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Impact on Children
The topic of racial discrimination appears in discussion concerning children and adolescents. Amongst the number of theories evaluating how children come to understand social identities, research presumes that social and cognitive developmental changes influence children’s perspectives regarding their own racial/ethnic identities and children develop a greater understanding of how their race/ethnicity can be perceived by the greater society.

A study led by Benner et al. (2018) analyzes a combination of previous studies indicating an existing relationship between racial discrimination and well-being, more specifically, in regards to mental health, behaviors, and academic performance of adolescents ranging from early adolescence (10-13) to late adolescence (17 and older). While it includes Asian, African descent, and Latino populations, this study also speculates the variances amongst the racial groups and other differences contributed by intersectionality. To investigate these relationships, the researchers examined data containing reports of racial discrimination from children, which served as a significant tool to further explore these ideas. And they analyze the relationship between racial discrimination and aspects of well-being (e.g. self-esteem, substance abuse, student engagement) by organizing these components into broader categories of youth development: mental health, behavioral conditions and academic success. Subsequently, the results show a relationship between racial discrimination and negative outcomes relating to youth wellness across all three categories. In addition, while examining differences among racial groups, children of Asian and Latino descent were found to be most at risk for mental health development, and Latino children, for academic success.

Although the studies’ results correlate reported racial discrimination with outcomes to well-being, this does not conclude that one or more racial groups experience greater discrimination than other racial groups. Other factors may have contributed to the relationships’ findings. For example, evidence of a weaker relationship between racial discrimination and well-being in children of African descent may be linked to parent-guided socialization practices to help children cope with racial discrimination, or possibly lack of research concerning the severity of discrimination. Also, researchers speculate the meaningful ways intersectionality can play a role in variances of discrimination. Ultimately, they conclude that further study examining discrimination is necessary to provide a more comprehensive approach in determining effective support systems for children.