Maternal race related stressors and adolescents’ outcomes

Ethnic-racial minority individuals are still experiencing race-related stressors at high rates. Research has predominantly focused on personal experiences of discrimination; however, individuals may experience vicarious discrimination as well as anticipated discrimination. Families create an important context for exploring the transmission of race-related stressors. Using a national sample of African American mothers (N = 318), the current study explored the relation between mothers’ experiences of race-related stressors and adolescent outcomes, as well as indirect pathways through maternal depressive symptoms and involved vigilant parenting using path analysis in Mplus 8.2. Mothers’ personal racial discrimination experiences were positively related to maternal depressive symptoms and adolescents’ internalizing and externalizing problem behaviors and indirectly related to mothers’ involved vigilant parenting through maternal depressive symptoms. Anticipated racial discrimination was positively related to mothers’ involved vigilant parenting. Further, the pathway between mothers’ involved vigilant parenting and adolescents’ externalizing problem behaviors was significantly different and stronger for mothers of girls relative to mothers of boys. Additionally, the pathway between mothers’ vicarious racial discrimination and mothers’ depressive symptoms was marginally stronger for mothers of boys relative to mothers of girls. The study findings create a more comprehensive view of how race-related stressors and how they are related to functioning in African American families