A Longitudinal Examination of Parent-Adolescent Relationship Quality Among Multiracial and Monoracial Adolescents
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Date
2022-10-26
Authors
Kennedy, Alyssa
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Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Individuals who are multiracial comprise the fastest growing racial group in the U.S. The number of multiracial youth is growing at an unprecedented rate. However, multiracial youth often demonstrate worse mental and behavioral health outcomes compared to their white peers and equal or poorer outcomes when compared to other racial minority youth. Additionally, existing studies have indicated that multiracial youth have distinct experiences within their relationships with parents such as navigating more than one culture at home, encountering within-family racial discrimination, and receiving parenting from caregivers who do not share their race. Given the importance of the parent-adolescent relationship quality for adolescent development, there is a lack of studies aimed at understanding the quality of this relationship for multiracial youth and long-term outcomes associated with the parent-child relationship. No current studies have examined parent-adolescent relationship quality among multiracial youth over time. The current study sought to understand how parent-adolescent relationship quality changes over time during early adolescent and emerging adulthood periods, specifically for multiracial youth as compared to monoracial minority and white adolescents. Participants included 593 adolescents who completed questionnaires regarding their relationships with parents at four times points across early adolescence and three time points during emerging adulthood. Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) was used to examine differences among racial groups at initial time points and over time. Across early adolescence, multiracial youth demonstrated higher parent-adolescent conflict than monoracial minority and white participants. During emerging adulthood, multiracial youth had lower parent-adolescent cohesion than their white peers at 19-years-old and demonstrated a greater increase than the monoracial minority and white youth over time. Multiracial adolescents, however, did not differ from monoracial minority or white youth in other domains or time periods. All groups decreased in cohesion during early adolescence. Notably, there were significant differences found due to individual-level factors across all analyses. Results suggest that there may be distinct processes and aspects of relationships between multiracial youth and their parents that impact relationship quality during adolescence.
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Keywords
Adolescence, Cohesion, Conflict, Monoracial, Multiracial, Parent-adolescent relationship