Black Youth Experienced Increased Racial Discrimination Online in 2020, Study Finds

Between March and November 2020, Black youth experienced increased online racial discrimination and reported poorer mental health immediately after, according to a study published this week in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

“In 2020, the killings of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and other Black Americans at the hands of White civilians and law enforcement sparked an uprising against racial injustice that was met with fierce opposition from white nationalists and domestic terror groups in the United States,” wrote Juan Del Toro, Ph.D., and Ming-Te Wang, Ed.D., of the University of Pittsburgh. Those groups became more prominent in online spaces as youth simultaneously relied on those online spaces to connect with peers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Del Toro and Wang recruited 602 self-identified Black and White adolescents (58% Black, 42% White) between the ages of 12 and 18. For two weeks in March, April, May, and October 2020, the participants completed daily surveys to determine if they had experienced online racial discrimination and to assess their mental health symptoms. Rates of participation varied from month to month, with 44% participating in the March surveys and 57% participating in the October surveys. The researchers collected a total of 18,454 daily assessments.

The authors included a single item from the Online Victimization Scale in the surveys to determine if the participants experienced online racial discrimination (Participants were asked: “Over the past 24 hours, did anyone say or post mean or rude things about you because of your race or ethnic group online?”). Participants were also asked about symptoms of their depression, anxiety, stress, and exhaustion/tiredness through the Profile of Mood States Questionnaire and a single item from the Daily Stress Scale.

Across all four survey periods, 45% of Black youth reported at least one instance of online racial discrimination. On average, Black youth experienced two incidents of online racial discrimination during the study period. The percentage of participants experiencing online racial discrimination increased from 8% during the first survey period to 22% during the final survey period, and the authors noted that this increase was not solely explained by increased time spent online. In contrast, reporting of online racial discrimination was low in White youth, ranging from 8% in the first survey to 11% in the last.

Black adolescents who experienced online racial discrimination also reported increased depressive symptoms, anxiety, and stress both on the day they experienced the discrimination and the next day, relative to days when they did not experience discrimination. No discernible effect of online racial discrimination emerged for White youth, the authors noted.

“[C]hronic exposure to online settings may exacerbate the impact of racial discrimination on youth’s mental health. Importantly, these daily effects may accrue and over time contribute to clinically significant levels of impairment,” Del Toro and Wang wrote. “To prepare racially minoritized youth and their families to cope with these adverse experiences, psychiatrists and clinicians should recognize online spaces as developmental contexts with immediate consequences for youth’s mental health.”

Health care professionals should be trained on culturally sensitive assessments and effective communication skills to use when patients’ racial trauma arises in clinical settings, the authors added. “[C]onversations about racial discrimination would be incomplete without discussing practical approaches to cope with race-related stressors in daily life.”

For related information, see the Psychiatric News article “Psychiatrists Demand Action on Racism.”

(Image: iStock/SDI Productions)

---

Don't miss out! To learn about newly posted articles in Psychiatric News, please sign up here.

Follow Psychiatric News on Twitter!

Black Parents’ Experiences of Racial Discrimination Associated With Children’s Depression

Black parents’ experiences of racial discrimination may be linked to greater conflict with their children, which could in turn be associated with higher levels of depression and anxiety among children, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

Previous studies of Black adults have found that overt forms of racial discrimination, including being treated with less respect or unfairly stopped or threatened by police, contribute to heightened depression, anxiety, and traumatic stress, wrote Chardée Galán, Ph.D., of the University of South California and colleagues. “[S]tudies find that parents’ exposure to race-based discrimination is negatively linked not only to their own well-being but also to their parenting practices and parent-child relationship quality.”

Galán and colleagues recruited families who self-identified as Black from the Safe Keeping Youth study—a randomized, controlled trial of youth and caregivers receiving services at a clinic serving low-income youth in Pittsburgh. Families were recruited based on their sociodemographic risk, such as if they received Medicaid or their income was at or below 150% of the federal poverty level and if their children were between the ages of 9.75 and 13 years old and exhibited problem behaviors (such as impulsivity).

