1 - (SYM 45) The Influences of Emotion Regulation and Ethnic-racial Socialization in the Relationship Between Racial/ethnic Discrimination and Anxiety Among Academically Resilient Adolescents of Color

Racial/ethnic discrimination (RED) is known to increase anxiety in minoritized, immigrant-origin adolescents of color. Caregivers of color often engage in ethnic-racial socialization (ERS) to prepare their children to survive in racially oppressive systems, such as instilling cultural pride and knowledge (cultural socialization), preparing them for bias, and promoting mistrust of other racial groups. In turn, adolescents may use internalized emotion regulation responses, such as rumination and experiential avoidance, to cope with discrimination. While adaptive for academic and social success, these responses may be costly to well-being and normalize concealing emotions to persist through adversity. We hypothesized that emotion regulation responses would mediate the relationship between discrimination and anxiety, and ERS practices would moderate the direct and indirect paths from discrimination to anxiety.

Data were drawn from an ongoing randomized prevention trial. Adolescents of color (n = 262, M_age = 16.08, 29% Asian American, 71% Latine) completed measures on RED and ERS at pre, rumination and experiential avoidance at midpoint, and anxiety at post, over four months. We conducted moderated mediation to examine whether ERS practices moderated the indirect effects of RED on anxiety through rumination and experiential avoidance, by acting on the RED- response (a-path) and RED-anxiety (c’-path) links.

RED was associated with rumination (b = 0.27, p = .013) and experiential avoidance (b = 0.69, p = .001), but only experiential avoidance mediated the path to anxiety (b = 0.11, p = .045). ERS practices did not moderate this indirect effect, though preparation for bias and promotion of mistrust moderated other paths in the models. RED was related to rumination at low (b = 0.58, p < .001) and average (b = 0.31, p = .001), but not high levels of preparation for bias. RED was only related to anxiety at high levels of promotion of mistrust (b = 0.44, p = .046).

Findings suggest that adolescents responded to discrimination with both rumination and experiential avoidance, but there was only an indirect effect to anxiety through experiential avoidance. ERS practices did not moderate this indirect effect as hypothesized, but they influenced direct paths in the models. When facing discrimination, adolescents ruminated less when more prepared for bias, and were more anxious when promotion of mistrust was higher. Altogether, results suggest intervention targets for adolescents of color facing discrimination that will be discussed through a CBT framework.