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Primary Submission Category: Race/Ethnicity
Development of a Theoretical Model for Multiracial Mental Health Inequities
Authors: Noah Yee Westfall,
Presenting Author: Noah Yee Westfall*
Current research on multiracial adolescents suggest that multiracial individuals tend to have poorer mental health outcomes compared to monoracial peers.[1],[2] This presentation is responding to the urgent need to better theorize and understand multiracial populations.[3] In this presentation, I will present the preliminary development of a theoretical model which I hope will provide the theoretical grounding for my eventual dissertation work on this topic. I aim to gain a better understanding of multiracial mental health inequities, which will rely primarily on identity theories, empirical descriptions of bullying/social exclusion and theories of monoracism.
I aim to develop a theoretical explanation for multiracial mental health inequities, which as I will argue, can be partially explained by the experience of identity based bullying. We already have a robust body of evidence about the adverse impacts of bullying on mental health in general.[4],[5] In this paper, I will extend the existing bullying literature to multiracial individuals by arguing that the disproportionate burden[6],[7] of bullying experienced by multiracial adolescents is a manifestation of monoracism. This work fits squarely within the domain of social psychology, which bridges individual psychological and sociological factors together.
Bullying is a complex phenomenon that has predominantly been framed as an individual level issue. However, more recent developments in the field have expanded this work into sociology and population health. My goal with this presentation is to merge identity theories found within social psychology with empirical research on the lived experiences of multiracial individuals in order to provide an explanation for observed mental health inequities.
I will argue that one possible contributing explanation for multiracial mental health inequities is due to identity-based bullying in adolescence. Individuals that experience microaggressions and invalidation of their identities by monoracial peers may perceive these interactions as bullying. Bullying traditionally includes a perceived power differential and so I will make the case that identity invalidation from monoracial peers may be perceived as a manifestation of this power differential and thus experienced negatively as bullying.
Conceptual Model
[1] Oh, H., Winn, J. G., Li Verdugo, J., Bañada, R., Zachry, C. E., Chan, G., Okine, L., Park, J., Formigoni, M., & Leaune, E. (2024). Mental health outcomes of multiracial individuals: A systematic review between the years 2016 and 2022. Journal of affective disorders, 347, 375–386.
[2] Grilo, S. A., Santelli, J. S., Nathanson, C. A., Catallozzi, M., Abraido-Lanza, A., Adelman, S., & Hernandez, D. (2023a). Social and Structural Influences on Multiracial Identification and Health: a Public Health Mandate to Precisely Measure, Theorize, and Better Understand Multiracial Populations. Journal of racial and ethnic health disparities, 10(1), 427–445.
[3] Grilo SA, Santelli JS, Nathanson CA, Catallozzi M, Abraido-Lanza A, Adelman S, Hernandez D. Social and Structural Influences on Multiracial Identification and Health: a Public Health Mandate to Precisely Measure, Theorize, and Better Understand Multiracial Populations. J Racial Ethn Health Disparities. 2023 Feb;10(1):427-445. doi: 10.1007/s40615-022-01234-5. Epub 2022 Feb 22. PMID: 35192180.
[4] National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2016). Preventing Bullying Through Science, Policy, and Practice. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/23482. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2016. Preventing Bullying Through Science, Policy, and Practice. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/23482
[5] Moore SE, Norman RE, Suetani S, Thomas HJ, Sly PD, Scott JG. Consequences of bullying victimization in childhood and adolescence: A systematic review and meta-analysis. World J Psychiatry. 2017;7(1):60-76. Published 2017 Mar 22. doi:10.5498/wjp.v7.i1.60
[6] Galán CA, Stokes LR, Szoko N, Abebe KZ, Culyba AJ. Exploration of Experiences and Perpetration of Identity-Based Bullying Among Adolescents by Race/Ethnicity and Other Marginalized Identities. JAMA Netw Open. 2021 Jul 1;4(7):e2116364. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.16364. PMID: 34297076; PMCID: PMC8303093.
[7] Kennedy, R. S., Dendy, K., & Lawrence, A. (2024). Trends in traditional bullying and cyberbullying victimization by race and ethnicity in the United States: A meta-regression. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 78, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2024.101958