Ethnic/Racial Discrimination, School Cultural Socialization, and Negative Affect: Daily Diaries Reveal African American, Asian American, and Latinx Adolescents’ Resilience

Adolescents of color are particularly poised to experience the mental health crisis partly due to the absence of a clear-cut solution that prepares them to cope with ethnic/racial discrimination. One resilience-promoting factor in minoritized adolescents’ lives is cultural socialization (i.e., the beliefs, practices, and worldviews that youth receive about their ethnic/racial group’s heritage, history, and values), but the role of cultural socialization in relation to adolescents’ resilience in the face of ethnic/racial discrimination is sporadic with extant studies documenting mixed results. Prior studies are likely limited by their focus on cultural socialization from parents relative to school adults and the larger school context. Following ethnic/racial discrimination, school-based cultural socialization may reduce youth’s anticipation of discrimination, trust in others from different ethnic/racial groups, and rejection sensitivity. To test our theories, the present study used two daily diaries: Study 1 followed 134 African American adolescents over a 14-day period (N diaries = 1, 494), and Study 2 followed 159 Asian American and Latinx adolescents over a 30-day period (N diaries = 3, 458). In both studies, on days when ethnic/racial discrimination occurred, adolescents reported greater negative affect. This daily effect of ethnic–racial discrimination on negative affect was exacerbated on days when adolescents received less school-based cultural socialization but weaker on days when adolescents received more school-based cultural socialization. The present studies underscore how school adults foster youth’s resilience in the context of ethnic/racial adversity.