The Relationship between Parental Educational Attainment and Perceived Racial Discrimination among African-American Female Adolescents

Background: Perceived racial discrimination acts as a considerable stressor for AfricanAmericans and is associated with adverse health outcomes among adults and adolescents. The relationship between perceived discrimination and socioeconomic dimensions has been studied among adult African-American populations to assess the role of social patterning in reports of discrimination. However, less is known about the relationship between parental educational attainment and adolescents’ perceived discrimination. Methods: We explored the relationship between parental educational attainment and adolescents’ reports of racial discrimination using written surveys from 135 African-American female adolescents seeking family planning services at an urban hospital-based adolescent clinic in Pennsylvania. Dimensions of perceived discrimination that were captured in this study included personal experiences, vicarious racial discrimination, and perceived discrimination against African-Americans as a group. Parental educational attainment was categorized as “some or completed high school/GED” and “some or completed college.” To account for missing parental education data, a sensitivity analysis was performed in which missing data were recoded into parental education categories and used in chi-square cross tabulations. Results: Most of the sample (mean age = 17.04; SD = 1.33) had completed high school or were currently enrolled in school, and were living in single-parent homes. Close to half (41.5%) of respondents did not know their father’s educational attainment, and 17.8% did not know their mother’s educational attainment. To account for missing education data, a sensitivity analysis was performed, which revealed no significant association between parental educational attainment and adolescents’ perceived discrimination. However, although the respondents in our study do not appear to experience frequent discrimination, 85.9% reported at least one dimension of discrimination measured in this study. Conclusions: The large percentage of African-American female adolescents who reported at least one dimension of discrimination implies an added burden and vulnerability to social stressors in their life. Cover Page Footnote Suggested Citation: Medina, S.P., V. Lewis and S. Pati. (2010). "The Relationship between Parental Educational Attainment and Perceived Racial Discrimination among African-American Female Adolescents." Penn McNair Research Journal. Vol. 2: Iss. 1, Article 7. This journal article is available in Penn McNair Research Journal: http://repository.upenn.edu/mcnair_scholars/vol2/iss1/7 Parental Educational Attainment / Medina et al. 1 The Relationship between Parental Educational Attainment and Perceived Racial Discrimination among African-American Female Adolescents Sheyla P. Medina, Valerie Lewis * , Susmita Pati Faculty Mentor: Dr. Susmita Pati, Pediatrics University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine Copyright ©2010 by the authors. Penn McNair Research Journal Fall 2010, Volume 2 Penn McNair Research Journal is produced by the Berkeley Electronic Press. http://repository.upenn.edu/mcnair_scholars Abstract Background: Perceived racial discrimination acts as a considerable stressor for AfricanAmericans and is associated with adverse health outcomes among adults and adolescents. The relationship between perceived discrimination and socioeconomic dimensions has been studied among adult African-American populations to assess the role of social patterning in reports of discrimination. However, less is known about the relationship between parental educational attainment and adolescents’ perceived discrimination. Methods: We explored the relationship between parental educational attainment and adolescents’ reports of racial discrimination using written surveys from 135 African-American female adolescents seeking family planning services at an urban hospital-based adolescent clinic in Pennsylvania. Dimensions of perceived discrimination that were captured in this study included personal experiences, vicarious racial discrimination, and perceived discrimination against African-Americans as a group. Parental educational attainment was categorized as “some or completed high school/GED” and “some or completed college.” To account for missing parental education data, a sensitivity analysis was performed in which missing data were recoded into parental education categories and used in chi-square cross tabulations. Results: Most of the sample (mean age = 17.04; SD = 1.33) had completed high school or were currently enrolled in school, and were living in single-parent homes. Close to half (41.5%) ofBackground: Perceived racial discrimination acts as a considerable stressor for AfricanAmericans and is associated with adverse health outcomes among adults and adolescents. The relationship between perceived discrimination and socioeconomic dimensions has been studied among adult African-American populations to assess the role of social patterning in reports of discrimination. However, less is known about the relationship between parental educational attainment and adolescents’ perceived discrimination. Methods: We explored the relationship between parental educational attainment and adolescents’ reports of racial discrimination using written surveys from 135 African-American female adolescents seeking family planning services at an urban hospital-based adolescent clinic in Pennsylvania. Dimensions of perceived discrimination that were captured in this study included personal experiences, vicarious racial discrimination, and perceived discrimination against African-Americans as a group. Parental educational attainment was categorized as “some or completed high school/GED” and “some or completed college.” To account for missing parental education data, a sensitivity analysis was performed in which missing data were recoded into parental education categories and used in chi-square cross tabulations. Results: Most of the sample (mean age = 17.04; SD = 1.33) had completed high school or were currently enrolled in school, and were living in single-parent homes. Close to half (41.5%) of * Advisor: Valerie Lewis, Assistant Physician, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Division of Adolescent Medicine 1 Medina et al.: Parental Educational Attainment and Perceived Racial Discrimination Published by ScholarlyCommons, 2010 2 Penn McNair Research Journal respondents did not know their father’s educational attainment, and 17.8% did not know their mother’s educational attainment. To account for missing education data, a sensitivity analysis was performed, which revealed no significant association between parental educational attainment and adolescents’ perceived discrimination. However, although the respondents in our study do not appear to experience frequent discrimination, 85.9% reported at least one dimension of discrimination measured in this study. Conclusions: The large percentage of African-American female adolescents who reported at least one dimension of discrimination implies an added burden and vulnerability to social stressors in their life. Introduction