Race and gender influences on adjustment in early adolescence: investigation of an integrative model.
This research investigated an integrative model of race- and gender-related influences on adjustment during early adolescence using a sample of 350 Black and White youth. In the proposed model, prejudice/discrimination events, as well as race and gender daily hassles, contribute to a general stress context. The stress context, in turn, influences levels of emotional and behavioral problems in adjustment, with these associations mediated (in part) by intervening effects on self-esteem. Racial and gender identity similarly have positive effects on adjustment via their intermediary linkages with self-esteem. Structural equation modeling analyses provided support for all of these aspects of the model. Findings also revealed theoretically predicted differences in model parameters across race by gender subgroups. These include a direct effect of prejudice/discrimination events on emotional problems specific to Black youth and an effect of gender identity on self-esteem specific to girls. Black girls appeared to be most vulnerable to exhibiting significant adjustment difficulties as a result of the processes under investigation.
D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior / Q000523:psychology; D000339:Affect; D005006:Ethnicity; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012649:Self Concept; D012737:Sex Factors; D012917:Social Adjustment; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires