern United States who completed a measure of vicarious racism, 21 days of daily diaries querying sleep duration and quality immediately after, and measures of generalized anxiety and internalizing symptoms 1 year later. Intraindividual mean and intraindividual variability of daily sleep over 21 days were computed and modeled as moderators.

Exposure to vicarious racism was associated with increases in generalized anxiety symptoms 1 year later for adolescents who reported low average levels of sleep quality and highly variable sleep quality over 21 days. Similarly, exposure to vicarious racism was associated with increases in internalizing symptoms 1 year later for adolescents who reported highly variable sleep quality over 21 days. No results were observed for sleep duration.

The impact of witnessing other Latinx individuals experience racism for adolescent mental health is conditioned by daily sleep health behaviors. In particular, intraindividual variability in daily sleep quality seems to confer unique vulnerabilities for generalized anxiety and internalizing symptoms. Programming focused on supporting night-to-night stability in sleep quality may be especially beneficial for offsetting exposure to vicarious racism.