Cumulative Effects of Bullying and Racial Discrimination on Adolescent Health in Australia

Abstract

This study examined how cumulative exposure to racial discrimination and bullying victimization influences the health of Australian adolescents (n=2802) aged 10-11 years (19.3% visible ethnic minorities (non-White, non-Indigenous); 2.6% Indigenous) using data from 3 waves (2010-2014) of the nationally representative Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (LSAC). Cumulative exposure to racial discrimination and bullying victimization had incremental negative effects on socioemotional difficulties. Higher accumulated exposure to both stressors across time was associated with increased BMI z-scores, and risk of overweight/obesity. Studies that examine exposure to single risk factors such as bullying victimization or racial discrimination at 1 time point only are likely to miss key determinants of health for adolescents from stigmatized racial/ethnic backgrounds and under-estimate their stressor burden. Ben-Schlomo, Yoav, and Diana Kuh. 2002. "A life course approach to chronic disease epidemiology: conceptual models, empirical challenges and interdisciplinary perspectives."International Journal of Epidemiology 31:285-95.

Perceived Discrimination Trajectories and Depressive Symptoms Among Middle-Aged and Older Black Adults

“…A cross-sectional measurement of perceived discrimination may not provide the most accurate representation of its consequences on health and may in fact be an underestimation of its impact on health ( 60 , 61 ). It has been postulated that frequent and repeated experiences of discrimination over time may be more strongly correlated with health outcomes compared with a single report in time ( 43 , 45 , 60 ).…”

“…First, the measurement of perceived discrimination. Weaknesses to measuring perceived discrimination using EDS, currently the most widely used scale, are well described and include the lack of vicarious exposures to discrimination, all possible places and instances in which discrimination can be experienced, and subjective appraisal of the experience ( 13 , 32 , 43 , 62 ). Likewise, the discrimination trajectories did not include major lifetime discrimination, which typically captures discrete incidents of mistreatment such as denied getting a job or home loan.…”

Promoting proactive bystander responses to racism and racial discrimination in primary schools: a mixed methods evaluation of the ‘Speak Out Against Racism’ program pilot

“…Racial discrimination is a common stressor in the lives of many children and adolescents, with growing empirical evidence of negative associations between racial discrimination and multiple domains of child and adolescent health [4,[11][12][13]. Longitudinal studies have documented effects of racial discrimination on mental health [14,15], substance use [16], cortisol dysregulation [17], allostatic load [18], epigenetic aging [19] and inflammation [20] among youth.…”

Promoting proactive bystander responses to racism and racial discrimination in primary schools: A mixed methods feasibility and acceptability study of the ‘Speak Out Against Racism’ program

“…Racial discrimination is a common stressor in the lives of many children and adolescents, with growing empirical evidence of negative associations between racial discrimination and multiple domains of child and adolescent health (Priest et al, 2020a;Priest, Kavanagh, Bécares, & King, 2019b;Priest et al, 2013;Priest et al, 2020b). Longitudinal studies have documented effects of racial discrimination on mental health (Ford, Hurd, Jagers, & Sellers, 2013;Hou, Kim , Wang, Shen, & Orozco-Lapray, 2015), substance use (Garrett, Livingston, Livingston, & Komro, 2017), and cortisol dysregulation (Adam et al, 2015), allostatic load (Brody et al, 2014) epigenetic aging (Brody, Miller, Yu, Beach, & Chen, 2016) and inflammation (Brody, Yu, Miller, & Chen, 2015) among youth.…”

“…Racial discrimination and bullying are related but distinct factors in the lives of children and adolescents (Killen, Mulvey, & Hitti, 2013;Priest et al, 2019b;Priest, King, Bécares, & Kavanagh, 2016). Racial discrimination is related primarily to group membership and social identities related to race and ethnicity, and fundamentally an expression of societal and structural forces of stratification and maintenance of status differences and social hierarchies (Killen et al, 2013;Paluck et al, 2016).…”