Supportive Parenting Moderates the Effect of Racial Discrimination on Delinquency among Ethiopian-Israeli Youth

Steven M. Kogan, Sophie Walsh, Megan Hicks

The Ethiopian families who are the focus of the present study emigrated from Ethiopia to Israel in the 1980s-1990s. Escaping civil war, famine, and religious persecution, these families have experienced a difficult transition characterized by problems with cultural integration, poverty, and racial discrimination. Past research documents the toll racial discrimination exerts on youth in general, and Ethiopian youth in particular, affecting multiple aspects of their development and wellbeing. Little is known, however, regarding the factors that may protect youth from the consequences of discrimination and how these protective effects are transmitted. Past research on minority youth suggests that the emotional consequences of racial discrimination can undermine youths’ commitment to conventional norms and affect the likelihood they will engage in delinquent behavior. Many youth who are exposed to racial discrimination, however, will not develop signs of emotional distress or delinquency; family support has been identified as potent protective process for many minority groups. In the present study we tested hypotheses regarding the moderating influence of supportive parenting on the effects of racial discrimination on youth delinquency.

We hypothesized that supportive parenting would attenuate the influence of racial discrimination and that reduced depression would in part, account for this effect. Hypotheses were tested with data from 110 Ethiopian youth ages 15-18 (M = 16.03; SD= 1.01) who participated in a school-based survey. Youth (56% female) completed measures of racial discrimination (α = .73), delinquency (α = .87), parental support (α =.91), and depression (α =.85). Hypotheses were tested with conditional indirect effect modeling as implemented in Mplus. Results supported our hypotheses. The interaction of racial discrimination and parental support was a significant predictor of delinquency (.50, p < .01). A conditional indirect effect (.07, p =.05) was detected linking the interaction of racial discrimination and parental support to delinquency via reductions in depression. Study results are consistent with investigations of minority youth in the US and underscore the importance of family-centered interventions to prevent problems associated with mental health and delinquent behavior among socioeconomically distressed youth exposed to racial discrimination. Future research using prospective designs and multi-method assessments is needed to confirm and extend these findings.

This abstract was submitted to the 2017 Society for Prevention Research Annual Meeting.