Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #110058

Andrea Eden, PhD, Center for the Advancement of Youth Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 912 18th Street South, Birmingham, AL 35294, 205-975-9413, aeden@uab.edu, Janice Gilliland, PhD, Center for Advancement of Youth Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 912 18th Street South, Building 912, Birmingham, AL 35294-1200, David Kanouse, PhD, RAND, 1776 Main Street, Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138, Susan Tortolero, PhD, Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research, University of Texas - Houston, 7000 Fannin, Ste 2622, Houston, TX 77030, Paula Cuccaro, PhD, Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research, University of Texas Houston, 7000 Fannin, Houston, TX 77030, and Mark A. Schuster, MD, PhD, Department of Pediatrics, UCLA, Box 951752, 10833 Le Conte Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1752.

Little research has looked at the effects of discrimination on the mental health of children. To investigate the effect of discrimination on the social and mental health functioning of children we used interview data from 650 fifth-graders (age = 9-14, mean = 11.5) participating in the Healthy PassagesTM pilot study, a CDC funded multisite longitudinal study of determinants of youth health behaviors. The study population included all fifth-grade students (and their primary caregiver) from a random sample of elementary schools in catchment areas in and around Los Angeles County, CA, Birmingham, AL, and Houston, TX. We measured children's perceived discrimination with respect to eight characteristics-weight, religion, skin color, family origin, family economic status, gender, and speech. The eight items were summed and the composite score (alpha 0.71) was correlated with peer victimization, loneliness, fear of negative evaluation, and positive and negative affect. The combined discrimination measure was significantly and positively correlated (Pearson correlations ranging from 0.30 to 0.43) with peer victimization, loneliness, fear of negative evaluation, and with negative affect. Thus, it appears that perceived discrimination may be associated with poorer social and mental health functioning among children. Research on the effect of discrimination on the social functioning and mental health of children is relatively new, and further research is needed to help develop policies and interventions to address the causes and consequences of perceived discrimination among children.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will be able to list at least five different areas of perceived discrimination in children.
• Participants will demonstrate a better understanding of the effects of discrimination, broadly measured, on children’s social functioning and mental health.
• Participants will be able to identify areas of discrimination among children that need to be measured on many different dimensions.

Keywords: Child and Adolescent Mental Health, Health Promotion

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recorded presentation