Racial Discrimination and Racial Identity: Daily Moderation Among Black Youth

The present study examined daily ethnic/racial identity as a moderator for racial discrimination. The idiographic approach was used to understand when Black youth are at risk for negative outcomes in the context of racial discrimination. The current study assessed if within-person changes in racial centrality, private regard, and public regard moderated the daily relation between racial discrimination and depressive symptoms. Daily measures of racial discrimination, ethnic/racial identity, and depressive symptoms were administered to a sample of 103 Black adolescents for 2 weeks. The results suggest that neither racial centrality nor private regard moderated the same-day or lagged associations between daily racial discrimination experiences and daily depressive symptoms. Although low public regard fluctuations evidenced no moderation for the within-day relation, low public regard fluctuations exacerbated the lagged day relation between daily racial discrimination experiences and daily depressive symptoms. When Black youth experienced lower levels of public regard compared to their average levels, previous-day racial discrimination experiences were associated with an increase in depressive symptoms. The results are discussed in the context of within-person changes in ethnic/racial identity.