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Differential Size of the Discrimination–Depression Relationship Among Adolescents of Foreign-Born Parents in the US

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Abstract

Background

In estimating the association between discrimination and depression, existing research using standard regression models has generally relied on a single parameter estimate based on the conditional mean that reflects the relationship size for the average individual. Such estimates that focus on the average individual, however, may provide limited information regarding the true nature of the discrimination–depression relationship, which may vary across different points of the distribution of depressive symptoms conditional on various personal and social attributes.

Objective

This study examined the size of the differential associations between perceived discrimination and depressive symptoms among immigrant youth in the US—a rapidly growing and potentially vulnerable demographic group.

Methods

This study used quantile regression models to analyze data from the Children of Immigrants Longitudinal Study (N = 4,113), which is a sample of adolescents of foreign-born parents in California and Florida.

Results

A single relationship measure that focuses on the average individual would have provided a poor estimate of the perceived discrimination–depressive symptoms relationship. Specifically, a single parameter estimate (β = 0.33, p < .001) would have understated the potential harm of discrimination near the higher end of the conditional depressive symptoms distribution (β = 0.67, p < .01 on the 90th quantile), while overstating the relationship size near the lower end (β = 0.19, p < .01 on the 25th quantile).

Conclusions

Findings from this study may stand to present substantive implications for both practitioners and policy makers who are often most interested in understanding the daily stressful experiences and their correlates concerning the most marginalizing situations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Child Psychology and Education, Sungkyunkwan University, 25-2 Sungkyunkwan-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul, 110-745, Korea

    Yoonsun Han

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  1. Yoonsun Han
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Han, Y. Differential Size of the Discrimination–Depression Relationship Among Adolescents of Foreign-Born Parents in the US. Child Youth Care Forum 43, 763–781 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10566-014-9265-y

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