Longitudinal within- and between-person effects of school discrimination on U.S. Latino/a adolescents' prosocial behaviors

Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

5-12-2025

Journal

Developmental psychology

DOI

10.1037/dev0001989

Abstract

Following a school-based community sample of U.S. Latino/a adolescents surveyed at seven time points from eighth to 11th grade, we examined within- and between-person effects of school adult discrimination on adolescent engagement in emotional, dire, and compliant forms of prosocial behaviors across semester and school transitions. Participants were 547 U.S. Latino/a adolescents (M = 13.70 years; 45% boys; 90% U.S. born) in suburban Atlanta, Georgia, a new immigrant destination. We conducted analyses using random-intercept cross-lagged panel models. Within-person effects across all time points indicated that, when an adolescent's report of discrimination at one time point exceeded their average discrimination score across all time points, the adolescent reported fewer dire prosocial behaviors at a subsequent time point. Additionally, from the fall of eighth grade through the spring of ninth grade, adolescents who reported greater school adult discrimination compared with their own cross-time averages reported lower engagement in emotional prosocial behaviors at subsequent time points. Importantly, tests of indirect effects demonstrated that discrimination experienced before and after the transition to high school had lasting spillover effects on emotional and dire prosocial behaviors later in high school. Between-person effects indicated that adolescents with higher average scores for discrimination across all time points engaged in fewer compliant and emotional prosocial behaviors, on average. The findings highlight that discrimination from adults at school may contribute to declines in Latino/a adolescent prosocial behaviors but in unique ways depending upon the form of prosocial behavior and school transitions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Department

Prevention and Community Health

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