Latino Youth Coping With Discrimination: A Multi-Level Investigation in Micro- and Macro-Time

The project's long-term goal is to improve the mental health of Mexican-origin youth by reducing the deleterious effects of racism, "othering," and negative neighborhood interactions. Community based collaboration will be used to recruit a sample of 340 Mexican-origin adolescents, mothers, and fathers in Indiana. The inclusion of fathers will be a valuable contribution to the literature, given the dearth of studies on Latinx fathers/stepfathers. A combination of annual surveys administered over three waves to parents and youth ("macro-time") and a 21-day daily diary ("micro-time") administered in wave 1 to youth is employed to assess important questions about how mediating and moderating processes unfold over time. Specific aims of the project include determination of within-person discrimination-related stressors that impact youth's mental health outcomes and the mechanisms of action at both micro- and macro- time levels; identification of protective factors that could help coping with discrimination related stressors and conditions under which they work; and elucidating youth, parent, and neighborhood risk factors that moderate the link between discrimination-related stressors and mental health outcomes in youth. This research is highly translational in that it will facilitate the development of more effective, culturally sensitive prevention and intervention strategies for Latinx youth and their families.