Parental Mediation and Online Discrimination: Exploring Psychosocial Distress Among Black and Latino Youth

Abstract

Objective: Racially marginalized adolescents are exposed to online racism, yet little is known about assets and resources that may effectively resist the negative influence of online racism and with what effect. Based on risk and resilience theory, the current study examined the compensatory and protective roles of different parental mediation strategies in overcoming the risk of online racial discrimination for Black and Latino adolescents’ psychosocial distress. Methods: A total of 356 Black and Latino adolescents (Mage = 16.01 ± 1.60; 78.92% female) completed an online survey. Youth reported their perceived online racial discrimination, parental mediation, depressive symptoms, and anxiety. Results: The findings revealed significant positive associations between individual online racial discrimination and adolescents’ anxiety, as well as between vicarious online racial discrimination and depressive symptoms. Four parental mediation strategies demonstrated distinct roles in this examination of online racial discrimination on adolescents’ psychosocial distress. Significantly related to lower levels of adolescents’ depressive symptoms, active mediation displayed a compensatory effect. Restrictive mediation and technical mediation also showed negative but nonsignificant associations with depressive symptoms. Neither of the above moderated the association between online racial discrimination and adolescents’ psychosocial distress. Parents’ monitoring of adolescents’ online activities neither compensated nor protected adolescents’ psychosocial well-being. On the contrary, frequent use of monitoring was related to higher levels of anxiety, and it amplified the association between individual online racial discrimination and depressive symptoms. Conclusions: The findings highlight the varying utility of parental mediation strategies in promoting adolescents’ psychosocial well-being against online racial discrimination.