Racial Categories and the Distribution of Risk and Protection for Mental Health and Behavioral Outcomes among Latino Adolescents

The last two decades have seen a dramatic increase in the number of studies examining the prevalence of risk and protective factors for mental health outcomes among Latino youth. As a whole, Latino youth are more likely to engage in violent behaviors and experience depressive symptoms than their non-Latino counterparts. More recently, studies have found evidence of intra-ethnic disparities in risks that suggest differences in social experiences may differentially impact Latino youth outcomes. One potential source of variation may be differential experiences by racial groupings. This study assessed the risk for depression and violent behaviors among Latino adolescents of different racial categories, analyzing Wave I of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) panel study data. Latino adolescents (N=3,511) in grades 7-12 during the 1994-95 academic year were asked to self-identify their ethnic and racial (White, Black, other) categories; furthermore, interviewers assessed the racial categories. Differences in recent experiences of depression and violent behaviors were examined, along with the levels of exposure to key risk and protective factors for these outcomes across Latino racial subgroups. Preliminary findings suggest that there are substantial differences in outcomes for Latinos based on self-identified and observed racial categories. Differences were also found in the exposure to neighborhood contexts by Latino racial categories. Implications for policy and intervention development will be discussed.