Adolescence marks a critical developmental period during which youth are exposed to racial discrimination (Seaton, 2006; Sellers, Copeland-Linder, Martin, and Lewis, 2006). In particular, research shows that African-American youth report having had race-based discriminatory experiences (Fisher, Wallace, and Fenton, 2000; Gibbons, Gerrard, Cleveland, Wills, and Brody, 2004) and at a higher frequency when compared to other ethnic groups (Romero and Roberts, 1998). Perceived racial discrimination and indicators of socioeconomic status (SES) have been analyzed extensively in the context of health disparities and health outcomes among adult populations in the United States. For example, educational attainment has been studied among African-American adults to understand sociodemographic variations that are associated with reports of racial discrimination and health outcomes. However, the scarcity of research regarding education and adolescents’ perceived discrimination warrants an assessment of this relationship. Previous research shows the deleterious effects of racial discrimination on the psychological functioning of adult African-Americans (Broman, Mavaddat, and Hsu, 2000; Gee, Ryan, Laflamme, and Holt, 2006). Perceived racial discrimination among adults has been associated with self-reported worse health status, cardiovascular disease outcomes, risky behavior (i.e., smoking; alcohol use), and psychological distress (Hausmann, Jeong, Bost, and Ibrahim, 2008; Paradies, 2006; Williams and Mohammed, 2009; Williams, Neighbors, and Jackson, 2003). Racial discrimination pervades many aspects of life and is also considered a risk factor for adverse psychological functioning and mental health outcomes for adolescents (Sellers et al., 2006). Further exploration of adolescents’ experiences and perceptions of discrimination may provide insight into youths’ view of their interactions in various settings, including the health care system. 2 Penn McNair Research Journal, Vol. 2 [2010], Iss. 1, Art. 7 http://repository.upenn.edu/mcnair_scholars/vol2/iss1/7 Parental Educational Attainment / Medina et al. 3 The present study assesses the role of parental educational attainment on adolescents’ reports of perceived and experienced discrimination. Further, the strength of this relationship is examined for maternal and paternal educational attainment levels. Results are compared to assertions made by other studies on adolescent populations to examine whether the study supplements or refutes trends in the literature. Although the present study does not measure mental and physical health outcomes of adolescents, the results may influence future research that explore the dimensions of perceived discrimination in different settings, ranging from health clinics to schools. In particular, the findings can help shape cultural competence training for health care providers to understand the role of parental education in the health and health behaviors of adolescents (Gee et al., 2006). The results of the study may also help increase the development of adolescent coping skills by contributing to the shape of current support services found in health care settings and schools. Previous Literature Socioeconomic standing and racial discrimination act as considerable stressors for AfricanAmericans. Elements of SES are important to study in adolescent and young adult populations because these indicators could inform exposure and susceptibility to perceived racial discrimination. However, few studies have exclusively explored the relationship between features of SES and self-reports of racial discrimination among adolescents (Caputo, 2003; Seaton, 2006). Several studies have assessed SES differences in self-reported racism among adult populations as a secondary analysis (Brondolo, ver Halen, Pencille, Beatty, and Contrada, 2009; Franzini, Caughy, Spears, and Esquer, 2005; Mays, Coleman, and Jackson, 1996; Vines et al., 2006; Watson, Scarinci, Klesges, Slawson, and Beech, 2002). The current literature on SES and perceived racism among African-American adults focuses on specific SES indicators through which the relationship between education and perceived discrimination has emerged. Studies indicate that Caucasian women who have lower levels of educational attainment are more likely to report discrimination than their collegeeducated counterparts (Fowler-Brown, Ashkin, Corbie-Smith, Thaker, and Pathman, 2006; Hausmann et al., 2008; Watson et al., 2002). However, this relationship does not persist among African-Americans in these studies. Conversely, other studies, with only African-American samples, report that higher levels of education are associated with race-based discrimination (Bird and Bogart, 2001; Brown, 2001; Vines et al., 2006). Further, studies display no relationship between educational attainment and racial discrimination for African-American women (Kwate, Valdimarsdottir, Guevarra, and Bovbjerg, 2003; Watson et al., 2002) nor for a racially diverse sample of women (Ro and Choi, 2009). The field thus 3 Medina et al.: Parental Educational Attainment and Perceived Racial Discrimination Published by ScholarlyCommons, 2010 4 Penn McNair Research Journal presents conflicting research on the relationship between educational attainment and perceived discrimination among adult populations. Studies have demonstrated that educational attainment is a strong individual-level indicator of SES that can predict health outcomes in adults (Cutler and Lleras-Muney, 2006; Winkleby, Jatulis, Frank, and Fortmann, 1992). Associations between adult respondents’ level of educational attainment and perceptions of discrimination have been thoroughly analyzed as secondary analyses in studies. However, there is little known about this relationship in adolescents. The extant literature displays an insignificant relationship between SES variables, including parental educational attainment, and adolescents’ reports of discrimination (Caputo, 2003; Fisher et al., 2000; Mendoza-Denton, Downey, Purdie, Davis, and Pietrzak, 2002; Romero and Roberts, 1998; Scott, 2003). The present study examines the relationship more specifically by assessing parental educational attainment in relation to adolescents’ reports of perceived and experienced racial discrimination. Research Aims The present study focuses on responses of perceived and experienced discrimination, and reports of parental educational attainment, from African-American female youth, ages 13 to 21, who participated in the Race and Health Care Survey study administered at an urban health clinic affiliated with The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Through the study, we intend: 1. To assess the relationship between parental educational attainment and direct experiences of racial discrimination, vicarious racial discrimination (i.e., racially discriminatory experiences of family members and friends; Seaton, 2006; Harrell, 2000), and perceived racial discrimination against African-Americans as a group. 2. To examine the difference between perceived intergroup and intragroup racial discrimination and its association to parental educational attainment. 3. To compare the relationship between maternal and paternal levels of educational attainment and adolescents’ perceived discrimination.