The Prevalence of Stressful Life Events among a Racially Diverse National Sample of Adolescents

Stressful life events (SLEs), such as adverse life events (ALEs), discrimination, and financial adversity, continue to be a public health concern. Limited understanding of rates of SLEs within intersecting identities hinders the implementation of interventions to reduce racial and gender disparities.

Secondary analyses of data collected from 11,875 youth for the longitudinal Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study^® were conducted to examine exposure to SLEs. Raw and weighted prevalence rates of SLEs were examined by race/ethnicity, and within-group variations were examined by gender and by youth versus caregiver report.

Over 9% of youth endorsed experiences of discrimination (EOD). While 81.6% of youth experienced ALEs as negative, only 48.45% of caregivers did. 18.57% of caregivers reported at least one item of financial adversity. In general, Black youth experienced more SLEs, Asian youth experienced fewer SLEs, with Hispanic and Multiracial/Multiethnic youth experiencing more EOD, financial adversity, and caregiver-reported ALEs than White and Asian youth, albeit not as much as the Black racial/ethnic group. Females reported more experiences of discrimination than males.

Reporting varied by caregiver vs. youth, race, and gender. Findings call for implementing screening for SLEs, identifying strategies for reducing SLEs among Black adolescents, and training mental health professionals on screening protocol and the dynamics of intersectionality. Additional research is needed to explore cultural variations in how different groups process SLEs.