De-pathologizing multiethnic youth: a matched-sample comparison of multiethnic and monoethnic adolescents' psychological health

ObjectiveMultiethnic youth are often pathologized in clinical settings, owing to their negative experiences with discrimination, social rejection, and multiethnic identity navigation. While much research suggests that multiethnic youth experience heightened mental health difficulties compared to monoethnic youth, some research suggests that multiethnic youth report positive psychological well-being. The present work aimed to address this inconsistency by comparing mental health and well-being in a sociodemographically matched sample of multiethnic and monoethnic youth.MethodParticipants were 14- to 18-year-old multiethnic (n = 309) and monoethnic (n = 508) adolescents (M age = 15.6 years; 49.5% girls) of Black, Hispanic, and White backgrounds from 20 US cities. Parent-reported sociodemographic characteristics, collected at the youths' time of birth, and youth self-reported gender and age were used for propensity score matching. MANOVA and t-tests were used to compare the matched sample of multiethnic and monoethnic youth on their self-reported mental health (anxiety, depression) and well-being (engagement, perseverance, happiness).ResultsMatched sample comparisons showed that multiethnic youth experienced better mental health on both anxiety and depression symptomology compared to monoethnic youth, although effect sizes were small. No significant differences emerged for well-being. However, trends in comparisons differed by specific ethnic heritage of multiethnic youth and monoethnic youth being compared.ConclusionsOur findings suggest to caution against pathologizing multiethnic youth as experiencing elevated psychological difficulties compared to monoethnic youth solely based on multiethnic classification. We highlight the need to target sociodemographic factors contributing to psychological health of all youth, regardless of their ethnic identities.