Families participated in 2.5-hour assessments in their homes when the parents and children entered the study, one year later, and two years later. The assessments consisted of questionnaires that both the parent and child completed, as well as video-recorded discussions between them. At the start of the study, parents completed the Microaggression Scale, a nine-item measure of parents’ experiences of discrimination related to race/ethnicity. During the one-year follow-up, parents were asked about their experience with 20 depressive symptoms and the frequency of these symptoms over the past week; youth completed an interview to assess behavioral and emotional problems and parent-child conflict. During the two-year follow-up, parents reported behavioral and emotional problems observed in the youth over the past six months, and youth were asked about their experiences with depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and frequency of such activities as property damage or theft in the past year.

In total, 199 families completed all three assessments, and over 96% of parents who completed the initial assessment were mothers. Parents’ experiences of racial discrimination at the start of the study were not associated with parental depression a year later, but they were associated with parent-child conflict. Further, there was a significant association between parent-child conflict at the one-year follow-up and youth depression, anxiety, and conduct problems at the two-year follow-up, as reported by both children and parents. The authors did not identify a significant association between parental depression and parent-child conflict.

“Findings from this study suggest that efforts to promote youth well-being and resilience in the context of pervasive racism must consider the effects that racial discrimination has on the entire family unit and the quality of parent-child relationship,” the authors concluded. “[O]ur results can be used to further inform the development of key treatment targets for future clinical interventions.”

For related information, see the Psychiatric News article “We Must Speak to Patients and Their Families About Racism.”

(Image: iStock/Prostock-Studio)

---

Don't miss out! To learn about newly posted articles in Psychiatric News, please sign up here.

Follow Psychiatric News on Twitter!

Parent Questionnaire May Identify High-Risk Youth at Greatest Risk of Bipolar Disorder

Youth who are at high risk for developing bipolar disorder often experience mood swings or depression well before they develop the full disorder. A report in the Journal of the Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry suggests that a questionnaire completed by parents about their children can help to track their mood instability, providing important clues about the youth’s symptoms over time.

“Interventions that are successful in reducing mood instability may enhance long-term outcomes among high-risk youth,” wrote David J. Miklowitz, Ph.D., of the University of California, Los Angeles, and colleagues.

Miklowitz and colleagues analyzed data collected during a trial of youth aged 9 to 17 at high risk for bipolar disorder who were randomly assigned to four months of a family-focused therapy or enhanced usual care. As part of this trial, the parents were asked to regularly complete the Children’s Affective Lability Scale (CALS), scoring their child on how often he or she demonstrated a range of behaviors (for example, suddenly becoming tense or anxious, crying, or having bursts of silliness). Parents also filled out the Conflict Behavior Questionnaire—20 true/false items assessing the level of argumentativeness, frustration in communication, and relational distress between parents and children. Independent evaluators also regularly assessed the youth’s depression, mania, hypomania, and psychosocial functioning. The youth were followed for an average of two years.

Of the 114 participants included in the analysis, 57% met DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5 criteria for major depressive disorder, and 43% met DSM-5 criteria for other specified bipolar disorder. The researchers found that participants who were younger and had an earlier onset of symptoms, a diagnosis of other specified bipolar disorder, more severe mood symptoms, and lower psychosocial functioning were more likely to have higher parent-rated mood instability over time. Although the mood instability scores decreased over the follow-up period, there was no difference in the mood instability scores of the youth who received the family-focused therapy compared with those who received enhanced usual care. Youth with higher mood instability scores in one assessment had higher parent/child conflict reported during the follow-up assessment, the researchers noted.

“The parent-rated CALS scale is not a diagnostic instrument but is an efficient way of tracking symptom trajectories and psychosocial impairment in high-risk youth,” Miklowitz and colleagues wrote. “Because it only takes five minutes for parents to complete and is easily hand scored, it will be considerably easier for clinicians to administer than Adolescent Longitudinal Interval Follow-up Evaluations or Young Mania Rating Scale interviews, which are lengthier and require extensive training.”

They concluded, “The present study has implications for treatment planning for youth at high risk for [bipolar disorder]. … Future clinical trials should examine whether intervening specifically on mood instability in high-risk youth helps delay or prevent the onset of syndromal [bipolar disorder] and enhances psychosocial functioning in adulthood.”

For related information, see the American Journal of Psychiatry article “Early Intervention in Bipolar Disorder.”

(Image: iStock/kasayizgi)

---

Don't miss out! To learn about newly posted articles in Psychiatric News, please sign up here.

Follow Psychiatric News on Twitter!